# Where did my multi-service discount go?



## hungarianhc (May 31, 2007)

I have two units with lifetime subscriptions, and I have a premiere w/ a monthly subscription. It used to be $14.99, and I noticed it was $19.99 last month on my credit card. I forgot to follow up, but I see another $19.99 charge just posted. WTF? So I went online, and I've verified that yes - I do have 3 TiVos in my account, and when I went to the monthly service section, there's no option to select a multi service discount. Anyone else had this issue?


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

hungarianhc said:


> I have two units with lifetime subscriptions, and I have a premiere w/ a monthly subscription. It used to be $14.99, and I noticed it was $19.99 last month on my credit card. I forgot to follow up, but I see another $19.99 charge just posted. WTF? So I went online, and I've verified that yes - I do have 3 TiVos in my account, and when I went to the monthly service section, there's no option to select a multi service discount. Anyone else had this issue?


Did you perhaps sell or otherwise transfer your (probably original) "qualifying" TiVo, for which you paid full price? That could explain it. Common sense would seem to say that if you have multiple units on your account, then you should be eligible for the multi-service discount, but TiVo's non-intuitive rules don't work that way.


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## hungarianhc (May 31, 2007)

yeah i sold the oldest one. I guess that's the issue. SIGH... kinda funny that I can have two active TiVo units, but the lifetime isn't qualifying. They should just change the name to "Multi Qualifying Service Discount."

Thanks.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

hungarianhc said:


> yeah i sold the oldest one. I guess that's the issue. SIGH... kinda funny that I can have two active TiVo units, but the lifetime isn't qualifying. They should just change the name to "Multi Qualifying Service Discount."
> 
> Thanks.


I can see it being unituitive. They really should better label the lifetime because there are basically two types. 
* "(Qualified) Lifetime"; which was purchased at full price
* "(Non-qualified) Lifetime"; discounted purchase (using MSD or, I think, any other promotional discount)

If your qualifying unit goes away you don't have to pay any extra to keep (non-qualified) lifetime, and you can sell it to someone else without harming it's lifetime, but the (non-qualified) version won't entitle you (or any future purchaser) to MSD on additional units.

And I don't think there's any way to pay to convert the current lifetime unit to a qualified one. So even if you plan to keep both TiVos another 2 years you can't try to save money by paying the $100 upfront to 'upgrade' the lifetime; you're stuck paying the extra $5 per month on the monthly unit.


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## Quake97 (Apr 24, 2006)

It makes sense to me. You had three TiVos. One was full price and the other two were discounted. You sold the full price one and now you need to pay full price on the new one. 

Joe


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## hungarianhc (May 31, 2007)

Quake97 said:


> It makes sense to me. You had three TiVos. One was full price and the other two were discounted. You sold the full price one and now you need to pay full price on the new one.
> Joe


Of course it makes sense to you. You understand all the asterisks in the program. I just found them out. Some might think that "multi service discount" might mean that if you have two active TiVos, both paid for, that the second would be at a discount rate. This isn't actually the case, as there are qualifying and non-qualifying. I understand now too.


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## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

hungarianhc said:


> Of course it makes sense to you. You understand all the asterisks in the program. I just found them out. Some might think that "multi service discount" might mean that if you have two active TiVos, both paid for, that the second would be at a discount rate. This isn't actually the case, as there are qualifying and non-qualifying. I understand now too.


Actually it's simpler than that. Basically, you need to have one full price Tivo on the account at all times. (except if every Tivo has lifetime in which case they can't require you to pay more after the fact). You no longer had a full price Tivo on the account so they replaced it with another one.

Tivo isn't going to give you all of their boxes at the discounted rate. They need at least one at full price.


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## Ben_Jamin75 (Dec 18, 2003)

I never would have thought of this either. Just having a lifetime box, I would assume it would qualify me for discounted monthly service on a second box. I never thought about if the lifetime was bought discounted.
I am planning on selling a lifetime box soon, I guess I'll have to call tivo and figure out which lifetime box is my full price one and which were discounted.


