# Tivo offering $99 lifetime upgrades to some users



## innocentfreak

I saw this posted over at slickdeals. Apparently some people right now are able to upgrade their Series 3/Tivo HD to lifetime for only $99. It seems to be mostly users who just came off three year subscriptions since lifetime wasn't available or people who are on month to month.

Thread is here.



> As a loyal TiVo customer, you're eligible for an exclusive offer when you upgrade your existing TiVo service to Product Lifetime service. You'll pay a one-time fee of just $99 - a saving of $300 off the standard price of $399! Hurry, take advantage of this amazing, limited time offer today.
> 
> Product Lifetime service only applies to the box for which it was purchased. It cannot be transferred to another box.
> 
> Call 1-877-367-8486
> and mention the $99 PLS upgrade offer
> 
> Only valid for:
> TSN: xxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Offer expires 4/30/2010


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## magnus

That's cool. I'm glad to hear that they are doing that. Plus several can stop griping about it now on here. Or maybe they will find something else to gripe about.


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## Stormspace

Gotta try and lock in those Series 3 owners since I guarantee these are the ones bailing on them. Series 3 TiVo's can be problem ridden and buggy if you get the wrong service provider.


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## spocko

magnus said:


> Or maybe they will find something else to gripe about.


Maybe?


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## moyekj

Yes, I got this deal on 1 of my TiVos and it pretty much sealed the deal of sticking with TiVo for now. I was contemplating long and hard the upcoming Ceton quad cablecard tuner, but the expense of new HTPC (I only have laptops now), lack of affordable extenders and shortcomings of MCE vs TiVo put me on the fence. This small token from TiVo pushed me over the edge.


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## RoyK

Stormspace said:


> Gotta try and lock in those Series 3 owners since I guarantee these are the ones bailing on them. Series 3 TiVo's can be problem ridden and buggy if you get the wrong service provider.


Or to put it another way if you don't get the right service provider...


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## mr.unnatural

Stormspace said:


> Gotta try and lock in those Series 3 owners since I guarantee these are the ones bailing on them. Series 3 TiVo's can be problem ridden and buggy if you get the wrong service provider.


Sounds like a provider issue and not a Tivo problem. I've got two S3's on FIOS and the 1st one is just coming off a 3-year prepaid plan. I have had zero problems with either unit other than occasional rebooting, which is probably a software issue.

I was recently offered the $99 lifetime deal and jumped on it. I still plan on getting the Ceton quad tuner CableCARD tuner when it comes out and will probably dump my S3 on ebay. However, I may reconsider and transfer the S3 to either the bedroom or my son's room since neither has a DVR at the moment. If they offer me the same deal on my 2nd S3 when my 3-year commitment expires I'll upgrade that one as well.


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## jmace57

I have a Series 3 that has had service for 3 years (in April)...I wonder if this deal will be offerred to me. I am |this| close to cancelling service on the Series 3 at the end of its' term (as I am strongly considering going back to DirecTV from cable). If I am offerred, I will definitely take it up.

Some folks over on the FatWallet site said they have called and just said they got the email and they were able to get the deal - even though they didn't really get it - although they WERE very near the expiration of their boxes.

Jim


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## 9300170

Gee..screwed again. I was an early adopter who bought three years then bought lifetime a few months ago. Argh!!!!


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## RoyK

mr.unnatural said:


> Sounds like a provider issue and not a Tivo problem. ...


Right...
Five TVs have absolutely no issues with the provider.
Two VCRs have absolutely no issues with the provider.
One MediaCenter PC with dual analog/digital tuners has absolutely no issues with the provider.
Three Series2 TiVos have absolutely no issues with the provider.

TiVoHD gray screens on analog channels with the provider.

Therefore it's obviously a provider issue.


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## travisc77

Just to clarify, this is for those that elected to do the 3 year prepay, not just a 3 year contract. I just came off my 3 year contract and tried to get this deal this morning and that's how it was explained to me.


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## cogx

Stormspace said:


> Series 3 TiVo's can be problem ridden and buggy if you get the wrong service provider.


From the several posts I've read, the GSAS problem you infer is usually happening to the THD or HDXL models that came out *after* the original Series3 (S3). It could be one of those rare cases where the first-day adopter perhaps ended up with a superior product to those who held off for the revised models. 
In any case, my first-day purchased S3 has been rock solid for 3.5 years now, but then maybe some would argue that Mediacom is a superior cable company?


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## Adam1115

They didn't offer me anything at all when I left in December....


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## MickeS

Awesome. My sub expires in June and I've been trying to determine what to do then. Now I know. 

Thanks for the heads up!

Hopefully they will do this if I call, even without an email...


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## jtrain

MickeS said:


> Awesome. My sub expires in June and I've been trying to determine what to do then. Now I know.
> 
> Thanks for the heads up!
> 
> Hopefully they will do this if I call, even without an email...


My three-year pre-pay on my S3 is up June 29, 2010...two full months after this offer supposedly ends...rest assured i'll be calling before Apr. 30th to see if they'll still offer it to me to keep my S3. I use my S3 with OTA antenna only and had previously used it with FiOS/cablecards and OTA antenna combo...which worked flawlessly. Love my S3, more than my TivoHD (mostly for the space, the backdoor e-sata additional drive option, and the OLED display) and couldn't be happier with its performance over the last 3 years...


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## Sapphire

Mine is up on 02/27. I am planning windows 7 media center but if they give me the $99 lifetime I might jump on it. I do love the series 3, I am just mad about being told 3 years ago that lifetime is gone only to have tivo bring it back. If lifetime was available then I'd have taken it.


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## gnordy

My 3 year plan on my S3 expires in June. I tried to call to get the $99 offer and spent about 10 minutes with the phone rep with no luck. I also have an HD with lifetime and have been a customer since 2004, but she said there was no way to extend the offer to me for my S3. She then transferred me to advanced customer support, but I was on hold for 15 minutes and had to hang up to go to a meeting. I will try again later. I am looking forward to hearing if anyone has success.


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## jmace57

travisc77 said:


> Just to clarify, this is for those that elected to do the 3 year prepay, not just a 3 year contract. I just came off my 3 year contract and tried to get this deal this morning and that's how it was explained to me.


Ahhh...darn. I am on just a 3 year committment, rather than prepay.


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## StanSimmons

Raj said:


> Mine is up on 02/27. I am planning windows 7 media center but if they give me the $99 lifetime I might jump on it. I do love the series 3, I am just mad about being told 3 years ago that lifetime is gone only to have tivo bring it back. If lifetime was available then I'd have taken it.


You are probably eligible. This is a program for people that got the 3yr plan because the lifetime wasn't available.

I'm not eligible, because I've been on a month to month ($6.95) since 2000, and never got the 3yr plan.


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## ZildjianKX

I just got off the phone with TiVo (after being on hold for 30 minutes, argg!). I got the $99 lifetime applied to my old series 3, my prepay plan was up April 30th.

I have to admit, TiVo really pissed me off from:
1. Not adding M-card support to the series 3
2. Not having a lifetime for it, then bringing it back later
3. Price dropping the units from $800 to $200

I know things fall in price, but it just made my feel even more screwed as an early adopter. I think this was a good move on their part, I probably would have cancelled my service if it was't for this. I'm more likely to buy a series 4 with a lifetime because of this as well.

Edit - I actually never received the email, I just told them my 3-year prepay was up and I read about people getting a $99 upgrade online and asked if it applied to me.


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## djwilso

My 3 year prepaid was over in November 2009, and I renewed with another 1 year.

Perfect timing as usual...


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## wmcbrine

My 3-year service on my S3 expired last month, and I went for lifetime when they offered me $100 off. Now I don't suppose they'll refund the difference. Maybe they'd let me apply it to my S2? Hmm...


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## MediaLivingRoom

WTF, TiVo loses Shanon and now they are having a fire sale..... 


Where is my official iPhone/iPod Touch Remote?
Where is my DVD ripped playback.
Where is my Hulu app

Do something TiVo, and do something fast!!!!


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## MickeS

travisc77 said:


> Just to clarify, this is for those that elected to do the 3 year prepay, not just a 3 year contract. I just came off my 3 year contract and tried to get this deal this morning and that's how it was explained to me.


I missed this post... 

I have a 3-year commitment with monthly payments. 
Then again, maybe I'll get lucky.


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## wdwms

ZildjianKX said:


> I have to admit, TiVo really pissed me off from:
> 1. Not adding M-card support to the series 3
> 2. Not having a lifetime for it, then bringing it back later
> 3. Price dropping the units from $800 to $200


1. Mcard support has to do w/the hardware; not trivial to add it back in. This has been discussed ad-nauseum on here..
2. we all miss "deals".... sucks but its true..
3. welcome to the world of technology. What tech doesn't drop in price.. early adopters pay $$$. The extra money one pays to adopt early covers the enjoyment cost of having for a long period of time. So would you have rather have had 3 years of no HD capable Tivo and they buy one for $200 or pay the $800 and enjoy more than 3 years. I paid $800 after my lifetime service, i'm not complaining. I got the value out of the money I paid.

-t


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## jbernardis

travisc77 said:


> Just to clarify, this is for those that elected to do the 3 year prepay, not just a 3 year contract. I just came off my 3 year contract and tried to get this deal this morning and that's how it was explained to me.


I got two units 3 years ago in June. One was a 3 year pre-pay and the other was a 3 year commitment with month by month billing - it's what worked out best at the time. I guess, though, that I'm only going to be offerred this upgrade on the prepaid unit? I'll see in June.


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## HerronScott

ZildjianKX said:


> I have to admit, TiVo really pissed me off from:
> 3. Price dropping the units from $800 to $200
> 
> I know things fall in price, but it just made my feel even more screwed as an early adopter.


Number 3 isn't exactly true as the original more expensive Series 3 model with OLED, THX certification, 250GB hard drive and Glo-remote never got down to $200 correct (excluding any last minute firesales)?

We bought our 2 S3 units in December 2006 and paid $600 each (not including the $199 lifetime transfers from our 2 S1). Even though that was a lot of money, we've definitely enjoyed them. I think that our first S1 that we got in 2000 was pretty expensive as well with its tiny little 30GB hard drive. It was a Father's Day gift from my wife but I think it was $400 or $500.

Scott


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## wmcbrine

MediaLivingRoom said:


> Where is my official iPhone/iPod Touch Remote?


Why do you need an official one? There are several available that work fine, AFAIK.



> _Where is my DVD ripped playback._


I don't understand the question. You can transfer a DVD rip like any other video file. Are you looking for menu navigation?



> _Where is my Hulu app_


Against Hulu policy, apparently. You can't blame TiVo for that.


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## ooeeoo

Hi, I need a question about my lifetime service. They tell me I cannot purchase a "HD" receiver and still keep my lifetime service. They tell me I need to pay 399.00 and 199.00(for the new HD receiver) Total cost would be 599.00. If something goes wrong with my current receiver,I lose my lifetime benefits. Are you saying That I can pay less than 599.00 To up grade to HD?


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## ooeeoo

I have lifetime service. They say it is only good for the original receiver. If I upgrade to HD, it would cost 399.00 for a new lifetime service and an additional 199.00 for the HD receiver. 599.00 total. Are you saying I can get an HD upgrade for less than 599.00??


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## bkdtv

ooeeoo said:


> I have lifetime service. They say it is only good for the original receiver. If I upgrade to HD, it would cost 399.00 for a new lifetime service and an additional 199.00 for the HD receiver. 599.00 total. Are you saying I can get an HD upgrade for less than 599.00??


If you call TiVo, you may be able to get an new TivoHD with lifetime for $499. Then again, if they are really sold out, that may not be an option.


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## mikeyts

wmcbrine said:


> My 3-year service on my S3 expired last month, and I went for lifetime when they offered me $100 off. Now I don't suppose they'll refund the difference. Maybe they'd let me apply it to my S2? Hmm...


My 3-year prepay ran out yesterday. I got the $100 off offer by e-mail and passed on it. I called, told them that I didn't receive the e-mail but had heard about it; the girl put me on hold for a minute, came back and said that she could give me the deal. They'll charge me for it next month when the month I just paid for runs out .

With a 3-year-old product, I like to leave myself free to switch to the next better thing when it comes out; if I paid $300 for lifetime, I'd feel obliged to keep using it for some years to come. $99 is less than 8 months at $12.95/month.


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## mr.unnatural

Same here. However, I already paid for the 3-year plan and I feel I've gotten my money's worth. I intend to upgrade my HTPC with the new Ceton quad tuner CableCARD tuner when it comes out. Getting lifetime on my S3 Tivo will get me a better return if and when I put it up on ebay and will more than offset the $99 investment.


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## jcthorne

My 3 year prepaid runs out in Sep. I called and tried to get the 99 deal and several supervisors and 30 minutes later...no deal. Its only for subs that are expiring before the deal ends. No comitment that the deal will be available in sep either.


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## DocNo

As much as I like Tivo, Microsoft has really stepped it up with Windows Media Center 7. I think I will be building a media center PC and getting the Ceton quad tuner as well. There is just way more flexibility with WMC. It's a shame, Tivo had such a lead, but the last couple of years they seem to have just run out of gas and I think that's literally what happened - they have just run out of money 

I just hooked up a Tivo HD for a year (it was a $50 sears floor model) but when my S3 runs out in June I don't think I'm going to renew it but build an HTPC instead. Hopefully something will happen between now and then (and hopefully it's not Tivo going out of business  )


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## PaulS

My 3-year prepay ended in January, and I was going month-to-month while trying to figure out what to do next with my Series3. The $99 lifetime email popped in my Inbox the other day, which was a nice surprise. My lifetime sub starts March 1, the new billing cycle. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about this.


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## Alan Gordon

Great... 

My 3-year prepaid service ends in June... and I was planning on getting Lifetime then... 

~Alan


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## Sapphire

I had received the $99 offer a few days ago (02/04) and I just called and locked in my $99 upgrade offer. Thank you TiVo for not abandoning your fans.

However, the CSR did make it absolutely clear that only people who received the email would be eligible, and that this was only for people who prepaid 3 year and their subs were running out.

I have to say that this is a pretty nice gesture, whether or not I decide to keep my TiVo. Now if only they would enable M-card support...


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## Sapphire

StanSimmons said:


> You are probably eligible. This is a program for people that got the 3yr plan because the lifetime wasn't available.
> 
> I'm not eligible, because I've been on a month to month ($6.95) since 2000, and never got the 3yr plan.


Yeah I checked my gmail (I love gmail!) and found that the offer was buried in my email from last week. Called them up, mentioned the offer, gave them my info and the plan is scheduled.

I only got on the 3 year plan because I wanted lifetime and the 3 year was as close to lifetime as we would get.


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## rlcarr

Raj said:


> Now if only they would enable M-card support...


What do you expect them to do? Come to your house and replace the innards of your S3? M-card support in an S3 would have to be a hardware change.


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## Sapphire

rlcarr said:


> What do you expect them to do? Come to your house and replace the innards of your S3? *M-card support in an S3 would have to be a hardware change.*


Do you work for TiVo? Did you design the series 3?

The back of the series 3 says that it has M card support on slot 1. TiVo has also said repeatedly that the series 3 would be M card compatible. They never said when, and it was gradually swept under the carpet. Nobody knows for sure why there's no M card support, but TiVo has never come out and said that it was impossible with the hardware in the unit.

But since you're such an authority on the subject matter, tell me how you know that M cards on the series 3 *has* to be a hardware change...


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## orangeboy

I thought this was settled when one of the TiVo guys (Jerry? Pony? Stephen?) stated that it was a software limitation that would be too risky to deploy a "fix". I did a search, but didn't find the post. It was probably made 3-4 years ago.


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## doctord

I called TiVo as my 3 year plan had expired in September and I went month to month before changing to an annual plan in January. I have not received the email. CSR told me that my account does not qualify as it would pop-up in their system if it did. I asked what were the qualification requirements. CSR told me that it was only for those that had pre-paid for a 3 year plan when lifetime was not an option. I asked them to check my billing history as that is what I did and it clearly shows it. CSR talks to supervisor and tells me that they are escalating my case to Advanced Customer Service (probably round file) and I will have an answer by next week.

I bought my S3 box from Circuit City. For those that received the email, did you buy the box from directly from TiVo?


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## MickeS

orangeboy said:


> I thought this was settled when one of the TiVo guys (Jerry? Pony? Stephen?) stated that it was a software limitation that would be too risky to deploy a "fix". I did a search, but didn't find the post. It was probably made 3-4 years ago.


I seem to remember something similar.

Either way, the M-Card support for Series 3 is a dead horse. It's not gonna happen.


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## Adam1115

Raj said:


> The back of the series 3 says that it has M card support on slot 1.


<Looks at back of Series 3> No it doesn't.



Raj said:


> TiVo has also said repeatedly that the series 3 would be M card compatible.


No they didn't.



Raj said:


> Nobody knows for sure why there's no M card support,


Maybe because there were no M cards when the Series 3 was designed / released?


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## rainwater

Adam1115 said:


> Maybe because there were no M cards when the Series 3 was designed / released?


My guess is the vendor that supplied the cablecard hardware to TiVo either a) Thought they could upgrade the firmware to be M-card compatible but they couldn't because the m-card specs changed or b) the vendor just didn't supply Tivo with the resources to upgrade the firmware.


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## mikeyts

orangeboy said:


> I thought this was settled when one of the TiVo guys (Jerry? Pony? Stephen?) stated that it was a software limitation that would be too risky to deploy a "fix". I did a search, but didn't find the post. It was probably made 3-4 years ago.


It was TiVoPony and it was in a general *****-session thread about why TiVo doesn't implement various feature requests that are highly in demand.


TiVoPony said:


> Likewise, features such as QAM remapping and M-Card S3 support do not target a significant portion of our subscribers, both are in fact very small numbers of subscribers. That doesn't mean that they automatically get set aside, or that TiVo is ignoring or doesn't care about those customers. But it is a consideration when trading off those features against others (M-Card for S3 is technically possible, but also technically very complex. We've learned that there is a lot of risk inherent in that development).


By "risk" he means that the way that they can see to fix that is highly likely to break other features; obviously to date they've choosen not to do it.

They designed TiVo S3 to work with a single M-Card--the original S3 manual told you which slot to use if you were using a single M-Card for both tuners. To ship when they did they had to have finalized the hardware several months before the final draft of the M-Card standard was accepted. When they tried their implementation with shipping M-Cards, it didn't work.


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## maser2

I wish they'd offer something similar for S2 users who still have their units (and are running out from the 3-year prepay in a couple of weeks.) Like me.


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## Sapphire

I feel as though I've stepped into the twilight zone. This is all too weird.



Adam1115 said:


> <Looks at back of Series 3> No it doesn't.


I found this picture:










And you know what's funny about this picture?

it's from your own post!

Will the real Adam1115 please stand up?



> No they didn't.


What they said exactly is debatable. I am pretty sure they never _promised_ multistream support on the series 3, but they didn't rule it out either.

Then again, I'm going by what this guy said, thusly:



Adam1115 said:


> Also, TiVo has said several times that the S3 was designed to support a single M-Card eventually.


Oh wait a minute?!?!? That's you!

Will the real Adam1115 please stand up?



> Maybe because there were no M cards when the Series 3 was designed / released?


That doesn't matter.


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## Sapphire

DocNo said:


> As much as I like Tivo, Microsoft has really stepped it up with Windows Media Center 7. I think I will be building a media center PC and getting the Ceton quad tuner as well. There is just way more flexibility with WMC. It's a shame, Tivo had such a lead, but the last couple of years they seem to have just run out of gas and I think that's literally what happened - they have just run out of money
> 
> I just hooked up a Tivo HD for a year (it was a $50 sears floor model) but when my S3 runs out in June I don't think I'm going to renew it but build an HTPC instead. Hopefully something will happen between now and then (and hopefully it's not Tivo going out of business  )


The only thing that bothers me about Win 7 MC is that the extenders have basically disappeared. Only the XBOX 360 is available now. And while I do use two of them, there are several problems with the Xbox - cost, noise and RROD being chief among them. That and the fact that it looks really out of place in a media cabinet.

That said, I am going to Windows 7 MC but I might keep the TiVo around for OTA or for a spare bedroom. Or it might go up on ebay. I'm still deciding.


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## innocentfreak

With Ceton's latest announcement about the fact you will be able to network tuners, you won't need an extender as long as the PC passes the digital cable tuner test in Media Center. You could potentially just buy like a small PC like the Dell Zino and hook it up next to the TV.


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## Sapphire

innocentfreak said:


> With Ceton's latest announcement about the fact you will be able to network tuners, you won't need an extender as long as the PC passes the digital cable tuner test in Media Center. You could potentially just buy like a small PC like the Dell Zino and hook it up next to the TV.


