# Very Disappointed



## Rebobbecker (May 27, 2016)

Well, I'm signing off after just a short time on this forum. After a week of very nasty confrontations with Tivo's "customer service" regarding their unauthorized charge to my account for my first year of service, I've returned the Bolt. Loved the product; hated the company. 3 of 4 service reps were borderline rude, with the final rep downright nasty. Empty promises of credit; attempts at up-selling; just general unpleasantness. Not a way to run a company. And in the end, just a terse refusal to remove the charge.

In case you all think I'm a chronic complainer, see the attached Amazon product page. The free 1-year subscription is clearly stated.

Sad to go....


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

Rebobbecker said:


> Well, I'm signing off after just a short time on this forum. After a week of very nasty confrontations with Tivo's "customer service" regarding their unauthorized charge to my account for my first year of service, I've returned the Bolt. Loved the product; hated the company. 3 of 4 service reps were borderline rude, with the final rep downright nasty. Empty promises of credit; attempts at up-selling; just general unpleasantness. Not a way to run a company. And in the end, just a terse refusal to remove the charge.
> 
> In case you all think I'm a chronic complainer, see the attached Amazon product page. The free 1-year subscription is clearly stated.
> 
> Sad to go....


I don't blame you as my last several calls to TiVo have been the same where they are not pleasant to their customers anymore.


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## Steve (Apr 24, 2003)

Rebobbecker said:


> Well, I'm signing off after just a short time on this forum. After a week of very nasty confrontations with Tivo's "customer service" regarding their unauthorized charge to my account for my first year of service, I've returned the Bolt. Loved the product; hated the company. 3 of 4 service reps were borderline rude, with the final rep downright nasty. Empty promises of credit; attempts at up-selling; just general unpleasantness. Not a way to run a company. And in the end, just a terse refusal to remove the charge.
> 
> In case you all think I'm a chronic complainer, see the attached Amazon product page. The free 1-year subscription is clearly stated.
> 
> Sad to go....


It's a shame you have to forego using the Bolt. It's a great product, IMO, in spite of your customer service experience.

Have you tried contacting Amazon? I'll bet they can make things right. If so, then you can keep the Bolt and hopefully not have to deal with TiVo CS ever again.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Yes Amazon should be the ones to make things right. Especially if they erroneously advertised that the first year was free.


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## Rebobbecker (May 27, 2016)

Unfortunately, Amazon was also NOT helpful. After 4 long calls with TiVo and an unhelpful reply from Amazon, referring me to TiVo, I decided it wasn't worth the pain.

I'll continue to watch TiVo for deals. Maybe once the buy-out is settled, there will be an attitude adjustment in both the sales and customer service departments.

Odd how this industry seems to "grow" incompetent and shady businesses; Comcast is another prime example. 

***UPDATE. Just heard from Amazon. They have pledged to credit my account within the next couple days. They also extended my Prime membership a month as compensation. Now, if I only trusted TiVo to credit the $150 they charged my account. I have a feeling this will take some time and many pieces of correspondence with TiVo and my credit card company.


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## ratinthekitchen (May 19, 2016)

My one experience with Tivo customer service was quite positive. I had purchased an OTA Roamio ($50). i had never had a Tivo before and found that I really liked it. Unfortunately my cord cutting experiment failed for other reasons. I went back to cable and bought a Bolt and a Mini rather than using Cox's equipment. I could not cancel the service on the Roamio online, so I called the 800 number. The rep told me that I could not cancel without a penalty, that there had been a one year minimum. I got indignant and demanded to talk to a supervisor. While I waited on hold I found the box the Roamio came in and indeed it clearly stated a one year minimum. My falult for not paying attention. When the supervisor arrived in the call I was prepared to pay the penalty. Instead he told me that since I went to a Bolt that I had upgraded and they would allow me to cancel the Roamio service without penalty. Needless to say that made me a happy customer.


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

I just got a BOLT (with the one year free service) from BestBuy for $229.95 about 10 days ago. But maybe I'm missing something... I see V2 BOLT's for $199.00 today from BB. And for $345.00, you could buy a Bolt V2 at BB @ $199.00 and pay for one year's TIVO service for about the same price or less. Right?


