# Get some Customer Service? No wait, you already do.



## sfhepcat (May 31, 2007)

Just spent over an hour with TiVo trying to straighten out what I thought would be a simple billing issue. You can read my re-creation of the events below, but my message is...

TIVO GET A CLUE with your support procedures. EMPOWER your support personnel to actually give the CUSTOMER some SUPPORT without having to waste people's time diddlying around with some sort of approval for relatively minor issues. I was asking for a $78 refund, not a $780 refund.

BTW, I do give you some kudos: your support personnel were all very polite, professional and apologetic and my problem was probably a bit confusing. But once they identified what was wrong, they were hampered by screwed up processes not by a lack of desire to help.

WARNING: I've got 6 mos old twins at home, so you are hearing the ranting and ravings of a seriously sleep deprived father. I apologize up front. But the story is true, so if you are brave, continue on...

I only have 1 TiVo box, but was was getting billed 2 monthly service fees. I wanted refund for 6 mos of double billing. My boxed crapped out in Nov. 2006 and TiVo exchanged it. I went onto TiVo website and successfully activated my new box and sent the old one back to TiVo. Simple right?

In May, I realize that I've been making 2 separate payments each month. I admit that I should have figured this out sooner, but I've got auto bill pay, the aforementioned twins, and my wife's the primary banker in the family so I frankly didn't pay much attention....my bad. My saga now begins...

I'll just jump into the really juicy part. To set the scene though, to get to this point I had to call 3x (was disconnected once), was put on hold more times than I can remember, had to speak with 5 different support reps directly and by proxy to two different CS supervisors, and had to repeat my name, phone, etc etc about a million times for each different rep (don't u guys read these things? Why the hell can't you get my demographic info in the system the FIRST time I tell you?!?)

The scene: 
May 31st, I'm speaking with the 2nd rep on the 2nd call of the day2. I once again have re-told my story.....

"You aren't double billed, you've got 2 TiVo boxes No, I've got one. One crapped out and was exchanged. "Oh yeah. I see that now." HOLD. More questions. HOLD . "Ah, I see what's happened you didn't deactivate old service when you got new box". Ok, well I didn't realize that I needed to deactivate I thought that you'd just transfer the service--my bad--can I have my $$? "Sorry, can't help you. Gotta escalate to level 3". HOLD. I'm now starting to wonder if I'm speaking with a Dell rep instead of TiVo.

3rd rep, 2nd call: Same story. Case#, name etc, etc. Explain prob again. No I don't have 2 boxes. HOLD. More questions. "You should have deactivated service", she said, scolding me. Yeah, well I didn't realize that I needed to; can I have my $$? "I can't authorize a refund for 6 months. Gotta ask supervisor". HOLD

"Well, here's what my supervisor Jose says we can do. We can split the difference and give you a refund for 3 months." Hmm, so now I'm bargaining with a customer support rep over a total of $78 that TiVo admits I overpaid. Umm, that's not acceptable. I want to speak with Jose, please. "Jose is not available. He had to run off to a meeting." [That's convenient] Ok, I want to speak with JOSE's supervisor. "Jose doesn't have one." Jose doesn't have a boss?!? "Yes, well, let me see if there is someone else you can speak with." HOLD. "I found someone to speak with you, but he's on phone. Can you please, HOLD? I'll keep checking back to give you update when he's getting off phone." HOLD

An aside: By this time I'm at TiVo's website to see how the hell I screwed this thing up as I'm wondering if I'm gonna have to take these guys to small claims court just to get my $77 back. Here were my steps: TiVo Home>Setup & Support>Activate or Upgrade TiVo service. I fill out form it says "Use this form if you own a DVR, but have not yet activated the TiVo service" Wrong form apparently....my bad again. Now I'm not a software engineer, but I'm also not Aunt Betty from Dubuque, IA using AOL on dial-up (sorry Iowa no offense meant), but TiVo's support pages are a bit obtuse.

Back to story..."Sorry, other supervisor is still on phone. But I went to bat for you (I SH*T YOU NOT, SHE ACTUALLY SAID THAT) and we are going to refund your entire $78."

TiVo, I don't think that I need to explain to you what the problem was. But get a clue. You provide a product, but more importantly you provide a SERVICE. How about letting your employees give some? If it's employee embezzlement you are worried about, you better get a new accounting firm and conduct more audits. Otherwise you can certainly afford a $78 refund (hell you can afford a LOT of $78 refunds) to keep a very satisfied customer still satisfied. I gotta admit, I'm going to go to the DirecTV website to check out their DVR...at least DirecTV solves the issue of FINALLY allowing me to see a CURRENT episode of CSI since I can record it while my wife is watching Grey's Anatomy.


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## wolflord11 (Jan 17, 2007)

What Customer Support???

Tivo is really slipping in this department!


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