That is true but true multiroom viewing depends on your cable provider not screwing with the CCI flags.

Otherwise you're back to square one, with content recorded on one PC not playable on another. In the case of Time Warner they set everything except locals as copy once so you're no better off than if you used a clear QAM or ATSC tuner.

Therefore extenders are ideally the way to go.


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## innocentfreak

Raj said:


> That is true but true multiroom viewing depends on your cable provider not screwing with the CCI flags.
> 
> Otherwise you're back to square one, with content recorded on one PC not playable on another. In the case of Time Warner they set everything except locals as copy once so you're no better off than if you used a clear QAM or ATSC tuner.
> 
> Therefore extenders are ideally the way to go.


EDIT: NVM. I keep forgetting extenders don't have to pay attention to the CCI flag.

It would ultimately be like having two Tivo HDs with one at each TV. Of course you could get 2 Ceton cards giving you 4 tuners at each location.

EDIT: Another thought. The extender works basically by RDPing into the main pc. I wonder if you set up a second PC and used RDP to access the recordings if you could play them back.


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## Adam1115

Raj said:


> I found this picture:


As you point out, this was hashed out over and over years ago. I would love M card support on the S3, and was pissed off that they didn't implement it.

But, as was pointed out in that thread, that's a prototype. The production Series 3's do not say anything about M-Card support on the back.



Raj said:


> What they said exactly is debatable. I am pretty sure they never _promised_ multistream support on the series 3, but they didn't rule it out either.


Exactly. It seemed like they would, judging by the prototype and certain vague statements in documentation... But I'm over it, 3 1/2 years later... It's not going to happen.


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## sdzc

Shot down


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## mikeyts

Adam1115 said:


> It seemed like they would, judging by the prototype and certain vague statements in documentation...


Page 102 of my copy of the Series3 Viewer's Guide contains the following statement:


> Note: A single multi-stream CableCARD decoder installed in the bottom slot on the back of the DVR enables dual-tuner functionality. However, as of the first publication of this guide, multi-stream CableCARD decoders are not yet available.


Doesn't seem very "vague" to me .

Further proof is given in this MPEG4 clip of an interview by Gear Live of TiVoPony at CES 2006, in which he states (1 minute, 12 seconds in):


> "It supports both ATSC as well as cable signals. It's a CableCARD box. There are two CableCARD slots on the back of the box. If you have a single multi-stream card, you can plug that in and if you don't have access to multi-stream you can plug in two single-stream cards."


I've gotten over being pissed-off and disappointed about it as well, but it can't validly be claimed that they never said that the Series3 would support M-Cards.


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## Defender90

Called the number provided, didn't reference any email--just said I read on an internet forum that this was being offered. Have an S3, did 3 year prepay in FEB 2007. There were no issues other than it taking awhile for the guy to find the deal but it went smooth. He went to great lengths to say that it was only good for this box, though others have said you may be able to transfer. For me it's a non-issue as I feel I get a ton of value from TiVo and still is a wash $$ wise with what I would have paid Verizon for their crappy DVR (at least in 2007 it was, though I do miss having VOD). Now I feel better about hacking into the machine and putting in a new hard drive as opposed to going the external HD route. Thanks to whoever made the original post--I never would have known and probably would have wasted a few hundred extra dollars.


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## Sapphire

Adam1115 said:


> As you point out, this was hashed out over and over years ago. I would love M card support on the S3, and was pissed off that they didn't implement it.
> 
> But, as was pointed out in that thread, that's a prototype. The production Series 3's do not say anything about M-Card support on the back.
> 
> Exactly. It seemed like they would, judging by the prototype and certain vague statements in documentation... But I'm over it, 3 1/2 years later... It's not going to happen.


It doesn't really bother me either, but it would be nice to have, since my planned move to windows 7 MC would mean I'd need more CableCARDs. And since they're 3 bucks a pop I'd hate to have to rent another when I shouldn't have to.


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## Sapphire

mikeyts said:


> Page 102 of my copy of the Series3 Viewer's Guide contains the following statement:
> Doesn't seem very "vague" to me .
> 
> Further proof is given in this MPEG4 clip of an interview by Gear Live of TiVoPony at CES 2006, in which he states (1 minute, 12 seconds in):
> I've gotten over being pissed-off and disappointed about it as well, but it can't validly be claimed that they never said that the Series3 would support M-Cards.


It's like the whole DVD+RW fiasco. Early adopters were promised firmware upgrades to DVD+R write once discs only to be told later on that it couldn't (or wouldn't) be done, and that they (we) had to buy a new drive to get write once support. So in the end I bought a DVD-R drive.


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## Sapphire

innocentfreak said:


> EDIT: NVM. I keep forgetting extenders don't have to pay attention to the CCI flag.
> 
> It would ultimately be like having two Tivo HDs with one at each TV. Of course you could get 2 Ceton cards giving you 4 tuners at each location.


Each Ceton card is $400 and that's not including the cost of a host PC and Windows 7 license. Meanwhile an Xbox is $200 or less (I bought one for $175).



> EDIT: Another thought. The extender works basically by RDPing into the main pc. I wonder if you set up a second PC and used RDP to access the recordings if you could play them back.


Won't work.


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## innocentfreak

Raj said:


> Each Ceton card is $400 and that's not including the cost of a host PC and Windows 7 license. Meanwhile an Xbox is $200 or less (I bought one for $175).
> 
> Won't work.


Oh well I thought it might. I hadn't looked into it with Fios and I snagged a second 360 as part of the Walmart $100 special.

I am still trying to decide whether I am grabbing one or two cards. It probably depends on how much free recording space I have because I may need to add more drives to my server before I add a second card.


----------



## Sapphire

Bear in mind that Windows 7 only supports 4 tuners per type so you can only have 4 CableCARD tuners.

I'm getting one Ceton card and using ClearQAM tuners to make up the difference. I figure that way worst case I can record the big 4 with Clear QAM during primetime and still have 4 tuners on reserve for encrypted cable. I might also add an ATSC tuner or two when I put my antenna back up since all the stations OTA in HD aren't carried on my cable provider.


----------



## [email protected]

Raj said:


> However, the CSR did make it absolutely clear that only people who received the email would be eligible, and that this was only for people who prepaid 3 year and their subs were running out.


I guess I'll have to wait a few months to see if I get the email. When I bought my TiVo HDs lifetime wasn't available on the first unit - it was only offered as a purchase option when adding a new machine to an existing account. So I've got one (pre-paid) 3-year subscription and one lifetime.


----------



## Martin Tupper

I called and was initially shot down: 
First the CSR said that it was only for machines bought in 2006 when Lifetime wasn't an option. I told him Lifetime wasn't an option when I bought my TiVo in March of 2007. 
Then he put me on hold and said that the offer only applied to Series1 & Series2 machines. I told him that I'd heard of people with Series 3 machines taking advantage of the offer, and besides Series1 machines had long since been discontinued by 2006. 
Then he said that I didn't have a Series3, I had a TivoHD. I said that was true, but if people are getting the offer with Series3 machines, it clearly isn't limited to Series1 & Series2 machines. To which he started talking something about harddrive sizes.
Finally, he offers to escalate it, and I speak with his supervisor who readily admits that I am eligible. He ventured to guess that I probably didn't get an email because I transferred the 3-year pre-pay from a Series3 to a TivoHD, and they didn't send out emails for TivoHD machines, which were not yet on the market during the "no-lifetime" window.
In the end, they hooked me up. Thanks OP for the head up!!


----------



## AntiPC

Shot down here. My tivo HD was activated with a prepaid 3 year in 10/07. According to the CSR, 5/07 is the cutoff.


----------



## innocentfreak

Raj said:


> Bear in mind that Windows 7 only supports 4 tuners per type so you can only have 4 CableCARD tuners.


Correct but the way Windows 7 handles the tuners and with Ceton's driver unlocked. Those tuners can be in any PC on the network. You are just limited to mapping 4 tuners per PC. Ultimately this means you could set up one full tower PC with 3 cards or 12 tuners. You could then put two HTPCs or something like the new Dell micro PC line, Zino I think, on the network. As long as they pass the DCT test, they can map 4 tuners each allowing you to use small PCs at each TV without worrying how you will add a card to them.


----------



## shwru980r

Suppose you picked up a used series 3 off of ebay, would they give you the $99 lifetime upgrade if it had the 3 year prepaid plan on or before 05/07?


----------



## jtrain

AntiPC said:


> Shot down here. My tivo HD was activated with a prepaid 3 year in 10/07. According to the CSR, 5/07 is the cutoff.


ugh, that's unfortunate news...my three-year pre-pay is up 6/29/10...if only they'd extend it thru the end of June!


----------



## moyekj

Martin Tupper said:


> I called and was initially shot down:
> First the CSR said that it was only for machines bought in 2006 when Lifetime wasn't an option. I told him Lifetime wasn't an option when I bought my TiVo in March of 2007.
> Then he put me on hold and said that the offer only applied to Series1 & Series2 machines. I told him that I'd heard of people with Series 3 machines taking advantage of the offer, and besides Series1 machines had long since been discontinued by 2006.
> Then he said that I didn't have a Series3, I had a TivoHD. I said that was true, but if people are getting the offer with Series3 machines, it clearly isn't limited to Series1 & Series2 machines. To which he started talking something about harddrive sizes.
> Finally, he offers to escalate it, and I speak with his supervisor who readily admits that I am eligible. He ventured to guess that I probably didn't get an email because I transferred the 3-year pre-pay from a Series3 to a TivoHD, and they didn't send out emails for TivoHD machines, which were not yet on the market during the "no-lifetime" window.
> In the end, they hooked me up. Thanks OP for the head up!!


I was polite and persistent and eventually TiVo helped me out. My situation:
1. S3 TiVo with 3 year pre-pay that expired November 2009. I renewed back in November to another 3 year pre-pay with intent to transfer over to newer hardware if/when released this year which is why I didn't go for $399 lifetime option.
2. Another S3 TiVo with $6.95 MSD monthly service

My intent was to try and switch my 2nd 3 year pre-pay that started in November on TiVo 1 to this $99 lifetime service. I didn't get the email but after reading threads here decided to give TiVo a call to see what they could do.
Right away they told me the pre-pay service could not be partially refunded and substituted for the $99 lifetime. If they tried to do that it couldn't happen until November 2012 when that service contract expires. I politely made a fuss saying I just missed out on this deal because I was an early S3 adopter but they still said sorry. Then I asked if perhaps they could switch my monthly service S3 over to the $99 deal. Initially I was told no way - this deal is only for expiring 3 year pre-pay service. But after some polite exchanges and elevation to supervisor they finally agreed to it! So it will still take > 14 months for the switch to pay for itself but it's nice having a lifetime unit that hopefully I will be using way beyond that. I still have the pre-pay on other TiVo that I can switch over to new hardware if/when it shows up.

I think this was a win-win because I was otherwise seriously contemplating the upcoming quad cablecard Ceton tuner and switching over to MCE. By having this lifetime deal it solidified my commitment to stay with TiVo for now.


----------



## jlb

I am on a $6.95 month to month. Hypothetical, if they were to offer me a second TiVo with $99 lifetime, would I be able to keep my $6.95 on my original?


----------



## jcthorne

Wonder why they decided to cut it off at 5/07? Lifetime did not become available again until sometime after Christmas or early 08. Mine was activated in 9/07 and lifetime was not available then. TivoHD was indeed offered long before lifetime came back. Hope they extend this when it gets closer to my expiration. I was ready to buy it now and blow off the rest of the pre-paid.


----------



## MickeS

I am just bummed that they restrict it to 3 year prepaid. I selected 3-year commitment with monthly payments, I don't see why that would not be included. It's the same commitment, and I only chose it because LT was not around.

Oh well, I still haven't called. Maybe they'll make an exception.


----------



## DocNo

Raj said:


> Only the XBOX 360 is available now. And while I do use two of them, there are several problems with the Xbox - cost, noise and RROD being chief among them. That and the fact that it looks really out of place in a media cabinet.


You can get refurbished arcade units for under $100, maybe I'm just hard of hearing or my house is noisy but once the DVD drive spins down (and it never spins up without a disk in it  ) I can't hear my 360. RROD is a long moot issue for anything shipping in the last two years, or anything that has been refurbished. As for looking out of place my Elite is black and blends in rather nicely, and if/when I pick up a cheap arcade I'll either replace the faceplate or just pop it off, spray paint it black with paint designed for plastic.

Or use my hacked Xbox1  It won't do HD, but it will cover perfectly for a spare room where I don't have HD...


----------



## MapleLeaf

jcthorne said:


> Wonder why they decided to cut it off at 5/07? Lifetime did not become available again until sometime after Christmas or early 08. Mine was activated in 9/07 and lifetime was not available then. TivoHD was indeed offered long before lifetime came back. Hope they extend this when it gets closer to my expiration. I was ready to buy it now and blow off the rest of the pre-paid.


The cutoff might have something to do with the new unit(s) being unveiled on March 2nd. They may be trying to minimise the chance that someone will try to transfer their expiring 3-year contract to this new unit and then request the $99 lifetime upgrade for the new unit. Sure, they could do a few extra validation checks to prevent that, but it may be easier just ensuring that there's no overlap between when this upgrade offer is available and when the new unit becomes available.


----------



## mr.unnatural

Raj said:


> Bear in mind that Windows 7 only supports 4 tuners per type so you can only have 4 CableCARD tuners.
> 
> I'm getting one Ceton card and using ClearQAM tuners to make up the difference. I figure that way worst case I can record the big 4 with Clear QAM during primetime and still have 4 tuners on reserve for encrypted cable. I might also add an ATSC tuner or two when I put my antenna back up since all the stations OTA in HD aren't carried on my cable provider.


Actually, Windows 7 can support any number of tuners you want when using a third party app like BeyondTV or SageTV. I think you meant to say that Windows 7 _Media Center_ can only support four tuners of each type. I currently have six ATSC USB tuners connected to my XP Pro HTPC and intend to use all of them with BeyondTV in Windows 7 along with the quad tuner Ceton model in Media Center for a total of ten tuners. I use the ATSC tuners for recording OTA HD lcoals and the Ceton tuners will replace my two S3 Tivos, allowing my to consolidate almost all of my home theater components into one chassis, aside from my preamp/processor and external amps.


----------



## DBLClick

This is excellent news as my Tivo HD unit 3yr service is about expire. Do they inform us via e-mail how long before.


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## andrews777

I have 3 year prepaid (no lifetime was offered) in August or September of 2007. My second Tivo did not even have that option and I had to go for month-to-month.

I would easily switch both to lifetime, if I could. I got lifetime with my 3rd Tivo, I believe. I will have to check that for sure now. 

Brad


----------



## andrews777

If this offer is limited to the box, what would happen if the box died?

Brad


----------



## mikeyts

DBLClick said:


> This is excellent news as my Tivo HD unit 3yr service is about expire. Do they inform us via e-mail how long before.


I got the following in the mail exactly one month before expiration:


> Dear Michael,
> 
> Thank you for being a TiVo customer. Your credit card will automatically be billed for the TiVo service each month effective 02/07/2010 for your DVR with the TiVo service number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. The service renewal price is $12.95 per month plus any applicable taxes. The credit card we currently have on file ends in XXXX and expires in MM/YYYY. If you would like to update your credit card information or check out other service plans, please visit http://www.tivo.com/manage.
> 
> As a special thank you for being a TiVo customer, we would like to offer you a $100 savings on a Product Lifetime service upgrade. With Product Lifetime service, you can enjoy your TiVo DVR with no monthly bills for the life of your DVR. To take advantage of this limited-time special offer, please visit http://www.tivo.com/manage and select the Product Lifetime option from the future payment plan screen. Then, enter this promo code: PLSR.
> 
> Please note that you will need to make any changes to your service before 02/07/2010 to ensure plan changes are made prior to the next billing period.
> 
> Your friends at TiVo


It only offered me a $100 off lifetime, which I would have passed on. I then read about this offer on the day my 3-year prepay expired (last Sunday) in the TiVo Series3 thread at AVS Forum. On Monday I called and asked for the $99 lifetime upgrade offer, was asked whether I'd received the e-mail to which I replied no. The girl put me on hold for a minute; when she came back she told me that she could give me the deal.

I'm not sure why I didn't receive the e-mail; since I qualified, I should have. If I hadn't read about it online, I'd have missed the deal. I wonder how many people who do qualify are going to miss it because they weren't notified?

If your service expires on or before April 30th, you can probably call any time and arrange for the deal now, which will just set the "Future payment plan" for your account to "$99.00 Product Lifetime service"; they'll charge you the $99 the day after your plan expires.


----------



## Adam1115

DBLClick said:


> This is excellent news as my Tivo HD unit 3yr service is about expire. Do they inform us via e-mail how long before.


They aren't doing it for everyone... I guess it's like winning the lottery..



mikeyts said:


> I got the following in the mail exactly one month before expiration: It only offered me a $100 off lifetime, which I would have passed on. I then read about this offer on the day my 3-year prepay expired (last Sunday) in the TiVo Series3 thread at AVS Forum. On Monday I called and asked for the $99 lifetime upgrade offer, was asked whether I'd received the e-mail to which I replied no. The girl put me on hold for a minute; when she came back she told me that she could give me the deal.


I received the same email you did, $100 off lifetime.

I wonder if I call now and ask for it (now that I've canceled) and see if they'll do it.


----------



## mikeyts

Adam1115 said:


> They aren't doing it for everyone... I guess it's like winning the lottery..


If they're treating it as a lottery, maybe the fact that I found out about it forced them to give it to me, to avoid negative publicity. It would have been all over the tech blogs: "TiVo offers special lifetime service upgrade deal...but only to a favored few" .


----------



## Sapphire

mikeyts said:


> I'm not sure why I didn't receive the e-mail; since I qualified, I should have.


It was probably sent to you but for some reason you didn't get it. Mine was buried in my inbox.


----------



## aaronwt

I guess i screwed myself out of this deal by signing up for Lifetime at $299 each months before my subscription was going to expire on my S3 units I purchased in 2006.


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## Sapphire

mr.unnatural said:


> Actually, Windows 7 can support any number of tuners you want when using a third party app like BeyondTV or SageTV. I think you meant to say that Windows 7 _Media Center_ can only support four tuners of each type. I currently have six ATSC USB tuners connected to my XP Pro HTPC and intend to use all of them with BeyondTV in Windows 7 along with the quad tuner Ceton model in Media Center for a total of ten tuners. I use the ATSC tuners for recording OTA HD lcoals and the Ceton tuners will replace my two S3 Tivos, allowing my to consolidate almost all of my home theater components into one chassis, aside from my preamp/processor and external amps.


Yes I meant media center.

All PC CableCARD tuners (so far) only work in media center.


----------



## Sapphire

DocNo said:


> You can get refurbished arcade units for under $100,


Where?


----------



## Sapphire

shwru980r said:


> Suppose you picked up a used series 3 off of ebay, would they give you the $99 lifetime upgrade if it had the 3 year prepaid plan on or before 05/07?


Probably not since you're treated as a new subscriber.

It almost seems as though this offer is to offer lifetime to those who intended to have lifetime in the first place. Many of those who purchased 3 year prepay only did so because we wanted lifetime and 3 year prepay was the closest thing to lifetime we could get.


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## mikeyts

Raj said:


> It was probably sent to you but for some reason you didn't get it. Mine was buried in my inbox.


Nope--I just searched my mail and I didn't get it (I use a paid Yahoo mail account; I just discovered that their e-mail reader has some very cool features for narrowing down search results ).


----------



## keenanSR

aaronwt said:


> I guess i screwed myself out of this deal by signing up for Lifetime at $299 each months before my subscription was going to expire on my S3 units I purchased in 2006.


It appears to be quite selective as I purchased my S3 3 days after it was released with the $299 3-yr prepay and did not get any email offer about the $99 lifetime. Of course, I had to renew back in Sept '09 but it seems not all early adopters are being offered the deal. From what I can tell, it appears to be only those that purchased a few months after the unit was first released.


----------



## aaronwt

keenanSR said:


> It appears to be quite selective as I purchased my S3 3 days after it was released with the $299 3-yr prepay and did not get any email offer about the $99 lifetime. Of course, I had to renew back in Sept '09 but it seems not all early adopters are being offered the deal. From what I can tell, it appears to be only those that purchased a few months after the unit was first released.


I purchased my three in December 2006.

But a few months before December 2009 I wanted to make sure I would be able to get Lifetime for $299. I figured with my luck if I didn't, that Lifetime would go back up to $399. If I had known $99 could have been a possibility then I would have never messed with it.


