# My couple month old Bolt+ died & was replaced with a refurb, should I be upset?



## ned4spd8874 (Apr 18, 2009)

As the title says. I've only had my Bolt+ for a couple months and it just up and died on me a few days ago. TiVo replaced it under warranty of course. But it turns out they sent me a refurbished unit as a replacement. Should I worry?

My issue is I just paid a lot of money for this and the lifetime service. Now I could have just bought a refurb unit and saved money at this point. I could see if it was a year old or so, but only a few months old and I get what is essentially a used box?!

Oh, also, what would be the status of my warranty now? Do I get lesser of a warranty time period now?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

No comment of TiVo's policy about using refurbished units to cover warranty replacements.

Regarding what your warranty is now that somewhat depends on if you have a unit with All in/lifetime or if you pay for a monthly or annual subscription. First the replacement unit will have a full free replacement warranty, I am not sure if it is 30 days or 90 days, but believe it is 90 days, you could ask Tivo to be sure. After that if you pay monthly or annually you have the continuous care warranty which replaces a defective unit for $50 for as long as you continue to pay monthly or annually. If you bought all in service you have the $50 replacement cost for a defective unit after the full warranty is over I believe until 1 year from the original purchase date.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

ned4spd8874 said:


> As the title says. I've only had my Bolt+ for a couple months and it just up and died on me a few days ago. TiVo replaced it under warranty of course. But it turns out they sent me a refurbished unit as a replacement. Should I worry?
> 
> My issue is I just paid a lot of money for this and the lifetime service. Now I could have just bought a refurb unit and saved money at this point. I could see if it was a year old or so, but only a few months old and I get what is essentially a used box?!
> 
> Oh, also, what would be the status of my warranty now? Do I get lesser of a warranty time period now?


I think the terms of the warranty state that they can send you a refurbished unit.


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## DEC2955 (May 3, 2009)

Comment: I purchase factory refurbished electronics all the time! I find that these seem to last longer than a 'NEW' item as it has already been ''field tested'' and then repaired if needed. Sometimes the refurbished item is a unit that may never of even been powered up by the first owner and was return to the reseller under their return policy, and can not be sold as new since the box had been opened... sometimes the OEM box was damaged in transit.

David


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## Mark_LAND_O_LAKES (Jun 28, 2017)

DEC2955 said:


> Comment: I purchase factory refurbished electronics all the time! I find that these seem to last longer than a 'NEW' item as it has already been ''field tested'' and then repaired if needed. Sometimes the refurbished item is a unit that may never of even been powered up by the first owner and was return to the reseller under their return policy, and can not be sold as new since the box had been opened... sometimes the OEM box was damaged in transit.
> 
> David


I have exactly the same situation, I have not yet received the replacement, I am hoping for one with better quality components. Is the board repaired or is it replaced with the same ones used in the factory? Why are all of these failing? These are not HD failures. What component is failing? Have they identified it and corrected the manufacturing? My Bolt+ might have been sitting around for awhile at the place I bought it from. Maybe the ones made recently are more reliable. If they send me one that was a return, then I might expect the same problem again. If they send me one that had the same problem fixed then that might be better. If they send me a new one with this problem fixed, that would be good as well. If 4 months from now it fails again, I'm out $50 because of TiVo's continued incompetence.

Also, since I bought the LifeTime. The $50 thing ends. AND I AM TOLD, IF YOUR BOLT DIES AFTER THAT THE LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION ENDS. So, a Lifetime may be 1 year. No guarantee that the LifeTime subscription will last more than a year.


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## Xaa (Jan 25, 2000)

OP, you should not be upset.

What went bad wasn't a brand new Tivo, it was a 4 month old Tivo. They replaced something not new with something also not new. It's a bummer that yours went bad and for that I'm sorry, but if it hadn't gone bad you would have had a not new Bolt. Now, after refurb replacement, you have a not new Bolt.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

ned4spd8874 said:


> My issue is I just paid a lot of money for this and the lifetime service. Now I could have just bought a refurb unit and saved money at this point. I could see if it was a year old or so, but only a few months old and I get what is essentially a used box?!


Why would you be entitled to a new Tivo?
Your Bolt+ was used when it died. If they fixed your Tivo and returned it to you, you would have a used tivo that has been fixed. If they send you a refurb, at worst you would be getting a used Tivo that has been fixed, but not all refurbs are used. If they can't sell a unit as new for any reason, they sell it as a refurb.

But what you want is a new Tivo. Trading a used Tivo for a new one doesn't even make sense. You get a refurb because you send them a broken used Tivo and they return to you a used Tivo that has been fixed or possibly a new Tivo they can't sell as new).

And you wouldn't have been able to buy a refurb anyway. It's been many many months since tivo.com has had anything other than N adapters available in their outlet store and even then the only other items were other accessories, not Tivos.


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