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## radtechy (Aug 16, 2008)

Call and complain. 

I called to order a new premier on Black Friday and I asked about my rates I was paying (20 & 13) turns out I was over paying for a year on the first one they gave me back 60 bucks.

BTW I had a life time unit one of the old school Sony ones but since it hasn't made a service call in years this wont count as part of a multi into discount. 

So now they gave me a loyalty discount on my 2nd TiVo that I had for half price. So now I'm paying.....

My 2 premieres cost 15 & 13 and my HD 7


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk


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## jschrader666 (Aug 15, 2009)

They raised their prices. They raised it to 19.99 but I think it has since been lowered to 14.99. I have one Tivo on the original 12.99 per month charge and my second used to be at 9.99, but when I upgraded the second one it went up to 12.99 which is the new multi-service discount price.


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## radtechy (Aug 16, 2008)

When I got my first premier last year I count get it any cheaper than 19.99 even though I was only paying like 15 for my TiVo HD but they told me my rates weren't adjusted lower after 1 year which I was then "overpaying" don't know if it was part of the 1 year service agreement or they raised an lowered their rates. They made good on it with me so I didn't ask any specifics 


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

radtechy said:


> When I got my first premier last year I count get it any cheaper than 19.99 even though I was only paying like 15 for my TiVo HD but they told me my rates weren't adjusted lower after 1 year which I was then "overpaying" don't know if it was part of the 1 year service agreement or they raised an lowered their rates. They made good on it with me so I didn't ask any specifics
> 
> Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk


Rates are not automatically adjusted in that situation. Changing your subscription was *your responsibility*, not Tivo's. You agreed to pay 19.99/mo and that's what you were charged. There is no subscription plan that moves to a lower rate after 12 months. To get the lower rate after the 12 months, *you* have to choose a different subscription plan - You have to do it, not Tivo. Saying that they "made good on it" implies that they were in the wrong when they were not, you were, and they paid for it even though they had no obligation to do so.


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## langsbr (Jan 19, 2008)

It also appears they changed their pricing - now, its only 14.99 if you sign a 1 year commitment. Mine was 14.99 under the 1 year plan, the 1 year plan ended, went to 14.99 monthly, then in August it jumped to 19.99. I must have missed it as I just noticed today when it billed for 19.99. I went to see what it was on, and the only 14.99 plan is with the 1 year commitment.

Lame. I got my Windows Media center up and running now without issues. The WAF on it has been better than the Premiere that was plagued with issues...recording porn (blank channels, but it still listed it), not recording things at all, recording reruns as new (I understand WHY, but its stupid that it does it - WMC doesnt have that 'design flaw'. 

Plus, I have an SSD in my WMC and it boots and is in live tv mode in 6 seconds from the press of a power button. Tivo will NEVER match that - this dang Premiere takes FOREVER to boot.

Anyone interested in a Tivo HD and Tivo Premiere? PM me...


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

langsbr said:


> It also appears they changed their pricing - now, its only 14.99 if you sign a 1 year commitment. Mine was 14.99 under the 1 year plan, the 1 year plan ended, went to 14.99 monthly, then in August it jumped to 19.99. I must have missed it as I just noticed today when it billed for 19.99. I went to see what it was on, and the only 14.99 plan is with the 1 year commitment.
> 
> Lame. I got my Windows Media center up and running now without issues. The WAF on it has been better than the Premiere that was plagued with issues...recording porn (blank channels, but it still listed it), not recording things at all, recording reruns as new (I understand WHY, but its stupid that it does it - WMC doesnt have that 'design flaw'.
> 
> ...


Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out...