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## keenanSR

aaronwt said:


> I purchased my three in December 2006.
> 
> But a few months before December 2009 I wanted to make sure I would be able to get Lifetime for $299. I figured with my luck if I didn't, that Lifetime would go back up to $399. If I had known $99 could have been a possibility then I would have never messed with it.


That's what I did($299 lifetime) with the new TiVo HD I bought in Sept '09 and put a year prepay on the expiring S3.

So there doesn't seem to any logic behind who gets the offer...??


----------



## mather

So my 3 year ends on 5/31 and I see from the first post, this deal ends on 4/30. I will try calling late April and see if I can get this $99 special offer. How close are those who received the email offer to their expiring dates? Within a month of expiration, a week, 2 weeks, etc?


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## Kit_C

mather said:


> So my 3 year ends on 5/31 and I see from the first post, this deal ends on 4/30. I will try calling late April and see if I can get this $99 special offer. How close are those who received the email offer to their expiring dates? Within a month of expiration, a week, 2 weeks, etc?


I received (and accepted) my offer 5 days before my 3 year pre-pay ran out.


----------



## mikeyts

keenanSR said:


> So there doesn't seem to any logic behind who gets the offer...??


If their intention is to apologize to those who bought a 3-year prepaid plan when PLS wasn't offered, they should be making this offer to anyone who bought a 3-year prepaid between the date that PLS went away and the day that it came back. I don't know when they started making the offer but it seems like it may have been only a few weeks ago; it expires on April 30th, some months before the day of the year when PLS came back in 2007. So a bunch of people who, like those of us who got the deal, bought a 3-year prepaid plan when PLS wasn't available apparently weren't and/or aren't going to be offered this deal. I think that those people should protest, loudly.


----------



## keenanSR

mikeyts said:


> If they're intention is to apologize to those who bought a 3-year prepaid plan when PLS wasn't offered, they should be making this offer to anyone who bought a 3-year prepaid between the date that PLS went away and the day that it came back. I don't know when they started making the offer but it seems like it may have been only a few weeks ago; it expires on April 30th, some months before the day of the year when PLS came back in 2007. So a bunch of people who, like those of us who got the deal, bought a 3-year prepaid plan when PLS wasn't available apparently weren't and/or aren't going to be offered this deal. I think that those people should protest, loudly.


I do too. Just to be sure, PLS was not offered in Sept of 2006, is that correct? I can't remember, the S3 was the first TiVo I've purchased, but I'm pretty sure I went with the best option, which at the time was the 3-year prepay.


----------



## mikeyts

I'm not sure--I know that it wasn't an option when I bought my service plan on 7 February 2007. I suggest that you post a new thread to ask the forum the dates through which PLS wasn't available. Explain that the $99 PLS upgrade offer is why you want to know; someone from TiVo might respond (or not--I have a close friend who's worked there for the past five years or so who tells me that they're encouraged to read this forum, but forbidden to post here--or anywhere else, on the subject of TiVo, as per standard NDA--unless asked to by management).


----------



## sdzc

What about those of us that bought unit but went MSD because Lifetime was not available at the time. I have an HD unit that I would have preferred to have Lifetime on, but it was not available at the time.


----------



## [email protected]

mikeyts said:


> So a bunch of people who, like those of us who got the deal, bought a 3-year prepaid plan when PLS wasn't available apparently weren't and/or aren't going to be offered this deal. I think that those people should protest, loudly.


I intend to, if the deal doesn't get extended to cover my purchase date (towards the end of 2007). I had to buy a 3-year plan on the first box, because lifetime was only available when adding a new machine to an existing account.


----------



## thespacepope72

I bought a 3-year prepaid because lifetime was not available in June of 2007 and will walk away from TiVo in June of 2010 if I don't get the $99 offer.

Then I will stick this Series3 in a closet rather than sell it on eBay or give it away to deprive TiVo of any additional income from this unit.

Yes, I am bitter.


----------



## mikeyts

Raj said:


> It was probably sent to you but for some reason you didn't get it. Mine was buried in my inbox.


I just received the offer today, 9 days after my prepaid plan expired . This got them an extra $12.95, since I signed up for month-to-month, 1-year commitment; I wonder what they'd have done if I'd signed up for a plan that cost more than $99 down, like a one year prepaid plan or even PLS ($299 with the $100 discount they offered me in the plan expiration notification, so I'd have to be mentally challenged to buy another 3 year prepaid )? Would they have given me the difference back, or scheduled the PLS to kick in after the plan I'd just purchased expired (in the case of one year prepaid)?


----------



## keenanSR

I started a thread like you suggested Mike and it appears that, in fact, PLS was not offered when the S3 was first released.

So why aren't early adopters being offered the same deal? The lesson learned here is not go out and buy a new product, wait until it's on the market few months?


----------



## mikeyts

[email protected] said:


> I intend to, if the deal doesn't get extended to cover my purchase date (towards the end of 2007). I had to buy a 3-year plan on the first box, because lifetime was only available when adding a new machine to an existing account.


That's an interesting variation--I bought a 3-year prepaid plan for a new box. Did anyone get offered this deal who bought a 3-year prepaid when the plan for their box expired?


----------



## travisc77

keenanSR said:


> I started a thread like you suggested Mike and it appears that, in fact, PLS was not offered when the S3 was first released.
> 
> So why aren't early adopters being offered the same deal? The lesson learned here is not go out and buy a new product, wait until it's on the market few months?


I agree, they would not give me the offer, as I was an early adopter that chose MSD. I already had an S2, when the S3 came out I would have probably went with Lifetime, but my choice was 3 yr prepaid or MSD at $6.95/mo for the S3. Now I'm really screwed because the 3 years is up and my MSD went to $9.95. No good option at this time other than the $299 PLS, but with new hardware coming out, I'm reluctant to commit.


----------



## keenanSR

In my case, my S3 expired in Sept '06. At that time I purchased a TiVo HD and put PLS on it(it was offered at a discount of $299), and a year prepaid on the S3. My position is, regardless of what box I put the PLS on, why did I have to pay $200 more than later purchasers of the S3?


----------



## travisc77

keenanSR said:


> In my case, my S3 expired in Sept '06. At that time I purchased a TiVo HD and put PLS on it(it was offered at a discount of $299), and a year prepaid on the S3. My position is, regardless of what box I put the PLS on, why did I have to pay $200 more than later purchasers of the S3?


Good point, Tivo seems to go out of there way to complicate their pricing strategy over the years. Seems to me a more straight forward, easy to understand, consistent pricing strategy would have lent itself to growing the subscriber base (see Netflix).

I love Tivo, but it is a guilty pleasure that not many understand why I pay a premium for it....


----------



## DocNo

Raj said:


> Where?


The usual places. Watch sites like bensbargains, fatwallet, etc. for specials and promotions. My best score to date was the much sought after 60GB PS3 with the built in hardware based PS2 backwards compatibility for $200 from compusa.com/tiger direct. I don't know why I didn't turn around and buy every one they had - they routinely go for $400 or more on eBay


----------



## NeilV

Do I have to call to ugprade my service plan, or can I do it on the website? 

I really wish they could have a 'grandfather', I believe the term is, plan. Once you pay up to $300's on the month to month service, your in a lifetime subscription. 


thanks


----------



## mikeyts

NeilV said:


> Do I have to call to ugprade my service plan, or can I do it on the website?


You might not be eligible if you don't receive the following e-mail message (which says that you have to call to get it):


> As a loyal TiVo customer, you're eligible for an exclusive offer when you upgrade your existing TiVo service to Product Lifetime service. You'll pay a one-time fee of just $99 - a saving of $300 off the standard price of $399! Hurry, take advantage of this amazing, limited time offer today.
> 
> Product Lifetime service only applies to the box for which it was purchased. It cannot be transferred to another box.
> 
> Call 1-877-367-8486 and mention the $99 PLS upgrade offer
> 
> Only valid for:
> TSN: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
> 
> Offer expires 4/30/2010


You're eligible for the offer if you bought a 3-year prepaid plan which expires before April 30th. I didn't receive the message until a couple of weeks after my 3 year prepaid plan expired, so I ended up making one month-to-month payment; if you do qualify, be sure to call and ask for the $99 upgrade _before_ your prepaid plan expires, whether you get the e-mail or not.


> I really wish they could have a 'grandfather', I believe the term is, plan. Once you pay up to $300's on the month to month service, your in a lifetime subscription.


I think that the savings represented by lifetime and prepaid service is an inducement for you to give them a chunk of money up front. Your choice--pay a lot now and never again (not again for some years in the case of prepaid), or pay a little every month, for as long as you use the product. After all, if you pay month-to-month you could at any time decide to cancel your service and shelve the unit (you don't like it, you're too busy to try to sell it but you're not going to waste any more money on it); if you buy PLS, they don't care what you do--they have your cash and you're not getting it back .

It should be interesting to see how they sell service on the new product(s) which they're presumably going to announce on Tuesday, inasmuch as their competition (Moxi HD DVR) has no extra charge for service.


----------



## gweempose

I have a 3-year prepaid unit that was activated on 06-09-07. Am I screwed?


----------



## JonAult

mikeyts said:


> You're eligible for the offer if you bought a 3-year prepaid plan which expires before April 30th.


Not necessarily the $99 offer, though. I have a 3-year prepaid plan expiring in March, and the email I got was for the $299 offer. I called & tried to get the $99 deal but was shot down.

At this point, I'm waiting to see what they announce later this week. No point paying for lifetime on the S3 if it turns out I'd rather replace it instead.


----------



## mikeyts

JonAult said:


> Not necessarily the $99 offer, though. I have a 3-year prepaid plan expiring in March, and the email I got was for the $299 offer. I called & tried to get the $99 deal but was shot down.
> 
> At this point, I'm waiting to see what they announce later this week. No point paying for lifetime on the S3 if it turns out I'd rather replace it instead.


Mine expired on 7 February--there's no reason why your's shouldn't be eligible and if it isn't it really is some kind of lottery. I called after reading about the deal in an AVS Forum post (on the Monday after the 7th, so they'd already charged me one month-to-month fee); I'd only received the $299 e-mail offer but they gave me the $99 deal after a pause during which the girl probably consulted her supervisor. I did receive the $99 offer later--maybe they're making everyone wait until they get the e-mail now (no doubt a ton of people have called demanding the deal who weren't eligible, so "no e-mail, no deal and no, you can't speak to my supervisor about it" would save time).


gweempose said:


> I have a 3-year prepaid unit that was activated on 06-09-07. Am I screwed?


You probably can't get this deal.


----------



## NeilV

Well, if I can't get this deal, how would I get the current $299 offer? Do I have to call up, or can I order it somewhere on the website? A one time 299 payment is better than canceling the service and re-signing up for a one time 399 payment.


----------



## mikeyts

NeilV said:


> Well, if I can't get this deal, how would I get the current $299 offer? Do I have to call up, or can I order it somewhere on the website? A one time 299 payment is better than canceling the service and re-signing up for a one time 399 payment.


I take it that you have a three year prepaid plan which has either expired recently or will expire soon? If so, they should have sent or will send you an e-mail message like this:


> Thank you for being a TiVo customer. Your credit card will automatically be billed for the TiVo service each month effective MM/DD/2010 for your DVR with the TiVo service number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. The service renewal price is $12.95 per month plus any applicable taxes. The credit card we currently have on file ends in XXXX and expires in MM/YYYY. If you would like to update your credit card information or check out other service plans, please visit http://www.tivo.com/manage.
> 
> As a special thank you for being a TiVo customer, we would like to offer you a $100 savings on a Product Lifetime service upgrade. With Product Lifetime service, you can enjoy your TiVo DVR with no monthly bills for the life of your DVR. To take advantage of this limited-time special offer, please visit http://www.tivo.com/manage and select the Product Lifetime option from the future payment plan screen. Then, enter this promo code: PLSR.
> 
> Please note that you will need to make any changes to your service before 02/07/2010 to ensure plan changes are made prior to the next billing period.
> 
> Your friends at TiVo


----------



## NeilV

mikeyts said:


> I take it that you have a three year prepaid plan which has either expired recently or will expire soon? If so, they should have sent or will send you an e-mail message like this:


hmm, didn't get the mail,

but that code did save me a 100 in the upgrade plan once i found the button. had to update some info before it appeared

thanks


----------



## thespacepope72

gweempose said:


> I have a 3-year prepaid unit that was activated on 06-09-07. Am I screwed?


I have a 3-year prepaid unit that was activated on 6/5/07 and I suspect that we are both in the same situation, i.e. we will not get the $99 upgrade to lifetime.

I called and asked about upgrading for $99 and was told that I am not eligible.


----------



## gweempose

sethjvm said:


> I called and asked about upgrading for $99 and was told that I am not eligible.


That sucks! Maybe when it comes closer to the expiration date we'll get lucky and get one of those special emails. One can always hope.


----------



## mzupan

Thanks to the OP!

My three year subscription for my Series 3 ended around November and I've been paying month to month since. I was considering canceling (I have a TiVo HD with lifetime too), but I called to see if I was eligible for this $99 offer. I had never received an email about it.

The person put me on hold for a couple minutes and when she returned she informed me that I am eligible. She was a very nice lady and sounded extremely happy that she was able to help me out. Glad I won't be having to cancel my Series 3 box.


----------



## d0nz

oddly enough i didn't know that some ppl were offered this until tonight.

recently i got the email offering $100 savings on PLS for my series 3 - i never got an email about the $99 lifetime upgrade.

even though i didn't know about the $99 upgrade i called customer service to see if i could get an upgrade. the first person i spoke to told me he could not do it and i asked if he could get me to someone who could. he referred me to corporate in CA so i called them. someone there called me back and told asked me what they could do. i said that i would have bought PLS when i originally bought the tivo but it wasn't offered then. he offered me $175 to upgrade, and i told him the most i would pay was $125. he told me that i would have to pay the $399 and they would credit me back $274. they did credit it back (and i do have lifetime service), but now that i know that ppl are getting a $99 upgrade, i want to call back and get the $26.

hope that helps others who never got the email about $99 lifetime upgrade.


----------



## TivoFan247

MediaLivingRoom said:


> WTF, TiVo loses Shanon and now they are having a fire sale.....
> 
> Where is my official iPhone/iPod Touch Remote?
> Where is my DVD ripped playback.
> Where is my Hulu app
> 
> Do something TiVo, and do something fast!!!!


I didn't know Shannon was gone.  I liked her. I had followed her on twitter but hadn't really kept up with twitter lately.


----------



## buddyroe

NeilV said:


> hmm, didn't get the mail,
> 
> but that code did save me a 100 in the upgrade plan once i found the button. had to update some info before it appeared
> 
> thanks


Can you tell me how you found a place to add this code? I found a link to enter the Tivo site that lets me get a $100 discount on the new premier box and I also found a way to enter Tivo and get the box for full price but get a $100 discount from the lifetime service plan. Now, if I can only find a way to put the discount code (for $100 of the LSP) in the page that gives me the box for $100 off , I will be set!!


----------



## houman

I called (on the 3 year prepaid plan as well w/ Tivo HD), and I do not qualify... I was just given the option to go to lifetime for $300. I was told that when I got my subscription, there was a lifetime option, which is not true and that came later, but I did not feel like haggling with them.


----------



## thespacepope72

houman said:


> I called (on the 3 year prepaid plan as well w/ Tivo HD), and I do not qualify... I was just given the option to go to lifetime for $300. I was told that when I got my subscription, there was a lifetime option, which is not true and that came later, but I did not feel like haggling with them.


When did you activate your service?


----------



## paladin732

I called about this and was told that I did not qualify even though I met almost all the criteria. I asked to speak to a higher level and was told to email corp

I sent them an email and recieved a phone call back telling me "welllllllllllllllllll, you dont qualify but you have boxes dating back quite a while, so I'll do an exception and upgrade the box attached to that service"

I was informed that because of the way the system worked, I would be charged $299 then refunded $200. I thanked him and hung up.

This was on an S3. I swapped the S3 and HD plans later that day because I wanted the lifetime on the HD (I didn't think there would be a problem with this). Everything looked like it went fine until I got a call with "uhhh, we made a mistake, somehow we applied it to your HD and not S3". So I asked them if they could just leave it on the HD and apply to the S3 also, since it was already done. (The other contract had like 11 months left on it). They said fine and I ended up with the deal on TWO units.

Funny thing is, I now sold both of them for S4s with lifetime.  (total upgrade cost was non existent because of the price I got for the boxes and cash-back from FW) Only downside is I need to use a FiOS box for a month


----------



## jtrain

corp e-mail? do you still have this address? my three-year pre-pay on my S3 is up in June '10...but i'd like to see if i can get this deal anyway...any help is appreciated!


----------



## paladin732

[email protected]

[email address removed at TiVo's request]


----------



## houman

sethjvm said:


> When did you activate your service?


10/05/2007


----------



## jtrain

_I was informed that because of the way the system worked, I would be charged $299 then refunded $200. I thanked him and hung up._

How quickly did this happen after you called? Did they do it right away on the phone or will it occur the next billing cycle? Does your S3 currently show 'lifetime' service on the account information screen or is it effective when your three-year pre-pay ends? and which 'criteria' did you not meet?

Sorry for so many questions, i'm crafting my own e-mail now and just wanted some more info...thanks for the help!


----------



## yelapa

I got the upgrade offer and frankly, it concerns me. Years ago there was an explosion of fitness gyms. Most failed. A few survive. The "Hail Mary" prior to liquidation was to offer lifetime memberships at very low prices to existing members. At $99 it is a bet that TiVo will last 8 months. Fairly safe bet on the surface, but I'm just sayin'...


----------



## mikeyts

It's an offer being extended to a relatively small number of customers, all of whom were not offered lifetime when they bought their unit and all of whom have already paid $300 for a 3-year prepaid plan. It's pretty much identical to selling those people PLS for $400.

Now, if they'd lowered the PLS cost to $99 for everyone, that might be cause for concern.


----------



## unrealii

My 3 year ends 8-19-2010. I guess I can't get in on this. Anyone know when PLS was offered?
Another option might be to buy the new premiere w/pls on msd then sell the tivo hd


----------



## paladin732

jtrain said:


> _I was informed that because of the way the system worked, I would be charged $299 then refunded $200. I thanked him and hung up._
> 
> How quickly did this happen after you called? Did they do it right away on the phone or will it occur the next billing cycle? Does your S3 currently show 'lifetime' service on the account information screen or is it effective when your three-year pre-pay ends? and which 'criteria' did you not meet?
> 
> Sorry for so many questions, i'm crafting my own e-mail now and just wanted some more info...thanks for the help!


1. Was charged the $299 instantly, credit back ~1-2 weeks
2. See Above
3. Yup, it shows lifetime on all my boxes now
4. I was still under contract


----------



## jtrain

paladin732 said:


> 1. Was charged the $299 instantly, credit back ~1-2 weeks
> 2. See Above
> 3. Yup, it shows lifetime on all my boxes now
> 4. I was still under contract


Thank you!!! Much appreciated, hopefully this works out and i'll be able to add the lifetime to my S3.


----------



## JTalbert

unrealii said:


> My 3 year ends 8-19-2010. I guess I can't get in on this. Anyone know when PLS was offered?
> Another option might be to buy the new premiere w/pls on msd then sell the tivo hd


I am in the same boat. My 3 year ends 8/5/2010

I would do this if I could, if Tivo would allow me to do this, then I could move the HD back into the bedroom, and buy a Series 4 for the living room. Thats the only way at this point I would get a series4. The problem with the S4, is the single MMC, who knows how many cold dead fingers I would need to pry open from my cable provider to actually get a MMC card, yet along a working one!


----------



## overFEDEXed

paladin732 said:


> [email protected]


Thanks paladin732,

I sent an email to that address and got a phone call in two days. The csr told me that he could do the deal for $150 a piece on my two HD boxes.

I've been with them for years and have Four boxes (two series 2's). I've paid $6.95, $9.95 $12.95 and sometimes $99 yearly but never did the three-year prepaid.

He did tell me that if I accept the offer, if anything goes wrong with the HD's in the first year I would have to pay $150 to transfer the PLS to another box. If it was more than three years out it would be the $150 plus an additional $200 to transfer. Does that sound right?

I guess that doesn't matter because I could replace the hard drives if THAT was a problem later on. I've already upgraded the HD's once.

Thanks again

[email address removed at TiVo's request]


----------



## jcthorne

My TivoHD 3 year sub ends in Sept. I emailed CS at the address above and got a call back the next business day. Easy. They checked my sub and verified PLS was not available when I subscribed and offered to let me upgrade for the $99 more I would have paid originally. I accepted. Has not yet posted to my account but hopefully in a day or two.