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## Rebobbecker (May 27, 2016)

I paid $345 plus shipping for the 1TB TiVo that was advertised as including a 1-year subscription. The equivalent 1TB model without the free year is $299.99 at Best Buy. So, the first year would cost about $450. A substantial difference.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

The reality is that Amazon messed up and shipped you the wrong unit. Nothing TiVo can do about it other than nicely tell you to ship it back to Amazon and refund your money.


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## Rebobbecker (May 27, 2016)

atmuscarella said:


> The reality is that Amazon messed up and shipped you the wrong unit. Nothing TiVo can do about it other than nicely tell you to ship it back to Amazon and refund your money.


Hmmm. I'll put my money on Amazon before TiVo. At no time did the TiVo customer service imply an error on Amazon's part. The first 3 CS people promised a refund. Then I received correspondence by email denying the request. The 4th CS person again promised a refund, but then proceeded to hard sell me on different equipment. When I refused the hard sell, he got rude and said he'd close the account and credit my card. We'll see.....


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

In your case, Amazon messed up the Bolts. They shipped you the V2 model instead of the advertised V1 model.

TiVo goes by serial number. If the serial number on your Bolt tells them that it includes the one year service, they will do it, no questions asked. That's what happened with me a couple of weeks ago.

Another way to look at the Bolt is the box. The V1 have black box, then V2 white box.

Other than the occasional lack of knowledge, I have found TiVo CSRs pleasant to deal with. I have had TiVo (on and off) since 2002. When I get a CSR that does not know what to do, I call back again until I find one who knows.


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## Rebobbecker (May 27, 2016)

thyname said:


> In your case, Amazon messed up the Bolts. They shipped you the V2 model instead of the advertised V1 model.
> 
> TiVo goes by serial number. If the serial number on your Bolt tells them that it includes the one year service, they will do it, no questions asked. That's what happened with me a couple of weeks ago.
> 
> ...


You're a better man than I, Gunga Din!  I ran out of patience on the 4th call.


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## Steve (Apr 24, 2003)

thyname said:


> TiVo goes by serial number. If the serial number on your Bolt tells them that it includes the one year service, they will do it, no questions asked. That's what happened with me a couple of weeks ago.


Ditto. Bought one of the Fry's $219 boxes and I activated it on the web. After I input the TSN, there was no service option clickable, except "one year free".


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

Rebobbecker said:


> You're a better man than I, Gunga Din!  I ran out of patience on the 4th call.


It usually does not take four calls to get to one the knows his/her stuff with TiVo.

If it were me in your situation, I would have had Amazon fixed their mistake by charging you only for their current price of the V2 (you would get refunded the difference). I would have paid TiVo's one year of service.

Or, I would have not activated at all and returned the Bolt as soon as I learned the Bolt did NOT include the free one year of service.


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## Rebobbecker (May 27, 2016)

thyname said:


> It usually does not take four calls to get to one the knows his/her stuff with TiVo.
> 
> If it were me in your situation, I would have had Amazon fixed their mistake by charging you only for their current price of the V2 (you would get refunded the difference). I would have paid TiVo's one year of service.
> 
> Or, I would have not activated at all and returned the Bolt as soon as I learned the Bolt did NOT include the free one year of service.


Should have. Would have. Could have.


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## rjrsouthwest (Feb 19, 2016)

My recent contact with Tivo was very pleasant and had no problem when I set up the transfer of my old Tivo to my son.

From what you describe Amazon messed up and sent you a version 2 instead of the version 1 that includes the first year of service. You cannot expect that Tivo should have fixed the mess up and that is probably why they were not doing what you wanted them to do.

I just bought a bolt V1 that comes in the black box from Fry's electronics .com for $199 and had no problem with it getting the free 1 year service when I activated it on my acount.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

I'm not sure why you were dealing with TiVo on this. I think your frustrations were misguided. Amazon sent you a Bolt v2. If they were advertising it as a Bolt v1 with 1 year service then your recourse was always going to come from Amazon.


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