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Why would you worry about the boot time of a TiVo or WMC box? Why are you rebooting these things? I reboot a TiVo manually maybe once a year. My HTPC has to be rebooted more often, since Microsoft can't seem to go 3 days without a software update, but I don't reboot it when I am watching it, so who cares? I have a Mac that was last rebooted in 2011, because I moved it from one state to another. Do I win a prize?


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## radtechy (Aug 16, 2008)

I only said that cause I don't remember anyone telling me about it otherwise I would have set an alert in my calendar so I wouldn't forget


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## lillevig (Dec 7, 2010)

Ben_Jamin75 said:


> I never would have thought of this either. Just having a lifetime box, I would assume it would qualify me for discounted monthly service on a second box. I never thought about if the lifetime was bought discounted.
> I am planning on selling a lifetime box soon, I guess I'll have to call tivo and figure out which lifetime box is my full price one and which were discounted.


Good luck with that. I asked that question one time and the CSR told me that as far as he could tell they all were qualifiers. Since I bought a P2 and a P4 using the MSD I know that can't be the case.


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## langsbr (Jan 19, 2008)

Bierboy said:


> Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out...


LOL.. believe me I won't. I was a die hard Tivo fan for years. This Premiere box is plagued with issues though.



Arcady said:


> Why would you worry about the boot time of a TiVo or WMC box? Why are you rebooting these things? I reboot a TiVo manually maybe once a year. My HTPC has to be rebooted more often, since Microsoft can't seem to go 3 days without a software update, but I don't reboot it when I am watching it, so who cares? I have a Mac that was last rebooted in 2011, because I moved it from one state to another. Do I win a prize?


I'd be happy if I didn't have to reboot my Tivo - but the Premiere has had so many issues, it required it quite constantly.

Once a year? What are you using, an original Series 1 with no HD? Even my TivoHD which was fairly stable required more reboots than that.

I don't reboot my WMC when watching TV either - and I can set the updates to never if I feel the need - there isn't any updates I've ever seen to Media Center, and I really don't care about patches on a box that's not used for anything other than TV.

Unfortunately you don't win a prize for owning a Mac, nor should you think you should, lol.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

It sounds like you don't know what you're doing. Buh-bye.


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

Arcady said:


> It sounds like you don't know what you're doing. Buh-bye.


Sounds like he has a bad TiVo. Mine has never needed to reboot


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## jschrader666 (Aug 15, 2009)

I have to reboot my premier about once a month sometimes more. It will freeze or stop responding. It's very annoying but the alternative is Comcast boxes so yeah...


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## mrsean (May 15, 2006)

This same thing happened to me last week. I had no idea that there were two different classes of lifetime service. TiVo has some really bad communication issues. This infomation (qualified/Non-qualified) should be listed onscreen when you view the service level of your box. Also, customers should be told that will lose the MSD in advance when they call to cancel or an attempt is made to switch a qualifying unit to a different owner.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

I paid full price for my very first S1 Sony box lifetime sub.

Every unit since then has been at MSD except a TivoHD that was purchased during the time they did not offer lifetime and was later converted for 99 so even that one worked out to the same MSD price..

That old Sony box was disconnected years ago but just bought my 3rd Premiere and got MSD lifetime automaticly during checkout.


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## radtechy (Aug 16, 2008)

I did the same as JC

Lifetime on an old series 1 Sony and month to month on everything else


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## Eccles (Dec 27, 2001)

All my TiVos have (had) Lifetime, so I wasn't aware my MSD had expired until I went shopping for a new Premiere and wasn't offered the discount. The reason turned out to be that my qualifying S2 box hadn't been active for a couple of years since the power supply died. 

Fortunately I still have "old faithful" and I was able to pick up another S2 at a Goodwill store for $15, and swapped the PSU into it, so it could phone home and reinstate my MSD, thus saving me $100 on the new unit.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

Eccles said:


> All my TiVos have (had) Lifetime, so I wasn't aware my MSD had expired until I went shopping for a new Premiere and wasn't offered the discount. The reason turned out to be that my qualifying S2 box hadn't been active for a couple of years since the power supply died.
> 
> Fortunately I still have "old faithful" and I was able to pick up another S2 at a Goodwill store for $15, and swapped the PSU into it, so it could phone home and reinstate my MSD, thus saving me $100 on the new unit.