----------



## Bostonlawman2003

Nothing to this, I called last night after finding this thread. My 3 yr pre pay expired 11/1/09. Explained to the CSR that I had found a forum online about this offer, he asked if I'd gotten an email, I said no, he said I should have based on what he was seeing. Took a few minutes for him to generate my "very own number for this offer" and then we were all set.

He did state that only a very small number of customers were eligible for this upgrade. Didn't give me any more specifics as to what made a customer eligible though. 

Best of luck with yours!


----------



## peter888chan

sending the email (include your phone number) helps. My friend who got shot down when calling (twice) got a call back the day after sending an email explaining that at the time of purchase, lifetime was not available. They offered the $99 lifetime upgrade when they called him back. His 3 year plan doesn't expire till later this year.


----------



## Aero 1

i called on march 3rd asking why i didn't get the email, they said I wasn't eligible for the offer. fast forward to today, i sent an email at 2pm today saying that i bought the tivo when there was no lifetime available, 2 hours later, i received a call from corporate relations (or whatever they called it) offering me the $99 program.

What great service Tivo has. Unbelievable! i never experienced a 2 hour turn around on an email. What great service!


----------



## mrsean

peter888chan said:


> sending the email (include your phone number) helps. My friend who got shot down when calling (twice) got a call back the day after sending an email explaining that at the time of purchase, lifetime was not available. They offered the $99 lifetime upgrade when they called him back. His 3 year plan doesn't expire till later this year.


I just tried this today and they would not give me the $99 PLS. The person that I spoke with said that the offer should have never been made public on the internet even though I didn't tell them where I heard about it. My 3 years of ownership isn't until this fall.

Be careful of what you post here guys. Big TiVo is watching!


----------



## wmcbrine

mrsean said:


> The person that I spoke with said that the offer should have never been made public on the internet even though I didn't tell them where I heard about it.


That person is a moron. Seriously, an imbecile, as well as a jerk. Even if these email offers were marked "SOOPER SEKRIT -- TELL NO ONE", that would place no obligation on the recipients, who didn't even ask for them.



> _My 3 years of ownership isn't until this fall._


Per comments earlier in the thread, this places you out of the eligible period (it doesn't seem to correspond exactly to when lifetime was unavailable).


----------



## mrsean

wmcbrine said:


> Per comments earlier in the thread, this places you out of the eligible period (it doesn't seem to correspond exactly to when lifetime was unavailable).


I am pretty confident that TiVo was not offering lifetime subscriptions when I purchased my THD.


----------



## jcthorne

mrsean said:


> I just tried this today and they would not give me the $99 PLS. The person that I spoke with said that the offer should have never been made public on the internet even though I didn't tell them where I heard about it. My 3 years of ownership isn't until this fall.
> 
> Be careful of what you post here guys. Big TiVo is watching!


EMAIL, do not call. Us the email address posted above and they will call you back. Several folks, including myself have gotten this straightend out and applied the offer via customer service email. It gets to someone that can look at your account and make a decision, not a telemarketing drone with zero authority to help you.


----------



## Resist

I have been with Tivo since 2003 and own 3 boxes. Two have lifetimes and one is on a 3 year MSD contract that expires in Oct of this year. I didn't receive an email about this $99 lifetime offer. What is the email address to contact Tivo about it?


----------



## JTalbert

I had sent an email, expecting it to take a few days to get any sort of response, within three hours I had a voicemail from Tivo Executive relations about my email.

I called and they told me what the reason for this $99 PLS offer was for, and he looked at my account and saw I had already paid well over $300 in monthly fees for my Tivo HD ( I had the $12.95 mo plan) I dont remember why, I even had a three year contract, I was paying $12.95 a month until about 5 months ago, I called Tivo for something I cant remember what for and they saw I was paying $12.95 a month and they dropped me down to 9.95 a month.

Anyways, I was told that since I have paid over $300 for my service for the HD that they would allow me to get in on the $99, and that it was a one time exception. 

I talked to the guy the other day and asked if I could call him back on Friday to do this and he said sure no problem, but he is out of the office on Friday so I will get this done next week. Now I just hope my Tivo HD does not lay down on me in the next 10 months so I can justify this purchase


----------



## mfrns0123

I just read this thread and have a question maybe some can help with. I have a series 3 that I paid the 3 yr commitment on that expires April 15, 2010. I would like to get lifetime for $99, but it just so happens that my series 3 stopped working about a month ago.  I replaced the hard drive from Weaknees and still never got it to work right, it works fine for basic cable but the problem is something with the Cable card slots. I was going to just let the contract expire and toss out the box. Is there anything I can do to get the $99 lifetime, like get it and then transfer it to a new Premiere box? ... Mike


----------



## AZ_Tivo

Does anyone know when was PLS offered again? I am looking for the cut off dates to determine my eligibility.


----------



## JTalbert

mfrns0123 said:


> I just read this thread and have a question maybe some can help with. I have a series 3 that I paid the 3 yr commitment on that expires April 15, 2010. I would like to get lifetime for $99, but it just so happens that my series 3 stopped working about a month ago.  I replaced the hard drive from Weaknees and still never got it to work right, it works fine for basic cable but the problem is something with the Cable card slots. I was going to just let the contract expire and toss out the box. Is there anything I can do to get the $99 lifetime, like get it and then transfer it to a new Premiere box? ... Mike


I am sorry to say but I think your SOL. You can only transfer lifetime subs from one box to another of the same type, and even with that, I think there is a $150 fee to do the transfer. So if you buy another box, you would need to get a Tivo HD and then pay the $150 to transfer it, after paying the $99 for the PLS. So at that point you would have paid $250.

What I would suggest doing is going to Tivos website, login to manage your account, then click on VIEW UPGRADE offers. you may get a $50 discount on the Premier but wont get any extra off PLS. If you have an older S2 box, even one that is not in use anymore, you might be able to use that, to get an upgrade to the Premier with a discounted PLS.

They did for a while, and I dont see it anymore, they allowed you to get $100 off PLS if you upgraded an older S2, I saw that on my offer page, but I dont see any discount on PLS anymore, looks like they removed that.

The only PLS discount offer I see now, I have an older S2 with lifetime sub on it, ( which is a dead Tivo anyways) and if I "upgraded" that, I would get $200 off the PLS, which would make a PLS for a premier to be $199 instead of $399. Which is something I might do later this year once and if we upgrade a tv in our bedroom and get a small HD TV for there, I would move my Tivo HD back into the bedroom and then put the premier out in the family room.


----------



## mfrns0123

> What I would suggest doing is going to Tivos website, login to manage your account, then click on VIEW UPGRADE offers. you may get a $50 discount on the Premier but wont get any extra off PLS. If you have an older S2 box, even one that is not in use anymore, you might be able to use that, to get an upgrade to the Premier with a discounted PLS.
> 
> They did for a while, and I dont see it anymore, they allowed you to get $100 off PLS if you upgraded an older S2, I saw that on my offer page, but I dont see any discount on PLS anymore, looks like they removed that.


Yeah I did that, the only option I see is to get a $50 discount on a new Premiere. guess I'm out of luck


----------



## mikeyts

JTalbert said:


> Anyways, I was told that since I have paid over $300 for my service for the HD that they would allow me to get in on the $99, and that it was a one time exception.


They're gonna love your having posted this. If you qualify, then everyone who bought and activated a box when PLS wasn't on offer and kept it in service with month-to-month payments for 3 years qualifies. I'd expect that number to be several times the number of people who bought a three year prepaid plan when PLS wasn't available.


----------



## AntiPC

AZ_Tivo said:


> Does anyone know when was PLS offered again? I am looking for the cut off dates to determine my eligibility.


5/15/2008?


----------



## Xecuter2

Any other success stories?


----------



## gweempose

I had two S3s with 3-year plans expiring later this year. The first box was on a pre-paid plan with an expiration date of 6-9-10. The second box was on a monthly plan ($6.95 MSD) with an expiration date of 9-23-10. I sent off a friendly worded email to [email protected] pointing out that lifetime was not an option when I purchased the boxes. I also mentioned that I was aware that others in similar situations were being offered the $99 deal. Within a few hours, I received a phone call from a very friendly gentlemen that was more than happy to help me. He said that he had researched my situation, and that both of my boxes did indeed qualify for the $99 promotion. He then offered to instantly upgrade both of the units to lifetime. I agreed, and a couple of days later two separate $99 charges hit my credit card.

Needless to say, I am a happy camper. Overall, I ended up paying just a little more than what it would have cost me if lifetime had been available at the time of purchase. Here is the breakdown:

TiVo #1

$299 for the initial 3-year commitment + $99 lifetime upgrade
Total = $398

TiVo #2

$208.50 ($6.95 x 30 months) + $99 lifetime upgrade
Total = $307.50

In my eyes, this was an example of excellent customer service, and I applaud the way TiVo handled the situation. I don't know what the actual cutoff dates are, but anyone who has a box with a 3-year plan that expires within the same time frame as mine, should definitely contact TiVo and ask for the $99 deal. I recommend that you initiate the communication via email, as it appears the phone reps are often clueless. I hope this information helps some people out. Good luck!


----------



## wmcbrine

No way should you have gotten the $99 deal on the MSD unit. Maybe $199...


----------



## gweempose

mrsean said:


> The person that I spoke with said that the offer should have never been made public on the internet even though I didn't tell them where I heard about it.


That's funny, because in my email, I specifically mentioned that I had heard about the deal in an online forum. I just wanted to make sure they knew it was hardly a secret. I'm not sure why TiVo chose to only offer this deal to a select group of people, but I doubt they are foolish enough to think that something like this can possibly remain on the down low in today's world. In my eyes, anyone who qualifies for the offer should have the opportunity to act upon it. This is precisely why I chose to share my success story with others. The one thing that doesn't make sense to me, however, is that some people appear to be getting shot down for no rhyme or reason. This leads me to speculate that perhaps TiVo itself is a bit confused about the exact criteria necessary to qualify for the offer.


----------



## mrsean

jcthorne said:


> EMAIL, do not call. Us the email address posted above and they will call you back. Several folks, including myself have gotten this straightend out and applied the offer via customer service email. It gets to someone that can look at your account and make a decision, not a telemarketing drone with zero authority to help you.


I did email first and they called me back. I wish I had gotten that nice guy that some here mentioned. The chick who called me was very unsympathetic. I certainly have paid over $300 in service fees between my 2 year agreement on THD (which ended last fall) and the 2 year on my Series 2 DT.

Maybe, I should have threatened to cancel my service on the THD. The S2DT was cancelled last month already.


----------



## jcthorne

mrsean said:


> I did email first and they called me back. I wish I had gotten that nice guy that some here mentioned. The chick who called me was very unsympathetic. I certainly have paid over $300 in service fees between my 2 year agreement on THD (which ended last fall) and the 2 year on my Series 2 DT.
> 
> Maybe, I should have threatened to cancel my service on the THD. The S2DT was cancelled last month already.


So you DO NOT have a prepaid 3yr plan that was purchased when lifetime was not available? Sounds to me that the offer does not apply to you then.

Tivo is trying to right a perceived injustice done to folks that would have bought a lifetime sub if not for the period of time they did not offer it and allow them to 'make up the difference' now. If you are on a month to month payment, you are not in that group. Its not just an offer for anyone to get 99 PLS.


----------



## mikeyts

jcthorne said:


> If you are on a month to month payment, you are not in that group.


I suppose that they might be in that group, but failed to demonstrate a willingness to put down a substantial chunk of cash upfront. Obviously the savings in doing so weren't as potentially big as PLS potentially was, but they were quite substantial when compared to month-to-month.


----------



## cooper243

I called for the $99 deal since I was on a 3 year plan and then went month to month. They wouldn't offer it to me. They wouldn't even offer me the $399. Therefore, I went online and got the lifetime for $299. I still saved $100.


----------



## gweempose

cooper243 said:


> They wouldn't even offer me the $399.


Now that doesn't make any sense no matter how you slice it.


----------



## travisc77

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I called and asked about my MSD S3 that was coming of the 3 yr commitment. When I purchased in 2006 there was no option for PLS, and as I recall the MSD was a slightly better deal at $6.95/mo. 

Anyway I called and asked for the $99 PLS and was turned down, OK maybe I don't qualify. Figured I would give it a shot because my $6.95 was going to $9.95 at the end of the 3 yr deal. I told them I was disappointed, but didn't ***** and moan too bad. The Tivo Rep said she couldn't do anything, now 3-4 weeks later I check my AMEX bill and notice two credits for $3.20, one listed as "Customer Satisfaction". I didn't ask for this, and they didn't tell me it was going back to $6.95, which it did (see below):

Weird, but I'm not complaining.


----------



## mikeyts

Huh. Either they weren't offering $6.95/month with a 3 year commitment when I activated or I missed it, since it's a $49.80 saving over the 3 year prepaid plan.


----------



## jakerome

TiVo denied my request. I was all set to upgrade my old unit to lifetime ($99), buy a TiVo Premiere XL ($399) with lifetime ($399) and live the dream TODAY. Now, I'll run out the string and decide whether to stick with TiVo.



> Haley: Hi, my name is Haley. How may I help you?
> Customer : Writing because I have a Series 3 TiVo that I bought when there was no lifetime subscription. I bought a 3 year for $299. Wondering if I could upgrade to lifetime for the difference ($399 minus $299 = $100)
> Haley: I can definitely look into that for you! Let me go ahead and pull up your account.
> 
> Can you please provide the email address associated with your TiVo account?
> Customer :
> Haley: Thank you! In order to verify your identity, can you please provide the following account information?:
> 
> *address
> * phone number
> 
> Haley: Thanks so much for that! Is this Jacob?
> Customer : yes
> Haley: Okay. Let me do some searching and I'll be back with you momentarily!
> Customer : ok
> Haley: Alright Jacob, unfortunately we would not be able to do that for you, you would have to pay full price if you wanted the Lifetime Service on your current unit.
> Customer : I'm sorry to hear that. The odds of me paying to renew or extend my subscription at full rate are approximately. I'm a 10-year TiVo user that has long advocated using your service. I will reluctantly consider other platforms if you are unable to offer a reasonable contract extension.
> Haley: I'm sorry to hear that Jacob. Was there anything else I can help you with today?
> Customer : No. I am very disappointed in TiVo service, and you may have lost a lifetime customer today.
> Haley: Thank you for contacting TiVo Chat Support! Have a good day!


----------



## wmcbrine

So I finally emailed [email protected] yesterday, and got a call back within an hour or so. The rep said she'd give me the credit on the 3-year prepaid S3 that I'd already lifetimed back in January, no problem.

However, the credit hasn't shown up on my account yet... is that normal? The rep said something about 10-14 days, to which I didn't pay close attention, and she gave me a case number, which for once I didn't write down.


----------



## Resist

I emailed Tivo a week ago and still haven't heard back from them.


----------



## Walter Lambert

I followed the instructions on this thread regarding the $99 upgrade to lifetime. I sent the email to Tivo Support last Sunday. Monday morning I received a telephone call that indicated I was eligible for the $99 upgrade. Although my 3 yr. subscription did not end until 6/29/10, the next day my Tivo account indicated that the change was being processed. The following day my credit card was charged, and my Tivo account indicated that I had a lifetime subscription on my HDTivo. Thank you for the information.


----------



## jakerome

In case anyone cares. I called to cancel my auto-renew, and the CSR asked why. Told him it was because the service was too expensive for a 3-year device. After a long hold, they offered lifetime upgrade for $199 (instead of $99). Just not worth it for that. 

So I'll let that lapse, then decide in June if I want a Premiere box or some other platform.


----------



## overFEDEXed

jakerome said:


> In case anyone cares. I called to cancel my auto-renew, and the CSR asked why. Told him it was because the service was too expensive for a 3-year device. After a long hold, they offered lifetime upgrade for $199 (instead of $99). Just not worth it for that.
> 
> So I'll let that lapse, then decide in June if I want a Premiere box or some other platform.


I emailed the Tivo support about reducing my bill and they called me within three days. Executive Services I think. Anyway they offered me $150 PLS on each of my two HD's. I told him that I would call back later with an answer. After switching the $6.95 off of one of my HD's and onto my Toshiba, I called back and accepted the offer.

I have been with them for years (not sure how many) and I have a S2, Toshiba and the two HD's. I've had the $6.95, $9.95 and annual plans but NEVER the Three-year prepaid. Funny thing was, the Executive rep said to me that he was going to suggest switching the $6.95 plan over to another unit before doing the PLS on the HD's.

Thanks everbody for all this information.

Also, all of this showed up on my account within an hour I would say. They charged me $600 for the two PLS's and refunded my card $300.


----------



## 1idjack

My 3-year prepaid plan doesn't expire until 04/09/2011. I sent an email to Tivo-support and got a call from Tivo Executive Services. They won't let me upgrade to lifetime now, but the fellow who called said this offer will continue, and the 4/30/2010 expiration date was the last date that individual who got the email could exercise the $99 offer. He said to call him if I didn't get the offer when my plan expires, and he would make sure I got it; he even gave me the number for his direct line. (EDIT) After rereading some of this thread, it seemed odd that the rep I spoke with couldn't let me upgrade now. I sent another email, and the rep who called this time said I am not eligible unless they offer another program like this later. I also tried that direct line the first guy gave me: a woman answered, and she didn't recognize his name.


----------



## jasonander

Thank you to everyone for posting and keeping this thread updated. The 3-year prepaid plan for my S3 expires at the end of this month. I sent an email to tivo-support today, mentioning the discount I read about online, and that PLS was not available when I purchased my Tivo. I received a callback within an hour and was extended the $99 offer and took them up on it. Sweet!


----------



## MapleLeaf

Just wanted to contribute my scenario and experience.

I have a Tivo S3 on a 3-year commitment plan expiring this June. I've been paying $6.95/month on that plan, which I believe was an MSD rate (I have three other lifetime units, one of which I had at the time I bought the S3).

I didn't think I'd be eligible for the $99 upgrade because I went with the commitment plan instead of the pre-paid plan. But after seeing gweempose's post (#151), in which he describes being able to take advantage of the $99 upgrade offer for his 3-year commitment plan, I decided to give it a shot and fired off an email to [email protected].

First off, the folks at the other end of the email got back to me in record time. I don't think it was more than about 20 minutes before I got a phone call from a very pleasant lady. However, she unfortunately refused to grant me the $99 upgrade, on the basis that under the $6.95 monthly plan, I will not end up paying as much as the pre-paid plan. She was nice and all and lamented the fact that the upgrade offer had leaked onto the forums, but was ultimately unable to extend me the offer. She explained that if others with 3-year commitment plans were extended the $99 lifetime upgrade offer from their department, it was a mistake and likely due to some confusion on the part of the Tivo rep that extended the offer. She did, however, extend me a counter-offer of $199 to upgrade to lifetime. I actually countered that counter-offer and asked for $150, reasoning that by the end of my commitment, I would have shelled out about $250, or about $50 less than the pre-paid plan. However, she politely said that she was unable to accept that and $199 was the best she could do. I said that I wanted to think about it, and she said it would be no problem. She said she would note it in my account and gave me a reference number.

Anyway, the lady was very polite and pleasant and I was blown away that she called me back so quickly, but although I'm not too surprised, I am disappointed that I was not able to upgrade my 3-year commitment plan to lifetime for $99 when others have been able to do so. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go through with the $199 lifetime upgrade. I might end up just replacing the S3 with a Premier instead and slapping lifetime onto the Premier (since it would cost me the same price).


----------



## chriskakaras

I have a lifetime subscription on my tivo and I am not exaggerating when I often times think of how good of a decision it was to purchase lifetime instead of month to month. Trust me I have made many many bad decisions, its nice to be able to look back at a win every once in a while (even if its something small like a dvr).


----------



## moolman

What are people's thought on my situation.

I have a S3, it literally broke yesterday, on 4/7, got the green screen, constant reboots. Probably bad hard drive.

So I called Tivo and the options I was presented with.

1. I didn't push it but I was thinking of trying to get the $99 PLS on the broken unit and replace the hard drive, but since I'm on MSD, maybe I'll get it for $199, like someone else on MSD got. Total cost would be $200 or $300.

2. Standard offer Tivo Premiere, 20% off, continue contract.

3. Tivo Premiere XL with Lifetime for $600.


----------



## jmpage2

I just wanted to pop into this thread. I purchased and activated my TiVo HD in August of 2007 and activated with 3 years of service. This should have been past the cutoff point, but I sent them an email asking for the $99 lifetime upgrade anyways.

I pointed out in my email that I don't recall a lifetime option being available when I did the 3 year activation on my box and that I knew of other people being offered the upgrade for $99.

I got a call 24 hours later and it was offered to me and I accepted it. So apparently it is still available in some cases.


----------



## PaulNEPats

jmpage2 said:


> I just wanted to pop into this thread. I purchased and activated my TiVo HD in August of 2007 and activated with 3 years of service. This should have been past the cutoff point, but I sent them an email asking for the $99 lifetime upgrade anyways.
> 
> I pointed out in my email that I don't recall a lifetime option being available when I did the 3 year activation on my box and that I knew of other people being offered the upgrade for $99.
> 
> I got a call 24 hours later and it was offered to me and I accepted it. So apparently it is still available in some cases.


Mine is basically the same case as yours; activated my box in Aug '07, emailed asking if they could offer this deal for me, and received a call back indicating that they would. This was the first time I've had to deal with Tivo customer service and I was impressed. They were very friendly and easy to deal with.


----------



## Phantom Gremlin

jmpage2 said:


> I pointed out in my email that I don't recall a lifetime option being available when I did the 3 year activation on my box and that I knew of other people being offered the upgrade for $99.


I agree with you. There was no lifetime available when the TiVo HD was announced. I prepaid for 3 years for $299 on mine. It would have been stupid to do that if lifetime was available for $399. Lifetime came back well after the HD was introduced.


----------



## aforkosh

jmpage2 said:


> I just wanted to pop into this thread. I purchased and activated my TiVo HD in August of 2007 and activated with 3 years of service. This should have been past the cutoff point, but I sent them an email asking for the $99 lifetime upgrade anyways.
> 
> I pointed out in my email that I don't recall a lifetime option being available when I did the 3 year activation on my box and that I knew of other people being offered the upgrade for $99.
> 
> I got a call 24 hours later and it was offered to me and I accepted it. So apparently it is still available in some cases.


I had a similar situation to yours except my start date was June 2007 on a Series 3. Several weeks ago I tried phoning TiVo and got turned down for the $99 Lifetime. A few days ago, I went the email route one evening and got called the next day was able to get the deal.

By the way, I included complete information in my email, including my service number to make it easy on the rep to verify the information before calling me.


----------



## bicker

Got another "no" from TiVo regarding $99 lifetime for folks like me who bought our TiVo's after April 2007.


----------



## Arcady

I just got the $99 deal, retroactively.

I bought my Series3 in January 2007. I bought 3 years pre-paid. Sometime since then, I bought a $299 lifetime for the Series3 and moved the prepaid service to a TiVoHD. When the $99 offer came out, they said I did not qualify, so I paid another $299 to upgrade the TiVoHD to lifetime. Recently I filled out a TiVo customer satisfaction survey, and where it asked for "other comments" I wrote a little story about my issues with upgrading and how it didn't seem fair to pay essentially $600 for lifetime on my TiVoHD box. Yesterday I received a call from someone at TiVo who looked into my issue and offered to refund $200 from my $299 lifetime purchase back in January, effectively giving me the $99 deal, only in this case, 3 months after the fact.

I'm quite pleased that they would actually take the time to research my issue, all because I voiced a concern in a feedback form, and I didn't even call to complain about the double $299 charge for my lifetime service.

And as a side note, my 3rd TiVo was on a 3 year monthly contract at $6.95 a month. It just went month-to-month and it stayed at $6.95. Is that normal?


----------



## darkavich

I thought I would chime in here as I am in the process of trying to get the $99 PLS added to my Series 3. I had a S3 that expired it's 3 year on March/2010 and received the following email:

http://info.tivo.com/14c47b1d6layfousibfl2vniaaaaaa7la7ksb4vctriyaaaaa

I have talked to three support reps and they have all told me this offer does not exist. <sigh> I was insistent and was referred to a Supervisor who wanted me to FAX (seriously, who faxes these days?) a copy of the email. Once he verified the email, he would give me the offer. So apparently, the offer DOES exist.

I think anyone who didn't buy a lifetime (at some point) can upgrade to lifetime for the difference. For those of you who think the only thing the subscription provides is the guide, that is incorrect. Having just gone through a double RMA on my S3, I have found that when your TiVo is no longer activated you loose all of the following:

* Guide
* Internet Access (no netflix, shared data to tivo desktop)
* No TiVo Download (can't transfer shows)

Basically, it turns into a VCR.


----------



## mikeyts

darkavich said:


> I think anyone who didn't buy a lifetime (at some point) can upgrade to lifetime for the difference.


I think that you're wrong about that. I'm fairly certain that it doesn't apply to anyone who didn't buy their PLS when activating during a time when PLS was available. It's a special offer being tendered to those who weren't offered PLS when they activated, who bought a 3-year prepaid plan. A few people have managed to get the deal who had a 3-year commitment on a month-to-month (which actually totals to less than the 3-year prepaid ) but I don't think that the deal was intended for them.

If you bought the 3-year prepaid which expired in March you should get the deal, particularly since you received the e-mail. It's ridiculous that CSRs denied that the deal existed. It may be that they're being trained to do that because they're being deluged by people to whom the deal wasn't extended who heard about it online.


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## shwru980r

If TIVO sent an email with the offer, then they have a record of the offer and who they sent it to. The CSR who denied the offer existed and requested a fax should be fired on the spot.


----------



## Resist

I spoke to a Tivo supervisor yesterday and tried to reason with him to get the $99 lifetime deal for my Series 3 Tivo, he said there were no longer any $99 lifetime deals. Not sure if he was telling the truth or not. Seems like every time I call Tivo I get a different story about something or another from each person I talk to there.


----------



## shaown

I had a 6.95 MSD deal for many years on a TivoHD. I asked for 99, got shot down, but was offered 199. I decided to go with it, even though the payback is long (28 months), I figured it was a decent deal and now I can park the TivoHD at my parents since it will be lifetime.
-Shaown


----------



## Resist

shaown said:


> I had a 6.95 MSD deal for many years on a TivoHD. I asked for 99, got shot down, but was offered 199. I decided to go with it, even though the payback is long (28 months), I figured it was a decent deal and now
> -Shaown


They didn't give you anything special, because anyone can get what you got if you've owned the box for a while. It's even on the Tivo web site.


----------



## orangeboy

Resist said:


> ...It's even on the Tivo web site.


Link please.


----------



## wmcbrine

wmcbrine said:


> However, the credit hasn't shown up on my account yet... is that normal? The rep said something about 10-14 days, to which I didn't pay close attention, and she gave me a case number, which for once I didn't write down.


For the record, I did finally get my credit. :up:


----------



## Resist

orangeboy said:


> Link please.


Go to the upgrade program page. This is what it says:

_*Our customer's feedback has been loud and clear. They want a low priced Product Lifetime service (PLS) on Premiere. We listened. Now existing PLS customers can get an exclusive Upgrade Program discount: 50% off a new PLS plan (a savings of $200) when upgrading to Premiere. Enjoy your new box.*_


----------



## shaown

Resist - to get that deal you have to spend 299 on a premiere box. I did it for an existing TivoHD I already owned ... so I saved $299 (though ended up with S3 versus S4 tech). And I was not an existing PLS customer on this box. The boxes I had PLS on have already been upgraded to S4s..... 
So, again, pls provide a link where someone shows u can get PLS on existing boxes fo 199.
-Shaown


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## mikeyts

Resist said:


> Go to the upgrade program page. This is what it says:
> 
> _*Our customer's feedback has been loud and clear. They want a low priced Product Lifetime service (PLS) on Premiere. We listened. Now existing PLS customers can get an exclusive Upgrade Program discount: 50% off a new PLS plan (a savings of $200) when upgrading to Premiere. Enjoy your new box.*_


Yeah--you have to have PLS on a unit already registered to your account. If you don't it will offer you 20% off the cost of the Premiere instead (you can't get both).


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## Resist

I have been corrected.


----------



## bicker

As have I.


----------



## kdorff

At the beginning of April I sent a pleasant email to TiVo support stating that I bought a TiVo HD with 3-year pre-paid because at the time they didn't offer Lifetime. I mentioned I'd heard of this deal ($99 convert to lifetime). My 3-year is up at the end of October. They called me within a couple hours. They knew of the "promotion". They were happy to convert me to Lifetime. They charged me within a couple days and now my TiVo states Lifetime. 

It was easy and painless.

Kevin


----------



## auto.pilot

I bot 3 year prepaid service, which is coming due in July. In response to my email, the called and offered lifetime service on my Series 2 unit at $99. The clowns at Comcast 'upgraded' my entire city to all digital, so the Series 2 can no longer record one show and watch another. I would like to buy a Tivo Preimier, and they offered $200 off of lifetime on the new unit IF I also upgrade to lifetime on the old Series 2. I'm stuck and now have even more reasons to hate Comcast. Two questions: is it possible to alter the Series 2, in order to get around the problem of watching one and recording another? and, if not, what's the value of a Series 2 with Lifetime service?

Thanks
jim


----------



## mikeyts

auto.pilot said:


> Two questions: is it possible to alter the Series 2, in order to get around the problem of watching one and recording another?


Maybe, but there's none that I can imagine. The Series2 cannot be modified to tune digital cable internally, nor does it have any way to control two cable boxes at once.


> and, if not, what's the value of a Series 2 with Lifetime service?


Are you talking about how much you can get for it if you sell it? If so, looking at eBay, Series2s with PLS have gone for as little as $150 and as much as $280 in the past month (the higher prices seem to be for units with extras--bigger HDDs, included wireless adapters, etc).

What this buys you is a $100 savings on PLS on the Premiere whether or not you ever use the Series2 again. If you buy a Premiere without having PLS on some unit registered to your TiVo account you'll have to pay the full $400 price if you want PLS on the Premiere.


----------



## jilter

kdorff said:


> At the beginning of April I sent a pleasant email to TiVo support stating that I bought a TiVo HD with 3-year pre-paid because at the time they didn't offer Lifetime. I mentioned I'd heard of this deal ($99 convert to lifetime). My 3-year is up at the end of October. They called me within a couple hours. They knew of the "promotion". They were happy to convert me to Lifetime. They charged me within a couple days and now my TiVo states Lifetime.
> 
> It was easy and painless.
> 
> Kevin


Your post is interesting.
Tivo's site states there is not e-mail for support.
Where did you send an e-mail that got you a response from Tivo's support?


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## mikeyts

jilter said:


> Your post is interesting.
> Tivo's site states there is not e-mail for support.
> Where did you send an e-mail that got you a response from Tivo's support?


Read this post from earlier in the thread. You obviously didn't read back very far in this thread, since people have been talking about the results they've been getting by sending e-mail for weeks.


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## gweempose

I seem to recall reading that the $99 deal may be concluding at the end of the month. For those of you that might be eligible and have not yet attempted to take advantage of this offer, I recommend that you do so before it's too late. You may or may not succeed, but it's certainly worth a try.


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## mikeyts

gweempose said:


> I seem to recall reading that the $99 deal may be concluding at the end of the month.


That's what it explicitly states in the e-mail offer.


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## Arcady

My $200 credit finally showed up on my Visa bill today. Now I don't feel ripped off by TiVo anymore.


----------



## RickyY

kdorff said:


> At the beginning of April I sent a pleasant email to TiVo support stating that I bought a TiVo HD with 3-year pre-paid because at the time they didn't offer Lifetime. I mentioned I'd heard of this deal ($99 convert to lifetime). My 3-year is up at the end of October. They called me within a couple hours. They knew of the "promotion". They were happy to convert me to Lifetime. They charged me within a couple days and now my TiVo states Lifetime.
> 
> It was easy and painless.
> 
> Kevin


I got the same deal without much difficulty.


----------



## Sasha28980

kdorff said:


> At the beginning of April I sent a pleasant email to TiVo support stating that I bought a TiVo HD with 3-year pre-paid because at the time they didn't offer Lifetime. I mentioned I'd heard of this deal ($99 convert to lifetime). My 3-year is up at the end of October. They called me within a couple hours. They knew of the "promotion". They were happy to convert me to Lifetime. They charged me within a couple days and now my TiVo states Lifetime.
> 
> It was easy and painless.
> 
> Kevin


TiVo does NOT communicate via email...yet..
Meaning you cannot change payment plans, cancel service, activate TiVos, request credits, update credit cards, or ANYTHING that will alter your account in any way, shape, or form. Anyone claiming that they changed their service plan via email is completely FALSE. If you try to communicate via email, don't hold your breath for a response b/c you will not get one.

Check this link out from the TiVo website: http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/51


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## mikeyts

Sasha28980 said:


> Check this link out from the TiVo website: http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/51


The people who claim to have used that e-mail address and gotten results say that they got phone calls back (most say that it happened very quickly, within a matter of hours). If not true, there are a lot of liars in this thread, some of whom are long time forum participants whose word I'd tend to trust.


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## Sasha28980

I'm not going to argue with you, I know for a fact however TiVo does not communicate via email yet. Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one. I hear this all the time.


----------



## rww2010

Sasha28980 said:


> I'm not going to argue with you, I know for a fact however TiVo does not communicate via email yet. Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one. I hear this all the time.


I in fact got an email from Tivo today confrming plan pricing so I believe they've joined the 21st century.

RWW


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## bigsun

Sasha28980 said:


> I'm not going to argue with you, I know for a fact however TiVo does not communicate via email yet. Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one. I hear this all the time.


I guess you are from TIVO and don't want people to send you too many emails by saying so.


----------



## mikeyts

Sasha28980 said:


> I'm not going to argue with you, I know for a fact however TiVo does not communicate via email yet. Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one. I hear this all the time.


I'm not going to argue with you either, mister 11 posts. "Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one." Please--these people who "hallucinated" receiving phone calls quickly after e-mailing, actually got the $99 deal, real and tangible evidence that they can see on their account page. Who am I to believe? You, who registered in this forum four days ago, or people with whom I've been having discussions for the past six years who have no apparent reason to lie.

Not very good form to join a board and start out by accusing people of lying. You're obviously trolling--welcome to my ignore list .


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## Sasha28980

mikeyts said:


> I'm not going to argue with you either, mister 11 posts. "Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one." Please--these people who "hallucinated" receiving phone calls quickly after e-mailing, actually got the $99 deal, real and tangible evidence that they can see on their account page. Who am I to believe? You, who registered in this forum four days ago, or people with whom I've been having discussions for the past six years who have no apparent reason to lie.
> 
> Not very good form to join a board and start out by accusing people of lying. You're obviously trolling--welcome to my ignore list .


Ya know, lots of information is incorrect on this thread, but who's to say I'm right? Obviously you know it all-Thank you for teaching me a thing or two.


----------



## Sasha28980

rww2010 said:


> I in fact got an email from Tivo today confrming plan pricing so I believe they've joined the 21st century.
> 
> RWW


All emails are automated...for now.


----------



## Sasha28980

bigsun said:


> I guess you are from TIVO and don't want people to send you too many emails by saying so.


No that is not it at all, I don't deal with customer emails. Let me try and explain something-TiVo email support will be mainly tech support-not billing (but will have the ability to answer billing questions). TiVo will not change acct status in any way w/o the customer calling in (service plan changes, credit card updates, transferring service, changing TSN's, cancelations, anything CSR handles). Meaning everyone who says their service plans were changed to $99 PLS must've called in to do it..
Also, one other thing, $99 PLS were offered to S2 customer's just rolling off of a 3 yr prepay-not HD's or S3-There have been a few exceptions, but not many. TiVo has been insanely strict on the $99 PLS.


----------



## gweempose

Sasha28980 said:


> Let me try and explain something-TiVo email support will be mainly tech support-not billing (but will have the ability to answer billing questions). TiVo will not change acct status in any way w/o the customer calling in (service plan changes, credit card updates, transferring service, changing TSN's, cancelations, anything CSR handles). Meaning everyone who says their service plans were changed to $99 PLS must've called in to do it ... Also, one other thing, $99 PLS were offered to S2 customer's just rolling off of a 3 yr prepay-not HD's or S3-There have been a few exceptions, but not many. TiVo has been insanely strict on the $99 PLS.




Your comments are so ridiculously off base, I don't even know where to begin. I started to write a lengthy response, but I decided that it just isn't worth it. I honestly can't figure out if you actually believe the crap that you are spewing, or if you are just messing with us.


----------



## Sasha28980

gweempose said:


> Your comments are so ridiculously off base, I don't even know where to begin. I started to write a lengthy response, but I decided that it just isn't worth it. I honestly can't figure out if you actually believe the crap that you are spewing, or if you are just messing with us.


Just clearing up some common misconception. Your welcome.


----------



## Arcady

Sasha28980 said:


> everyone who says their service plans were changed to $99 PLS must've called in to do it.


I didn't call in. I filled out a customer satisfaction survey. I expressed my displeasure that the guy on the online chat would not give me the $99 deal. Someone at TiVo read my response and left me a voicemail, offering me $200 back. They asked me to call in to verify my credit card before the $200 actually got applied.


----------



## Sasha28980

Arcady said:


> I didn't call in. I filled out a customer satisfaction survey. I expressed my displeasure that the guy on the online chat would not give me the $99 deal. Someone at TiVo read my response and left me a voicemail, offering me $200 back. They asked me to call in to verify my credit card before the $200 actually got applied.


Right exactly-The point I was trying to make is that they asked you to call in before they did anything to the acct. Which is sounds like they did-I was merely pointing out that TiVo won't do anything via email that concerns any acct changes.


----------



## dan4prez312

I'm in the a similar situation where I bought a 3 year prepay back in July 2007, so it was about to run out soon. I decided to email tivo like gweempose did back on page 6 and see if it would work. 

Sent an email to [email protected] on Monday night of this week, they called me back on Tuesday and said I was eligible and told me it would take a couple days to kick in. Today is Friday, just checked my online account and it has changed over to lifetime service and my credit card was charged $99. Really glad I decided to check on these forums before I bought another service plan! The email I sent is below:

------

Subject: Lifetime upgrade offer

Hi,

I purchased my current Tivo plan on July 9th 2007. It was the three year pre-pay option for $300, so it is set to expire in a little over a couple months. I would have purchased a lifetime service had it been available like it is nowadays, but that wasn't an option back then. 

I heard that people in similar situations were being offered a $99 upgrade to lifetime service on their Tivo's, which would make it $400 total that I would have paid if I had purchased a lifetime service that is currently offered. If this offer is still available I would love to purchase it, as it makes the most sense for me. My information is below:

Name: xxxx
Phone: xxxx
Email: xxxx
Tivo #: xxxx

Thanks!

-----


----------



## gweempose

dan4prez312 said:


> Sent an email to [email protected] on Monday night of this week, they called me back on Tuesday and said I was eligible and told me it would take a couple days to kick in. Today is Friday, just checked my online account and it has changed over to lifetime service and my credit card was charged $99.


I'm glad it worked out for you. Of course, Sasha28980 should be along shortly to call you a liar.


----------



## dan4prez312

Haha yeah I'm glad it worked out too. Now I can get half off a PLS for Tivo Premiere if I decide to upgrade, and can sell my Tivo HD for a lot more now now that there is lifetime service on it.


----------



## Sasha28980

gweempose said:


> I'm glad it worked out for you. Of course, Sasha28980 should be along shortly to call you a liar.


I am not calling anybody a liar. I love how everyone here knows how TiVo insides really work. Good job everyone!


----------



## mikeyts

Sasha28980 said:


> I am not calling anybody a liar. I love how everyone here knows how TiVo insides really work. Good job everyone!


(I hate to feed the troll, but...). Except for yourself, nobody here has claimed to know the internal workings of TiVo. People have only said that they sent an e-mail to [email protected] asking why they aren't getting the $99 PLS upgrade and gotten a quick response by someone on the phone who offered them the deal. You have stated over and over again that this couldn't possibly have happened because TiVo doesn't work that way, in essence, calling the many people who said that it happened just that way for them _liars_.

One person started this by stating that he sent an e-mail to that address (in this post), got a response on the phone and was given the deal. We've since heard many reports from others who've tried it, many of whom were given the deal. Some who tried it were denied the deal, but were made alternative offers (one example of that here). I believe that all of them got phone calls back.

You can choose to believe those accounts or not, but please stop posting telling people that TiVo absolutely won't respond to complaints about account problems sent by e-mail. Either you're wrong, or all of the people who claim that they did respond to e-mail complaining about an account problem are lying.


----------



## Sasha28980

Please read my post in response to Arcady.


----------



## innocentfreak

You may want to read your own replies starting here.

No one was under the impression that they were doing this via email. Everyone was mentioning how they were getting a call back. You apparently didn't grasp this and posted the following. You are the only one who brought up TiVo communicating via email everyone else before you mentioned getting a phone call after contacting TiVo via email. An email address which TiVo even asked be removed.