It's interesting to know that reactivating an old unit (that hasn't accessed the TiVo servers for more than 180 days) will in fact reinstate MSD. Thanks for the data point. Let's hope TiVo will do that consistently.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

How much is the MSD?

I ask because I have three tivos. All purchased directly from Tivo. The first two Premieres have Lifetime (full price) and the third was a year contract and will be going month to month in August. It's at $14.99 right now (from the contract price) and the email I just got says it'll stay at that. Is $14.99 supposed to be the MSD? I feel like in the past I remember much cheaper ones like $9.99 or even $6.99.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

b_scott said:


> How much is the MSD?
> 
> I ask because I have three tivos. All purchased directly from Tivo. The first two Premieres have Lifetime (full price) and the third was a year contract and will be going month to month in August. It's at $14.99 right now (from the contract price) and the email I just got says it'll stay at that. Is $14.99 supposed to be the MSD? I feel like in the past I remember much cheaper ones like $9.99 or even $6.99.


My second Tivo monthly is $12.99.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

JoeKustra said:


> My second Tivo monthly is $12.99.


it is just automatically done, or do I need to do something? It's been awhile since I've been in this situation.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

b_scott said:


> It's at $14.99 right now (from the contract price) and the email I just got says it'll stay at that. Is $14.99 supposed to be the MSD? I feel like in the past I remember much cheaper ones like $9.99 or even $6.99.


It isn't 100% clear from their pricing page, but I believe the current policy (if not grandfathered into a prior policy) is that when your commitment period ends you have to sign a new 1 year commitment to continue receiving the discount.

Without MSD, the month-to-month price with no commitment is $19.99, and the 1-year commitment price is $14.99.

With MSD the no-commitment month-to-month price is $14.99 and the 1-year commitment price is $12.99.

I was able to lower my non-MSD month-to-month price to $14.99 for 12 months by signing a 1-year commitment (after two years of paying $19.99). When that ends next month, it defaults back to $19.99 per month with no commitment unless I sign for another year, which would keep it at $14.99.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

thanks. I think that makes sense, I guess. Where was I getting the $6.99 price? Was that some really old deal?


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

b_scott said:


> thanks. I think that makes sense, I guess. Where was I getting the $6.99 price? Was that some really old deal?


Yes, at least 6 years ago TiVo raised prices but grandfathered in folks that had monthly service before then and said they wouldn't raise prices on those contracts. Many of those folks kept their $6.99 monthly deals far longer than they really should have, since it was so cheap (I know I did! The 6 years * $84 per year I paid is much more expensive than if I had bought lifetime back then!)


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## Fielding (May 28, 2010)

No matter how you slice it lifetime is the way to go..


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

Fielding said:


> No matter how you slice it lifetime is the way to go..


yeah but after you've been paying for it for a year, adding Lifetime after that seems like a rip. Especially if you are a serial upgrader...

though really it's my parents' box and they aren't the kind to lay down $400 for service in one chunk.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

b_scott said:


> yeah but after you've been paying for it for a year, adding Lifetime after that seems like a rip. Especially if you are a serial upgrader...
> 
> though really it's my parents' box and they aren't the kind to lay down $400 for service in one chunk.


Look into whether their unit might qualify for $99 Lifetime.


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## gigaguy (Aug 30, 2013)

I'm glad I came to Tivo late, by buying used boxes someone else paid the big fees and I was able to $99 lifetime a 3yo P4 I invested maybe $100 in. Not sure which box I have is a qualifier. I bought a used but never activated lifetimed XL4 too for $225 I think, last year.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

contacted Tivo, and all I got back was a canned "$499" response on my request for a lifetime discount on my third box.


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