Sasha28980 said:


> TiVo does NOT communicate via email...yet..
> Meaning you cannot change payment plans, cancel service, activate TiVos, request credits, update credit cards, or ANYTHING that will alter your account in any way, shape, or form. Anyone claiming that they changed their service plan via email is completely FALSE. If you try to communicate via email, don't hold your breath for a response b/c you will not get one.
> 
> Check this link out from the TiVo website: http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/51





mikeyts said:


> *The people who claim to have used that e-mail address and gotten results say that they got phone calls back (most say that it happened very quickly, within a matter of hours)*. If not true, there are a lot of liars in this thread, some of whom are long time forum participants whose word I'd tend to trust.





Sasha28980 said:


> I'm not going to argue with you, I know for a fact however TiVo does not communicate via email yet. Lots of ppl think they are communicating when they respond to an email from TiVo when they are, in fact, talking to no one. I hear this all the time.


----------



## mikeyts

Yeah--there may well be a misunderstanding. People have not made changes to their accounts by exchanging e-mail with TiVo. In all cases, only one e-mail message was sent, from the subscriber to TiVo. TiVo responded to those messages by calling those subscribers on the phone and the transactions to change their accounts were conducted on the phone.

No one here has ever claimed to have exchanged e-mail messages with TiVo. TiVo has sent us offers in e-mail, but they were unsolicited messages, not in response to anything sent by us.


----------



## aforkosh

mikeyts said:


> Yeah--there may well be a misunderstanding. People have not made changes to their accounts by exchanging e-mail with TiVo. In all cases, only one e-mail message was sent, from the subscriber to TiVo. TiVo responded to those messages by calling those subscribers on the phone and the transactions to change their accounts were conducted on the phone.


Just to add to that: For me, the email was the essential initial contact. Before sending the email to TiVo support, I tried calling TiVo support , giving them all the relevant information about my service plan and that I had heard of $99 offer. They pleasantly refused to offer me the $99 offer. A few weeks later, I sent the information to them via email and was called back and given the offer.


----------



## Sasha28980

I stand corrected.


----------



## Tambourineman

Am I correct that no one really knows why Tivo is, or is not offering the $99 lifetime upgrade?

To the extent that this was available is it now dead (as it's now after April 30th)?

Does it seem that they offer them only to their boxes that when sold there was no opportunity for a lifetime subscription was available? And if that box then had a 3 year subscription, they then offer an opportunity. What if the box had continuous month to month or annual subscriptions?

The subscriptions seem to be tied to a box not a customer although I guess the email referred to being a loyal customer.

So my question is, if one were to buy a used Tivo that does not have a lifetime subscription, what is the chance the new owner could get a $99 one?

What was the time period for which lifetime subscriptions were not available?


----------



## wmcbrine

Tambourineman said:


> Does it seem that they offer them only to their boxes that when sold there was no opportunity for a lifetime subscription was available?


That was the idea, yes.



> _What if the box had continuous month to month or annual subscriptions?_


Nope. Those don't show intent -- the three-year prepayers can say (and have said -- at least I have) that if lifetime had been available at the time, we would've got it. So the $99 deal makes up for that otherwise-lost opportunity. Now, in my case, I have a second TiVo, for which I did a three-year MSD deal, totaling $250, but paid out monthly. I _also_ would've got lifetime for _that_ unit at the time (and have, since), but since I took a cheaper option than the three-year prepay, I can't prove my intent. (Mind you, I'm not sure three-year prepay was even an option for the second TiVo when I got it.) Then again, if you look back in the thread, you'll find at least one user who _was_ offered the deal on a three-year MSD, so it's not being handled in a completely consistent manner. But I was denied on my MSD unit, and I think that's how the policy was intended to work.



> _So my question is, if one were to buy a used Tivo that does not have a lifetime subscription, what is the chance the new owner could get a $99 one?_


Zero.


----------



## mather

I posted in this thread back in Feb. hoping I would get the $99 offer when it is my turn, my Tivo subscription is up at the end of 5/31. This morning I forgot completely about this thread. I received an email with $100 off the PLS and placed an order for it, making my PLS $299. I felt pretty good about that deal. Until I came back here to check up on expanding my drive and found this thread again. Then, I felt dumb for forgetting and I felt sick about my offer. 

I emailed Tivo Support and expressed my disappointment about paying $299 while learning other "friends" were paying $99. Tivo emailed me to call in referencing my ref. # from my email to check with eligibility. I told the rep about my disappointment, referred to the ref.# of the email, and described my situation that I didn't have the PLS 3 years ago when I paid for the 3 year plan. She initially stated those that were eligible would have received the email but she did place me on hold to check and confirmed I was eligible because my term will be ending prior to July 1st? and changed my PLS to $99. Obviously I am happy that I didn't get stuck with paying 3X instead. Thank you Tivo Community and thank you Tivo!


----------



## bicker

Tambourineman said:


> Am I correct that no one really knows why Tivo is, or is not offering the $99 lifetime upgrade?


I think we can say that *consumers often don't "know"* why offers are structured the way they are structured, because often the structuring of offers is proprietary information. A great example of this are "PIN code discounts" offered by Walt Disney World. These discounts have been a hot topic on the Disney forums for years. They offer substantial discounts over the standard package deals that you can get for the asking. They are not only not generally available, but each offer has a PIN code which ties that specific offer directly to a specific person, by name and address. The offer is only available to that person, is not transferable or usable by anyone else. They've refined their market sector targeting that much -- to the individual customer. We often read message from people saying that they should receive one of these PIN code discounts, because they visit Walt Disney World every year no matter what. These posters generally don't understand the point that that is precisely why they're not offered the PIN code discounts. 



Tambourineman said:


> To the extent that this was available is it now dead (as it's now after April 30th)?


Given that TiVo seemed inclined to offer the deal to people who were explicitly excluded from receiving it, according to its known parameters, I wouldn't say that the deal is dead -- however that doesn't mean that the deal isn't dead -- just that we can't say that it is.



Tambourineman said:


> Does it seem that they offer them only to their boxes that when sold there was no opportunity for a lifetime subscription was available?


I believe that that was what they offered publicly (more or less), but they did waive that requirement on a case-by-case basis.



Tambourineman said:


> So my question is, if one were to buy a used Tivo that does not have a lifetime subscription, what is the chance the new owner could get a $99 one?


There is no way to know. One thing I think I would inject into the analysis is the likelihood that the box would be subscribed _regardless_. If so, then I would be _less_ like to waive the quasi-public requirements.

Contrast that with another scenario, where the TiVo has been subscribed by the same person for three years, and no other real information is available. The likelihood that the subscriber will abandon their investment (for a cable company DVR, for example, or a Moxi, or a Win 7 MCE setup, perhaps) is higher for a TiVo that was not _just_ acquired, as compared to a TiVo where ownership was just changed, so playing the odds, I think the exception is more likely to be offered in the case where the TiVo is not a recent acquisition/recent ownership change. Just a guess though.



Tambourineman said:


> What was the time period for which lifetime subscriptions were not available?


My memory (which conflicts with that of others) is that by June 2007, lifetime was already being offered again.


----------



## mikeyts

Tambourineman said:


> Am I correct that no one really knows why Tivo is, or is not offering the $99 lifetime upgrade?
> 
> To the extent that this was available is it now dead (as it's now after April 30th)?
> 
> Does it seem that they offer them only to their boxes that when sold there was no opportunity for a lifetime subscription was available? And if that box then had a 3 year subscription, they then offer an opportunity. What if the box had continuous month to month or annual subscriptions?
> 
> The subscriptions seem to be tied to a box not a customer although I guess the email referred to being a loyal customer.
> 
> So my question is, if one were to buy a used Tivo that does not have a lifetime subscription, what is the chance the new owner could get a $99 one?
> 
> What was the time period for which lifetime subscriptions were not available?


Since the e-mail offers said that it ended on April 30th, I'd be really surprised if TiVo would give it to anyone. It was probably an option in their account management system which has now gone away. There might be other ways for them to effectively give it to you, but since they only commited to the offer through April 30th, you're probably out of luck. Even people who bought 3-year pre-paid plans which expired in the months before April 30th are now SOL.

Of course, I could be wrong--maybe if you're very persistent they'll fold .

I believe that the offer was intended for people who bought units when PLS wasn't available who bought 3-year prepaid plans. A couple of people have reported in this thread that they managed to get the $99 PLS upgrade for units with expired or expiring 3-year commitment month-to-month plans (which actually cost less than the prepaid plan), but others who tried were denied.

Apparently PLS was taken off the table in April 2006, before Series3 shipped in the late Fall of that year and came back permanently in May of 2008 (before that there were some specific circumstance in which you could get PLS on a unit, but you couldn't just buy the plan for any arbitrary box).


bicker said:


> I believe that that was what they offered publicly (more or less), but they did waive that requirement on a case-by-case basis.


That would be true if your recollection of it coming back in July 2007 was correct, but from Dave Zatz's report that I linked to above, it wouldn't seem to be the case. Certainly everyone who reported asking for and getting the $99 PLS upgrade in this thread activated their soon-to-expire service plan prior to May 2008.


----------



## mpf541

I just called in and asked for the deal. I was given it right away.I called before the premier came out and ordered one and wanted this for the series 3 and they said no then. I guess it just depends what agent you get.


----------



## gweempose

mikeyts said:


> Since the e-mail offers said that it ended on April 30th, I'd be really surprised if TiVo would give it to anyone.


I'd be inclined to agree with you, however, mather's post would seem to indicate that they may still be willing to play ball on a case-by-case basis.


----------



## bicker

mikeyts said:


> Certainly everyone who reported asking for and getting the $99 PLS upgrade in this thread activated their soon-to-expire service plan prior to May 2008.


That is incorrect: I activated my service plan on 06/07/2007.


----------



## mikeyts

bicker said:


> mikeyts said:
> 
> 
> 
> Certainly everyone who reported asking for and getting the $99 PLS upgrade in this thread activated their soon-to-expire service plan prior to May 2008.
> 
> 
> 
> That is incorrect: I activated my service plan on 06/07/2007.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry--how is June of 2007 not prior to May 2008?


----------



## bicker

Okay, I'm confused. Where did this May 2008 date come from? I'll have to go back to the beginning of the thread, and the previous threads, but I am pretty sure the date people were bandying about was (specifically) after April 30, 200*7*.


----------



## mikeyts

bicker said:


> Okay, I'm confused. Where did this May 2008 date come from? I'll have to go back to the beginning of the thread, and the previous threads, but I am pretty sure the date people were bandying about was (specifically) after April 30, 200*7*.


15 May 2008 is the date when TiVo officially brought back PLS "permanently" (they could always take it away again ). The date comes from this Dave Zatz blog entry as well as the TiVo service payment plans page (which refers people with plans activated before 15 May 2008 to a prior set of terms & conditions which does not include the PLS option).

PLS went away in April 2006; between that time and 15 May 2008, there were some special offers which involved PLS, but they were temporary and promotional.


----------



## keenanSR

I called about this the other day and was basically told to pound sand. Being an early adopter(Sept '06) of the Series 3 HD-DVR was definitely not beneficial when it came to this $99 deal 3 years later. If I had waited until late Nov of 2006 I could have got the deal being offered today. I asked the rep, what is the difference in those 2 months of time, what makes Nov purchases eligible and Sept/Oct purchases not and she could not give any sort of definitive answer - just an "I'm sorry sir, that's how the promotion works" - useless in other words. The way I look at it, my Series 3 cost not only $800 initially, but has just cost me another $200(amount saved had I got the $99 PLS deal) because I decided to buy it when it first came out(Sept '06). That's last time I ever do that with a TiVo product again. Way to punish your early adopters there TiVo.


----------



## bicker

I'm so confused!


----------



## T1V0

bicker said:


> I'm so confused!


quoted for posterity


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## gweempose

bicker said:


> I'm so confused!


Apparently, everyone is confused, and that includes the TiVo employees. It would have made much more sense if they simply spelled out the terms of the deal so people definitively knew if they qualified or not. It's as if they wanted to compensate people who got screwed by missing out on lifetime, but at the same time they were hoping that not too many people jumped on the deal. I could be wrong, but it seems like about one out of every twenty people that qualified for the offer actually received the magical email. What's up with that?


----------



## orangeboy

gweempose said:


> ...It's as if they wanted to compensate people who got screwed by missing out on lifetime, but at the same time they were hoping that not too many people jumped on the deal...


I think you nailed it on the head right there. PLS is not good for TiVo in the long run:



> Included in the 1,465,000 TiVo-Owned subscriptions are approximately
> 279,000 lifetime subscriptions that have reached the end of the period TiVo
> uses to recognize lifetime subscription revenue. These lifetime
> subscriptions no longer generate subscription revenue.


Source: Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year End Earnings Results


----------



## wmcbrine

orangeboy said:


> PLS is not good for TiVo in the long run


I wouldn't go that far. It means no ongoing subscription revenue from that box, but it generates customer loyalty, and even sales. And how many lifetime customers, in the absence of that service, would've kept paying for four years (or whatever the corresponding period would be), anyway? TiVo surely picks up some extra revenue from people who pay more than they would have. Whether it makes up for those who pay less, I couldn't say.

Also, TiVo still makes money from lifetime units (think ads), though I don't know whether it's enough to make those units profitable.


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## Phantom Gremlin

wmcbrine said:


> Also, TiVo still makes money from lifetime units (think ads), though I don't know whether it's enough to make those units profitable.


What TiVo gains by selling lifetime is $300 to $400 cash up front. Let's break that down into smaller pieces:


Hardware subsidy; probably under $50 for the Premiere. The XL is probably unsubsidized (in terms of manufacturing cost).

 Guide data, maybe $5/year. Lifetime can fund an "eternity" of guide data if my cost guesstimate is anywhere close to accurate.

Ongoing support costs; negligible for most people; the box "just works" in most situations.

Profit. backing out lawsuits, TiVo doesn't make profits, so lifetime contribution to that is $0.

SAC, SG&A, ongoing R&D. *This is where the bulk of the cash is going to.* But why should "lifetime" disproportionately fund any of this?
The ads probably contribute more than enough to the bottom line to make up for the cost of guide data. Everything else is simply deciding how to account for that $300 or $400. If boxes are active for longer than TiVo guesstimated they would be, then that is merely an accounting issue; it's not a cash issue. The incremental cost of supporting lifetime boxes is negligable.

Apparently, ReplayTV boxes still get guide data, even though the original company went bust many many years ago. The current successor company probably keeps the boxes active for goodwill purposes because the cost of doing so is low.


----------



## bicker

T1V0 said:


> quoted for posterity


No no no, not fair, because . . .


gweempose said:


> Apparently, everyone is confused, and that includes the TiVo employees.


See!?! It's not just me!



T1V0 said:


> It would have made much more sense if they simply spelled out the terms of the deal so people definitively knew if they qualified or not.


I explained earlier (via an example from Walt Disney World's marketing approach) why this is probably not the right approach. The ability to target promotions, to the person, if practicable, typically _improves_ profitability, even though people trying to second-guess the company find it frustrating.

So turn it around a bit: How much more profit would TiVo generate if it _wasn't_ confusing?



T1V0 said:


> It's as if they wanted to compensate people who got screwed by missing out on lifetime,


I think that is a very poor foundation for an assertion, in this regard. TiVo had better be wanting to target the $99 deal toward customers who they consider more likely to have canceled their subscriptions instead and left the box unsubscribed. I know that we've gotten to that point with S2s, and I think we're beginning to get there with S3s.



wmcbrine said:


> I wouldn't go that far. It means no ongoing subscription revenue from that box, but it generates customer loyalty, and even sales.


Yes, there is a lot of contribution from those aspects, but I think there is a danger from giving those aspects more credit than they're due.


----------



## gweempose

bicker said:


> How much more profit would TiVo generate if it _wasn't_ confusing?


I can't even begin to speculate whether or not it would have generated more profit for them. It certainly would have generated more good will.


----------



## bicker

How much more goodwill? How much is that goodwill worth? I think sometimes forget that goodwill isn't some amorphous concept, but is an economic quantity. LINK

I also think that consumers generally grossly overestimate the value of their own goodwill.


----------



## lew

The internet makes it all but imposssible to offer special deals to some customers while keeping it a secret from others. Same with specials deals that are intended as test marketing. Is the opposite of goodwill badwill or illwill? Sometimes I think that's the net result.


----------



## Worf

Well, I did the email thing and TiVo contacted me first thing in the morning. Confirmed that I prepaid 3 years and qualified, told me of the limitations, and asked if I wanted it. Yes I did, and it's all done and processed - TiVo's scheduled to go into lifetime when my prepaid ends. 

Cool! (I love my Series 3).


----------



## darkavich

Which email did you use?


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## gweempose

Clearly, the April 30 cutoff date was anything but firm.


----------



## mikeyts

gweempose said:


> Clearly, the April 30 cutoff date was anything but firm.


Clearly .


----------



## emerz

Another success story. Bought my HD with 3 year prepay in Aug/2007. 

Sent an email to the support address Friday night asking if I qualified. Saturday morning I received a call from Tivo saying that I was qualified for the $99 PLS Upgrade offer. 

Authorized them to make the charge to my CC and as of today my status is "Product Lifetime".


----------



## kas25

My Series 3 is shot. Prepaid ended a month ago but they extended unitl I decided whether or not to upgrade. If I upgarde to Premier, any chance they allow the $99 lifetime upgrade? I can clearly just not replace the S3 so the ball is really in their court.


----------



## jmpage2

kas25 said:


> My Series 3 is shot. Prepaid ended a month ago but they extended unitl I decided whether or not to upgrade. If I upgarde to Premier, any chance they allow the $99 lifetime upgrade? I can clearly just not replace the S3 so the ball is really in their court.


Even if you got the $99 upgrade to lifetime on your S3, you would still pay another $200 to transfer it to the Premiere and of course your S3 would no longer have lifetime.

So I guess what you would have to do is convince them to give you the $99 lifetime upgrade on your (broken) S3 and then you could spend $299 on a Premiere plus $199 to transfer that lifetime.

Or, for $40 more you can just get the Premiere with the current owner discount and pay the full $399 for lifetime.


----------



## mikeyts

The way that I understand it, if you have PLS on any unit, you can get PLS for half price on a Premiere ordered from TiVo. So, you could get PLS for your "shot" S3 for $99 and buy a Premiere with PLS for $500.

By "shot" what do you mean? Perhaps you can get a third-party repair and sell it.


----------



## orangeboy

jmpage2 said:


> Even if you got the $99 upgrade to lifetime on your S3, you would still pay another $200 to transfer it to the Premiere *and of course your S3 would no longer have lifetime*...


Incorrect. PLS would remain on the DVR that is being upgraded. It did not work like that in past upgrade programs, but it does with this one.


----------



## Phantom Gremlin

orangeboy said:


> Incorrect. PLS would remain on the DVR that is being upgraded. It did not work like that in past upgrade programs, but it does with this one.


Yes, many people overlook this. It's a terrific deal that I would jump on if I didn't already have 4 active boxes and if the Premiere didn't have teething pains.

Going forward, as TiVo squashes the bugs from the Premiere, I suspect that many people will take advantage of this to get a Premiere, then will fleaBay their old box and recover a good fraction of the upgrade cost. That's a "win-win" for TiVo and their customers. It gets TiVo new subscribers and it gets their current subscribers newer, potentially more powerful, boxes.


----------



## Worf

darkavich said:


> Which email did you use?


I just sent an email (like earlier in this thread) to [email protected]. Give them the service number and they'll give you a call.

To qualify, you need to have done the 3 year *prepaid* (not 3 year *contract*) deal - the $99 being basically the upgrade cost from the $299 prepaid to what would've been a $399 lifetime offer. (you save a buck for your troubles)


----------



## kas25

Phantom Gremlin said:


> Yes, many people overlook this. It's a terrific deal that I would jump on if I didn't already have 4 active boxes and if the Premiere didn't have teething pains.
> 
> Going forward, as TiVo squashes the bugs from the Premiere, I suspect that many people will take advantage of this to get a Premiere, then will fleaBay their old box and recover a good fraction of the upgrade cost. That's a "win-win" for TiVo and their customers. It gets TiVo new subscribers and it gets their current subscribers newer, potentially more powerful, boxes.


So I can pay $99 to upgrade my dead S3 and then pay the $250 (or whatever the upgrade deal is) to upgrade my S3 to a Premier and transfer the lifetime membership at no cost?


----------



## kas25

mikeyts said:


> The way that I understand it, if you have PLS on any unit, you can get PLS for half price on a Premiere ordered from TiVo. So, you could get PLS for your "shot" S3 for $99 and buy a Premiere with PLS for $500.
> 
> By "shot" what do you mean? Perhaps you can get a third-party repair and sell it.


From what I've read, the hard drive is dead. Won't boot up and makes clicking sounds when attempting.


----------



## Phantom Gremlin

kas25 said:


> So I can pay $99 to upgrade my dead S3 and then pay the $250 (or whatever the upgrade deal is) to upgrade my S3 to a Premier and transfer the lifetime membership at no cost?


I don't know about that. My TiVo HD already has lifetime. What I was referring to was the following:

I can go to my account at tivo.com.

I see a button with "view upgrade offers".

One of the choices is to buy a Premiere for $299 + $200 lifetime. There is also text that says: _"Decide what to do with your current TiVo DVR. Note: TiVo DVRs with Product Lifetime Service will automatically stay active."_

There is additional text that says: _"You can also give your original TiVo box to a friend or family member to enjoy. They can contact TiVo and activate it under a new service agreement. If it has Product Lifetime service, just give us a call to transfer ownership of the contract._ But I don't see why I couldn't simply sell that DVR with active lifetime to help offset the $499 I just paid for a Premiere. That's the point we were trying to make. The DVR still has active lifetime, so it has a lot more value than after previous upgrade offers.
Presumably the only caveat in this is that the new owner would no longer be eligible for an upgrade offer on that DVR.

However, in your case your current DVR is dead, so I don't know how much it would fetch on fleaBay. Also, depending on how long ago it died, it may no longer appear as active in your account. So you may not be eligible for that upgrade offer. You may not even be eligible to add lifetime to it for $99.


----------



## Marquettedominos

kas25 said:


> From what I've read, the hard drive is dead. Won't boot up and makes clicking sounds when attempting.


From what I have read here, that is rather an easy fix.


----------



## mikeyts

kas25 said:


> So I can pay $99 to upgrade my dead S3 and then pay the $250 (or whatever the upgrade deal is) to upgrade my S3 to a Premier and transfer the lifetime membership at no cost?


The upgrade deal depends upon whether you have lifetime on another unit or not. If not, you get a 20% discount on the price of the unit (bringing the $300 down to $240); if you do have PLS on some other unit, the upgrade deal is PLS for $200. So, you can put PLS on your dead TiVo and buy a Premiere with PLS for $500. There's no transfer--the dead TiVo will still have PLS.

Either figure out how to replace your HDD here or send your dead unit for third party repair (dvrupgrade.com or somewhere else). I think that if you send it to TiVo they'll send you a refurb for a repair price, but then they'd charge you to transfer its PLS to that refurb (I think ). A working S3 with PLS can get you $500 on eBay--sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. If you get that much selling it, then you'll have only paid the price of repairing your broken TiVo for the Premiere .


----------



## ChileHead

I purchased my HDTivo in July 2007 ... I did the 3 year prepaid thing because there wasn't product lifetime.

I didn't see this thread until now, and I was never offered the $99 upgrade plan. I just sent an email in to tivo to see if I can get it.

I hardly watch TV anymore due to having too many other things going on, and I only have over-the-air as I dropped cable as it got to be too expensive. 

Hoping I can get the $99 offer, as I'll probably be unlikely to resubscribe at the end of my prepaid service, and I'll just take an old PC and install some DVR software on it for the over the air shows I do watch.


----------



## gweempose

ChileHead said:


> Hoping I can get the $99 offer, as I'll probably be unlikely to resubscribe at the end of my prepaid service, and I'll just take an old PC and install some DVR software on it for the over the air shows I do watch.


Sounds to me like you would be the ideal candidate for this offer.


----------



## Phantom Gremlin

gweempose said:


> Sounds to me like you would be the ideal candidate for this offer.


Maybe these offers from TiVo will re-appear as people don't renew their service. Or maybe if you call in to make sure you don't get auto-renewed, you will get offered a deal like this.


----------



## ChileHead

gweempose said:


> Sounds to me like you would be the ideal candidate for this offer.


Amazing ... I sent a note in last night around 10pm EST, and I received a call from a nice woman about 10 hours later letting me know I could get the lifetime for $99. She sounded hot too.


----------



## daveak

ChileHead said:


> Amazing ... I sent a note in last night around 10pm EST, and I received a call from a nice woman about 10 hours later letting me know I could get the lifetime for $99. She sounded hot too.


Part of the new customer service initiative, hawt sounding women call back guys who leave voice mails and offer them special deals.


----------



## jbernardis

Count me among the satisfied customers for this promotion. My tivo, purchased on 6/5/2007, will reach the end of its 3 year prepaid contract in 1 month. I emailed Tivo about an hour ago, they just called me and changed me to PLS.


----------



## nickels

Give this deal to me (to update my S2 w/ Lifetime Service) for $99 and consider another Premiere unit sold!


----------



## dgb99

Another satisfied customer. Bought Series 3 in June 2007 with 3 year prepay for 299. Emailed today at 2pm after reading this thread. Got a call on home number 30 minutes later. Called them back at 3pm and was told I qualified and got a reference number. The representative said it would take 3-10 days but I got an email 5 minutes later and checked tivo.com and it shows $99 Product Lifetime for my 'scheduled plan'.


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## darkavich

I was charged again (month-to-month). This time I called the billing department who was finally able to credit me for the monthly fees and set me up for the $99 lifetime upgrade. I have no idea what the last managers problems was, but what I have found out that the only way to deal with Tivo is to hang up and call back.


----------



## mrsean

I'm really disappointed that people who actually paid less for their Tivo service over the last 3 years by going the prepay route are getting the deal and not folks like me who could not afford to pay that out right and thus paid a lot more for the same service by going the month to month route. 

All I can say is Tivo better hope that the Ceton card gets terrible reviews on June 1st. Otherwise it's hasta-la vista Tivo!


----------



## keenanSR

I'm disappointed that they screwed their early adopters out of this deal. If I had purchased my S3 2 months later, in Nov '06 instead of on the release date of Sept '06, I could have got the deal. That'll teach me about being an early adopter of TiVo equipment.


----------



## orangeboy

mrsean said:


> I'm really disappointed that people who actually paid less for their Tivo service over the last 3 years by going the prepay route are getting the deal and not folks like me who could not afford to pay that out right and thus paid a lot more for the same service by going the month to month route.
> 
> All I can say is Tivo better hope that the Ceton card gets terrible reviews on June 1st. Otherwise it's hasta-la vista Tivo!


It sounds like your evaluation at the time of purchase was shortsighted, proven by _you paying more_ in the long run.


----------



## mrsean

orangeboy said:


> It sounds like your evaluation at the time of purchase was shortsighted, proven by _you paying more_ in the long run.


True. Just to clarify, I'm not saying that Tivo owes me something because as you pointed out I made the decision on how to pay (well my finances at the time did). 

What I'm questioning is why there are making the offer so narrow in scope. In the other words, I had five options (the sixth would have been lifetime) at the time of activation. However, I would only be eligible for the $99PLS if I had to the foresight to choose one of the five options three years ago.

Technically (and maybe ethically) there's nothing nothing wrong with Tivo deciding to make the deal available to limited amount of customers. However, if you're like me i.e. someone who will wind up paying >$500.00 for 3 years of service I'm sure you're not going to be happy to hear the some folks are getting lifetime for $400 because they made "best" choice out of five 3years ago.


----------



## bicker

mrsean said:


> However, I would only be eligible for the $99PLS if I had to the foresight to choose one of the five options three years ago.


As many folks have pointed out, there is a difference between who TiVo targets its advertising promotions at, and who TiVo actually granted the $99 deal to.


----------



## mikeyts

mrsean said:


> I'm really disappointed that people who actually paid less for their Tivo service over the last 3 years by going the prepay route are getting the deal and not *folks like me who could not afford to pay that out right* and thus paid a lot more for the same service by going the month to month route.


I personally see this as TiVo making it up to people who might have bought PLS if it'd been available 3 years ago when they activated their service plan. The $300 that I paid for a 3 year prepaid plan plus the $100 deal adds up to the $400 that I would have paid for PLS had it been on offer then. If you couldn't afford to pay for a 3 year prepaid back then I assume that you couldn't afford to pay $400 for PLS, had it been available.

There was a 3-year month-to-month committed plan back then for $6.95/month. Had you chosen that, you'd have paid $250 over the past three years, $50 less than those who bought the prepaid plan.


----------



## keenanSR

mikeyts said:


> I personally see this as TiVo making it up to people who might have bought PLS if it'd been available 3 years ago when they activated their service plan. The $300 that I paid for a 3 year prepaid plan plus the $100 deal adds up to the $400 that I would have paid for PLS had it been on offer then. If you couldn't afford to pay for a 3 year prepaid back then I assume that you couldn't afford to pay $400 for PLS, had it been available.
> 
> There was a 3-year month-to-month committed plan back then for $6.95/month. Had you chosen that, you'd have paid $250 over the past three years, $50 less than those who bought the prepaid plan.


3 years effective from Nov 16 2006, if you bought your S3 from release date of Sept 16 to Nov 15 2006, when PLS wasn't available as well, you're SOL. I bought the 3-year prepaid in Sept 2006, when there was no PLS available, and I have yet to find anyone at TiVo explain why the difference in the 2 months time period, why the people who bought from Nov 16 onward get the deal, but those who bough it the 2 mos prior to that date do not get the deal. In this case, being an early adopter(2 mos) was definitely not the way to go.


----------



## mikeyts

keenanSR said:


> 3 years effective from Nov 16 2006, if you bought your S3 from release date of Sept 16 to Nov 15 2006, when PLS wasn't available as well, you're SOL. I bought the 3-year prepaid in Sept 2006, when there was no PLS available, and I have yet to find anyone at TiVo explain why the difference in the 2 months time period, why the people who bought from Nov 16 onward get the deal, but those who bough it the 2 mos prior to that date do not get the deal. In this case, being an early adopter(2 mos) was definitely not the way to go.


I agree that they're screwing you over for no apparent reason. I was responding to mrsean's complaint--your situation is much different.


----------



## keenanSR

mikeyts said:


> I agree that they're screwing you over for no apparent reason. I was responding to mrsean's complaint--your situation is much different.


Oh, I realized that, I was just adding some data from my own situation. Piggy-backing on your comments, basically being a general nuisance. 

I also realize that TiVo doesn't owe me any explanation, they can decide when and how they offer their promos, it's just that the logical part of me is looking for a "why", which it looks like I'll never get.


----------



## turbobozz

mikeyts said:


> I personally see this as TiVo making it up to people who might have bought PLS if it'd been available 3 years ago when they activated their service plan. The $300 that I paid for a 3 year prepaid plan plus the $100 deal adds up to the $400 that I would have paid for PLS had it been on offer then. If you couldn't afford to pay for a 3 year prepaid back then I assume that you couldn't afford to pay $400 for PLS, had it been available.
> 
> There was a 3-year month-to-month committed plan back then for $6.95/month. Had you chosen that, you'd have paid $250 over the past three years, $50 less than those who bought the prepaid plan.


The irony for me is that I genuinely would have bought PLS with my S3, but it wasn't available and I knew I would be moving with a distinct possibility that I wouldn't have cable for a while.
That made getting the 3yr plan a gamble for me at the time... So I just went with normal month to month.

The further irony is that I would probably actually spend more money on TiVo if my S3 had PLS and was available as an extender and additional ATSC tuners.
But I'm not going to spend $400 on PLS for my S3 now.


----------



## moolman

I don't want to start a controversy but I should contribute since I learned of a great deal. I was on the MSD 6.95 plan on my series 3, about 5 months left on the 3 year contract. You get the idea.


----------



## mikeyts

moolman said:


> I don't want to start a controversy but I should contribute since I learned of a great deal. I was on the MSD 6.95 plan on my series 3, about 5 months left on the 3 year contract. You get the idea.


I'm sorry, but what's controversial about that? Are you saying that they gave you the $99 deal? If so, I think that at least one other person in this thread who had that 3 year month-to-month contract has said that they got the deal as well. Many others have reported trying to talk them into it and failing.

There's been a certain amount of inconsistency in how the deal's been applied.


----------



## moolman

okay, I didn't read the whole thread, people kept saying that you had to be on the 3-year prepay to get the $99 and not the 3-year month to month, that's why I thought I had no chance.

But when tried my luck, I got the $99 on it, I still had 5 months or so to go on the 3 year at $6.95, so it save a couple of extra bucks too.


----------



## bicker

mikeyts said:


> There's been a certain amount of inconsistency in how the deal's been applied.


Or perhaps a certain amount of consistency that we, from the outside, cannot discern the parameters of...


----------



## mikeyts

moolman said:


> But when tried my luck, I got the $99 on it, I still had 5 months or so to go on the 3 year at $6.95, so it save a couple of extra bucks too.


Yeah, I think that you were lucky. I believe that only one other person has reported success with getting the deal for a 3-year month-to-month, and more than one person has reported failure with that.

You saved more than a few bucks--you paid about $85 less for your PLS than those of us who bought prepaid plans and took the deal, without having to help TiVo out by giving them a big chunk of cash up front .


bicker said:


> Or perhaps a certain amount of consistency that we, from the outside, cannot discern the parameters of...


Yes. Perhaps not only the plan and activation date are involved, but the precise time of day, day of the week and phase of the moon .


----------



## bicker

Hehe... I was referring more to demographic indicators: Zip code, perhaps socio-economic connections, similar to that which cold-caller use to solicit to consumers, etc.


----------



## mrsean

mikeyts said:


> I was responding to mrsean's complaint--your situation is much different.


My intention was to make an observation not a complaint though I guess it could be read that way. Tivo should have offered some kind of deal to everyone who purchased their unit back when PLS was not available.

As it stands now, they have a significant number of folks like myself feeling that they may have been burned even though we know that's not neccessarily accurrate.

Because of this and that disaster called "Premiere" I am definitelty looking to sunset my THD sooner than later.


----------



## jakerome

OK, on my 5th attempt TiVo finally offered me the lifetime upgrade for $99. Done.

Now, the next step. I plan to buy a TiVo Premiere XL, along with lifetime service. If I buy on TiVo.com I can get lifetime for $300 if I pay full-price for the Premiere. Otherwise I can get $100 off the price of the Premiere, and it uses the remainder of my 3-year dealio (which ends in a month)... at which point I'd pay $400 for lifetime, so that seems like a push. If I buy via Amazon or BestBuy, can I still buy lifetime service for $300 using MSD? Sorry if this has been answered already, I've lost track of the thread.

Thanks.


----------



## mikeyts

jakerome said:


> Now, the next step. I plan to buy a TiVo Premiere XL, along with lifetime service. If I buy on TiVo.com I can get lifetime for $300 if I pay full-price for the Premiere. Otherwise I can get $100 off the price of the Premiere, and it uses the remainder of my 3-year dealio (which ends in a month)... at which point I'd pay $400 for lifetime, so that seems like a push. If I buy via Amazon or BestBuy, can I still buy lifetime service for $300 using MSD? Sorry if this has been answered already, I've lost track of the thread.


I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that when you converted to PLS, anything left of your 3-year prepaid plan went up in smoke.

My understanding of the Premiere upgrade deal is that you can get %20 off the price if your unit doesn't have PLS ($60 off the Premiere, $100 off the XL) OR PLS for half price if your current unit has PLS. You only get one of these--I'm not sure, but it doesn't seem possible for PLS folks to get the %20 off deal, just half price PLS on the new unit (if I go to their Premiere Upgrade page and click the "See my options" link half-priced PLS is all that it offers me).


----------



## erikg

jakerome said:


> If I buy via Amazon or BestBuy, can I still buy lifetime service for $300 using MSD? Sorry if this has been answered already, I've lost track of the thread.
> 
> Thanks.


I bought two Premieres from Bestbuy on their 0% store card; I thought I had shot myself in the foot trying to get the 299.99$ PLS. I just activated two of them for 299.99$ each by logging into my tivo.com account and selecting "activate a new tivo".

So in short: yes I was able to.


----------



## wmcbrine

$300 PLS is the normal MSD rate. What you miss out on by not buying from tivo.com is _$200_ PLS.

There should be no situation in which someone who already has a TiVo with PLS (even $100 PLS) would pay $400 for PLS on a new Premiere.


----------



## jakerome

So the $200 on PLS, does that move the PLS from the S3 to the Premiere or is it in addition?

FYI, I hadn't seen any discounts on Premiere until this evening, when Amazon shaved $20 off the standard Premiere and Electronics Expo offered the XL for $420. Also gets a free Wireless-N adapter through Amazon, which I don't need. Would much prefer the keyboard remote or just a straight discount.


----------



## bkdtv

jakerome said:


> So the $200 on PLS, does that move the PLS from the S3 to the Premiere or is it in addition?


In addition -- you get to keep the PLS on the S3, while adding it to the Premiere for $199.


----------



## mikeyts

wmcbrine said:


> $300 PLS is the normal MSD rate. What you miss out on by not buying from tivo.com is _$200_ PLS.
> 
> There should be no situation in which someone who already has a TiVo with PLS (even $100 PLS) would pay $400 for PLS on a new Premiere.


I think that there's no situation in which someone who's a current TiVo subscriber should pay more than $300 for PLS on a new unit, whether any of their other units have PLS or not.


----------



## mrsean

jakerome said:


> OK, on my 5th attempt TiVo finally offered me the lifetime upgrade for $99. Done.


May I ask what you did in order to get them to finally comply?


----------



## bicker

It didn't take me five tries, but only three.

Each time, I asked *more nicely* than the previous time.


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## MickeS

mikeyts said:


> Yeah, I think that you were lucky. I believe that only one other person has reported success with getting the deal for a 3-year month-to-month, and more than one person has reported failure with that.


I'm going to try tonight with my Series 3. If I don't get it, I will cancel my TiVo service for now (me 3-year month to month commitment ends June 14th). I can get everything I need online, though not in HD, but if they won't give me $99 LT anyway I might as well stop service until the fall (since there's nothing I can't watch live until then anyway, and I will probably by a Premiere with LT later this summer or fall).


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## gnordy

My 3 year service plan on my Series 3 was ending effective 6/12/10. I had been holding off agreeing to a new plan because I did not know if I wanted 1 year, lifetime or whatever. My waiting appears to have paid off! Last night I got the $99 lifetime service upgrade email for my series 3. Called today and now I am set.

Makes me wonder if this would have been offered if I would have agreed to a 1 year extension a month ago... sometimes it pays to procrastinate!


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## mikeyts

gnordy said:


> Last night I got the $99 lifetime service upgrade email for my series 3.


That's _very_ interesting. Did your e-mail offer mention an expiration date? Mine said 30 April.

They may have officially revived and extended this program, which would be cool (for everyone except keenanSR, who no doubt will remain SOL ).


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## Worf

Well, I know I was supposed to get that plan, but I short-circuited that process by sending the email ahead of time. I know I was supposed to get it because I called TiVo's regular telephone support and they said that yes, if I was patient, I'd get it.

My 3 year prepaid ends this month, and my tivo.com account shows the future plan is $99 lifetime.

Now if only TiVo would make a new box that has all the nice stuff of my Series 3.


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## gnordy

The expire date on my offer was 7/20/10


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## waterchange

In case anyone is interested in another data point on this lifetime upgrade ...

I had a Series2 DT on 3 year monthly plan (I see $7.61 monthly charges which used to be $6.95 charges as I'm on MSD). Originally activated 9/2007 and running through 9/2010. I bought a $99 Tivo HD from Blockbuster and transferred the service over.

Then I sent in an email to Tivo support simply inquiring if my account qualifies for $99 lifetime upgrade figuring it couldn't hurt as there's nothing to lose. It's debatable if I would've upgrade the Series2 to lifetime for another $99 but definitely worth it if I could do the HD.

I unexpectedly get a call back today stating that yes, I could get the $99 lifetime and asked whether I wanted to do it now or in September when my current plan expires. I said I'd like to do the upgrade now and was told it'll take a couple of days to go through. It just happened today so it's not a done deal but I'm hopeful that I'll have $99 lifetime on my new Tivo HD in a couple of days!


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## TheWGP

Thanks to everyone on this thread who has posted regarding continued success with this. I actually just got a $99 TivoHD at Blockbuster and switched it onto what was left of my 3-year prepaid sub (expires in October) and then saw this thread! Good thing I didn't already decide to upgrade it to lifetime and pay the $299 - I got NO email about the availability of this deal, so this thread was it for me.

One nice phone call later, and a very helpful phone tech, my account now reads the future service plan as $99 lifetime. $198+tax for a TivoHD lifetimed - doesn't get much better than that! Granted, I did pay $299 almost three years ago, but hey, I'll take it!

(In sum: this is still alive as of July 1, 2010 if you had a 3-year from when lifetime was not available!)


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## hastypete

I've sent an email requesting this offer. Crossing my fingers. I too would have purchased the lifetime had it been available. I did get an email from them this morning with a code for $100 savings (PLSR) to upgrade to lifetime. That means paying $300 to upgrade. seems like a good deal until you add it to the $300 I paid three years ago. $600 for lifetime is a bit steep. I'd have paid $400 for it three years ago. 

Well, I can cross my fingers. Thanks for the info.


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## hastypete

Wow, I barely had pressed send when I got a return call. I qualified for the deal specifically since lifetime was not available when I purchased. They set it up and it will bill the day my 3 year term expires. 
Also note that from that date to 3 years, an exchange unit will cost $150 (if the unit ever fails). after 3 years from that date, the lifetime would have a transfer fee. I wasn't sure whether it was $200 for the whole exchange and transfer or just for the transfer with the exchange unit + $150. I didn't get that clarified. But still, I'm happy with the $99 either way. 

Thank you Tivo, and thank you Tivo user community.


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## keenanSR

What email address did you use?


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## abeagler

My subscription was going to expire in September; I had been on a three-year prepaid contract. Today I received a renewal email from TiVo offering me $100 off the regular price of lifetime service. So, I sent them an email from one of the product support pages; in response I was told I needed to call customer service at 877-367-8486. 

I called them, and I explained to the rep that I'd been on a 3-year prepaid deal, that PLS was not available at the time I signed that contract, and that I would have signed up for it had it been available. I explained that I'd been reading since January about the $99 lifetime deal for subscribers like me; I mentioned that I'd called about it in Jan or Feb, and been told I'd need to check in again closer to the time of my renewal. I very politely asked if I could be made eligible for the $99 lifetime deal. The rep put me on hold for 3 or 4 minutes, and when he came back he told me he'd gotten authorization to give me the $99 lifetime deal.

So, thanks to all in this thread!


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## Phantom Gremlin

abeagler said:


> The rep put me on hold for 3 or 4 minutes, and when he came back he told me he'd gotten authorization to give me the $99 lifetime deal.
> 
> So, thanks to all in this thread!


I think $99 lifetime upgrades is one of the *smartest* business decisions that TiVo has ever made!!!

Tivo has been hemorrhaging subscribers for years. This should help stabilize the numbers and will also create brand loyalty.

Too bad it's so unpublicized.


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## keenanSR

I guess TiVo doesn't even like me, they won't even respond to my email.


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## salenics

wow, that sounds great!


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## DVRFarSling

The offer is supposed to be online, but after following the directions on email...
"As a special thank you for being a TiVo customer, we would like to offer you a $100 savings on a Product Lifetime service upgrade. With Product Lifetime service, you can enjoy your TiVo DVR with no monthly bills for the life of your DVR. To take advantage of this limited-time special offer, please visit http-//www-tivo-com/manage and select the Product Lifetime option from the future payment plan screen. Then, enter this promo code: PL*****."

the link is dead and redirected to main sales site. After following tech support for Premeiere directions by going to my account, using future subscriptions...there is NO place to put special code! After I asked support through email option outlining the clear error, all they said was there was no way to do that online and I'd have to call. Pathetic and deceptive practices! THEN don't send the message out with wrong directions, I'm sure they want people to give up and just pay full amount.


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## shwru980r

That could be, but I'd still make the call for $100.


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## RyRy_M

I received the email this morning notifying me that my 3 yr prepaid subscription is ending in October, along with the offer for $100 discount for product lifetime service. So I called in to customer service, fully expecting to have an easy conversation and get things set up for the $99 upgrade - only to have the rep at first tell me that this promotion expired on July 31st. She put me on hold to check on it further, and then came back and said that you have to receive an email that explicitly offers that promotion in order for them to do it. I told her "thanks, but don't change anything right now" - then opted for Plan B.

I used the sample email text from post #213 of this thread (sorry, I don't have enough posts to be able to add links), added my specific account info, and fired it off to '[email protected]' - and, low and behold - I got a call about two hours later from someone in the TIVO Executive Relations Department that was happy to tell me that I was eligible for this deal! He verified all of my information, read the terms and had me verbally agree to them, then it was a done deal!!

It seems that sending an email is definitely the most effective way to get this taken care of quickly and painlessly!!


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## peter888chan

I had the same situation. Although the person who called me wasn't able to directly give me the $99 for lifetime as the code he tried to enter wouldn't work as it expired. So we went the route of getting lifetime for $299 then getting a credit back for $200. My 3 year prepaid was set to expire in November.

Calling them about getting this promotion didn't work for me.


----------



## chazas

RyRy_M said:


> I used the sample email text from post #213 of this thread (sorry, I don't have enough posts to be able to add links), added my specific account info, and fired it off to '[email protected]' - and, low and behold - I got a call about two hours later from someone in the TIVO Executive Relations Department that was happy to tell me that I was eligible for this deal! He verified all of my information, read the terms and had me verbally agree to them, then it was a done deal!!


I had exactly the same experience, posted in another thread. I advise taking that route, not calling.


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## mikeyts

If you actually _read_ this thread, you'll see that it's full of success stories of people who e-mailed (as well as a few failures). Calling customer support very rarely works; it worked for a little while in the beginning (it worked for me, but I received the e-mail offer a week later, so I was on their list anyway).


----------



## RyRy_M

mikeyts said:


> If you actually _read_ this thread, you'll see that it's full of success stories of people who e-mailed (as well as a few failures). Calling customer support very rarely works; it worked for a little while in the beginning (it worked for me, but I received the e-mail offer a week later, so I was on their list anyway).


Actually, the current page (page 11) of this thread includes two examples of people saying that they had success by calling customer support. Both of those posts were in July 2010 - which is definitely recent - and nowhere near the "beginning" of this thread!

I do agree with you that emailing customer support seems to be much more effective for this issue (which I stated in the title of my earlier post), but your condescending tone (and use of italics) with regard to people first trying to call customer support isn't really justified - or helpful in this situation


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## mikeyts

What I meant was read some significant portion of thread--at least scan the last few dozen or so posts. I subscribe to this thread and was kind of surprised to see people discussing something we'd pretty well established as though it were a new discovery. The discussion about e-mailing [email protected] began on March 20th in post 151. That e-mailing that address and letting them call you back usually works when calling customer support usually doesn't is pretty old news. Hell, long after we'd discussed it ad nauseum here, I mentioned it in the TiVo Series 3 thread at AVS Forum back at the beginning of June (here). Since then 8 people have posted in _that_ thread to state that they got the deal (a couple of them surprisingly actually got it by phoning customer support).

(BTW, the number of the "current page" depends upon what you have the page size set to in your user options--mine is set to 50 per page, making it page 7 for me).

No big deal in any case.


----------



## tlc

wmcbrine said:


> What if the box had continuous month to month or annual subscriptions?
> 
> 
> 
> Nope. Those don't show intent -- the three-year prepayers can say (and have said -- at least I have) that if lifetime had been available at the time, we would've got it. So the $99 deal makes up for that otherwise-lost opportunity. Now, in my case, I have a second TiVo, for which I did a three-year MSD deal, totaling $250, but paid out monthly. I _also_ would've got lifetime for _that_ unit at the time (and have, since), but since I took a cheaper option than the three-year prepay, I can't prove my intent. (Mind you, I'm not sure three-year prepay was even an option for the second TiVo when I got it.) Then again, if you look back in the thread, you'll find at least one user who _was_ offered the deal on a three-year MSD, so it's not being handled in a completely consistent manner. But I was denied on my MSD unit, and I think that's how the policy was intended to work.
Click to expand...

Mmm. This must be where I am. I _definitely_ would have picked lifetime if it was available. (I _strongly_ prefer paying up front to monthly fees.) But I'm on a 3 years monthly instead of 3 years up front and I don't remember why. Must have been this MSD deal.

My plan is up 9/17 and it looks like it will move from $7.44/mo to $9.95/mo.

So, I can try to get lucky with the $99. What are my other options?

Edit: Besides $9.95/mo, $99/yr, $299 lifetime they're offering me on tivo.com


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## cseamon

I received an email offering $100 *off *the lifetime sub, bringing it down to $299. While it's a good enough deal compared to the 3 year plan, what's the likelihood that my unit lasts that long? I'm already in the process of replacing a power supply and motherboard, and I'm at 33 months...


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## lessd

cseamon said:


> I received an email offering $100 *off *the lifetime sub, bringing it down to $299. While it's a good enough deal compared to the 3 year plan, what's the likelihood that my unit lasts that long? I'm already in the process of replacing a power supply and motherboard, and I'm at 33 months...


I can't believe you would pay to replace both when you can get a working unit used on E-Bay for a good price. You did not tell us what model you are repairing. My oldest TiVo is from early 2005 and still working without problems. I did replace the drive just after getting the unit to get more space.


----------



## megory

I just got the $99 lifetime on my S2D after emailing them and requesting it. The person who called in response to my email said I didn't really qualify for it, because it was for people with 3-year prepaid. However, because I had been such a loyal, long-term, customer, gorgeous, lovely, kind to animals and a 100&#37; super person, they would give it to me. Yippeee!


----------



## jtm913

My 3-year month-to-month just expired in August, so I thought I'd try the $99 path to get lifetime. I wrote a nice email, and got a call back the next day saying I wasn't eligible since I wasn't on the prepaid plan... though he did offer me lifetime service for $199. So, I thought I'd try something and asked if the reasoning was that I paid $50 less than the prepaid option. He said yes. I then asked, could we split the difference and do the lifetime option for $149? He agreed, and now I have lifetime on both my TiVos. A little more than I wanted but very happy that we came to a mutual agreement.


----------



## cseamon

lessd said:


> I can't believe you would pay to replace both when you can get a working unit used on E-Bay for a good price. You did not tell us what model you are repairing. My oldest TiVo is from early 2005 and still working without problems. I did replace the drive just after getting the unit to get more space.


I have a Series 3 unit. I ended up replacing a single capacitor, and the hard drive was under warranty (750GB hack) so no real cost involved. I don't want to say "love", but that's only because it's an inanimate object. Let's just say I really appreciate my Tivo...


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## rmassey

jtm913 said:


> My 3-year month-to-month just expired in August, so I thought I'd try the $99 path to get lifetime. I wrote a nice email, and got a call back the next day saying I wasn't eligible since I wasn't on the prepaid plan... though he did offer me lifetime service for $199. So, I thought I'd try something and asked if the reasoning was that I paid $50 less than the prepaid option. He said yes. I then asked, could we split the difference and do the lifetime option for $149? He agreed, and now I have lifetime on both my TiVos. A little more than I wanted but very happy that we came to a mutual agreement.


Good plan... I am in the same spot with my Tivo HD on a 3 yr MSD plan @ $6.95/mo. I just sent an email to request $99 PLS and will try the $149 price option if I get the same reply.

thanks for sharing your success story.

-- Edit: --
Worked like a charm. I received a call from CustSvc a few hours later. The rep told me I do not qualify for the $99 PLS on my HD with MSD. He then noted that since I had paid $250 over the 3 years and have been such a loyal customer he could offer me PLS for $149 on my Tivo HD. I thanked him and accepted the offer. Easy.

Tivo S3 - 3yr prepay @300 + 99 PLS = $399
Tivo HD - 3yr monthly @ $6.95 = $250 + $149 = $399

same price / same end results. works for me.

Note: Rep told me the charge would show up as $299 - $150 credit within 3-4 days.


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## SID6767

Where do I need to send the email?


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## rmassey

SID6767 said:


> Where do I need to send the email?


as noted above in post #317
[email protected]


----------



## rainmakr

The 3-year prepaid service on my S3 ends in October. Near the end of July I called customer support and asked about rolling over to the $99 PLS. I was told that I was eligible but had to wait until I received the e-mail in late August or September.

This morning I received an e-mail offering to let me roll over to PLS for $299 ($100 off). I called TiVo customer support and, after explaining the situation, was setup with the $99 PLS when my 3-year plan expires. The whole process took about 10 minutes (including time on hold).

John


----------



## mikeyts

I think that most of us who got the $99 PLS offer by e-mail got the $299 offer first . I didn't find that offer to be compelling, so I passed on it. I got the $99 PLS offer in early April, _after_ my 3 year prepaid had expired, so I ended up paying one month-to-month charge (if I'd thought about it, I'd have insisted that they reduce the $99 by that amount). If I'd gone for the $299 offer, I'd have been pissed.


----------



## keenanSR

Well, after about 3 months and 3 previous denials I finally got them to give me the 99$ deal for my S3. I asked for it and they gave it to me, no questions asked, unlike previous conversations where they _tried_ to explain it but never really made any sense.

Anyway, the lesson learned is keep trying, even if you fail 3 or 4 times previously.


----------



## megory

mikeyts said:


> I think that most of us who got the $99 PLS offer by e-mail got the $299 offer first . I didn't find that offer to be compelling, so I passed on it. I got the $99 PLS offer in early April, _after_ my 3 year prepaid had expired, so I ended up paying one month-to-month charge (if I'd thought about it, I'd have insisted that they reduce the $99 by that amount). If I'd gone for the $299 offer, I'd have been pissed.


 Not me. I sent my email purely on the recommendation of this thread, and was responded to within an hour or so.


----------



## Resist

I have tried and tried, yet they still won't give me the $99 deal. My 3 year service contract expires in October for my Series 3. I really like Tivo but don't think $299 is anywhere close to a deal for a lifetime, even though I have paid that (and more) in the past.


----------



## mikeyts

megory said:


> Not me. I sent my email purely on the recommendation of this thread, and was responded to within an hour or so.


I said "most of us who got the $99 PLS offer by e-mail got the $299 offer first". If you didn't get the $99 PLS offer by e-mail, I wasn't referring to you.

Actually, I got the deal because I heard about it in this thread, called support and asked for it; they sent me the e-mail offer about a week later, _after_ my service plan expired.


----------



## lessd

mikeyts said:


> I said "most of us who got the $99 PLS offer by e-mail got the $299 offer first". If you didn't get the $99 PLS offer by e-mail, I wasn't referring to you.
> 
> Actually, I got the deal because I heard about it in this thread, called support and asked for it; they sent me the e-mail offer about a week later, _after_ my service plan expired.


I think this offer was made for people that took out a 3 year plan (with MSD) for $299 when Lifetime was thought not to be an option. When Lifetime was made available without using any tricks the cost (with MSD) was $299 so TiVo felt bad about the extra charge you had to pay so they are given those customers a $99 Lifetime upgrade, that = a total price of $399, the cost of Lifetime now without MSD. (yes I am off by $1 )


----------



## mikeyts

lessd said:


> I think this offer was made for people that took out a 3 year plan (with MSD) for $299 when Lifetime was thought not to be an option. When Lifetime was made available without using any tricks the cost (with MSD) was $299 so TiVo felt bad about the extra charge you had to pay so they are given those customers a $99 Lifetime upgrade, that = a total price of $399, the cost of Lifetime now without MSD. (yes I am off by $1 )


Yes--that speculation has been made earlier in this thread .

If they want to be fair about this, the offer should be extended to people with 3 year payment plans expiring on dates up until 15 May 2011 (PLS went away in mid March of 2006 and came back on 15 May 2008).


----------



## nbuubu

Resist said:


> I have tried and tried, yet they still won't give me the $99 deal. My 3 year service contract expires in October for my Series 3. I really like Tivo but don't think $299 is anywhere close to a deal for a lifetime, even though I have paid that (and more) in the past.


I just got the $100 off lifetime offer on Sunday morning, and didn't like the $299 charge considering I've already sunk that amount in my S3 and would have bought lifetime at the time had it been offered.

I came here, found the email to try to get to support, and sent an email to them Sunday at noon.

I got a call from someone at Tivo Executive Support 4 hours later, on a Sunday. Was really surprised to get a response on a Sunday.

Called them back Monday, and was offered the $99 upgrade to lifetime with no hassles or anything. Was completely painless.

Really unfair if they're being selective with all the people who bought the 3-year maximum and are now having to jump through hoops.


----------



## TiVotion

After reading this thread I thought I'd give it a shot too.

I have an original S3 and an HD box currently active. Both have always been month to month. The main sub is $12.95 I think, and the MRD on the other box is $6.95/mo. I sent a very nice email to support basically just saying I'd been a customer for a very long time, have had several TiVos over the years, and wondering if I possibly qualified for the $99 lifetime deal I'd heard about recently. Got a call back within 90 minutes, and the person very politely told me they reviewed my account and would give me the deal on my main box (but not the other one, because it was already $6.95). Seemed like a good deal, so I took it. Providing I keep the PLS S3 box for 7-8 more months, I guess it will be. 

At some point, I would love to upgrade one of them to the new Premiere, but it's not in the budget at the moment (even though I got an email offering the basic Premiere for $209 through 8/31, which is very tempting).


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## mrjam2jab

I have 2 Series 2s on Lifetime...from before they did away with it. 
I have 1 Series 2 on $6.95 monthly...from before they had "service plans"
I just bought another Series 2 from Ebay.

I did not get an email from them...guess cuz i wasn't on a service plan.

What are my chances of getting $99 lifetime on at least one of them???

ETA: I just realized that my current montly Tivo IS on a 3 yr service plan...and it expires in October of this year. Does that help my chances any? or is this deal only for Series 3 tivos?


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## Kyrian

I bought my TiVo HD in September 2007 and bought a prepaid 3-year service subscription for $299. It was set to expire just a few days from now, and I received the $99 PLS offer via email today. I called and took advantage of it. 

YMMV, but I didn't receive the offer until just a few days before my service was set to expire.


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## gperschbacher

Thanks for all the tips in this thread.

I've been a Tivo subscriber off and on since 1999. My last Tivo was in 2006 and my current contract was set to expire. I wrote them an email asking about the $99 lifetime plan, they called me the next day and offered it to me. Thanks!


----------



## pdcullen

I have the offer for $99 on a S2DT which I am not currently using. I have a Premire on Monthly, and would like it to stay that way. 

I have analog cable and will use it as long as it is offered. I will only switch to Digital cable when I have to. 

I bought a new Tivo HD from Blockbuster for $100 and called to see if they would activate it lifetime for $99. No dice, it is only available for the S2DT.

I am trying to gauge the value of putting lifetime on the S2DT versus paying monthly for the HD.

My other option is to lifetime the S2DT, hang onto the HD and activate it monthly when it is needed.

Currently this unit is feeding a 27" CRT in the parlor.

Thoughts?


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## milo99

i'm in the 'bought a tivoHD in Oct 2007, bought 3yr prepaid plan activated on 11/6/2007 and got the $100 discount offer' group. i called last week asking for the $99 plan. Thought I was going to get it as the rep put me on hold for a couple minutes to get things done, but then came back and said i didn't qualify, it's only available now for S2s. but i may want to wait till a few weeks before i expire to see if i get the offer.

So i just wrote support a nice email to see if have the same luck as others.


----------



## pdcullen

In my case I think it is an S2 thing, I think the end of life for the technology is coming up fast (and passed in certain markets) and it is a push to get captured money from the units.


----------



## berkshires

Hi - what is the email address or phone # you call to ask for this $99 LT upgrade?

Has the upgrade been given on TiVos that were $6.95/mo for 3 yrs?

Thank you.


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## pdcullen

The number I called and the number listed in the email was the general customer support number.


----------



## mikeyts

berkshires said:


> Hi - what is the email address or phone # you call to ask for this $99 LT upgrade?


[email protected]; you send them e-mail and they call you. Calling their general support desk works now and then, but extremely infrequently.


> Has the upgrade been given on TiVos that were $6.95/mo for 3 yrs?


Once or twice, but mostly not. One problem is that $6.95 for 36 months is actually $50 less than the $300 prepaid plan. The last person I heard of who managed to convert his $6.95 3-year plan talked them into accepting $150 .


----------



## jaredmwright

I have been on the $6.95 plan for over 3 years and TiVo has been unwilling to offer me any discount, let alone $150 as the other commenter mentioned previously. I sent email and received a call back to talk about my question promptly which was very nice, but not helpful in the end since they wouldn't offer me any conversion to lifetime. 

I would hope that they would offer it to me at some point. I am debating on whether it is a good idea to remove the $6.95 TiVo HD since I have a Series3 and Premiere now. The only thing keeping me from cancelling it at this point is the Premiere symptoms that make it somewhat unreliable compared to my Series3 and HD including freezing and rebooting as others have mentioned.


----------



## mikeyts

Results seem to vary with the person you get on the phone, so it doesn't hurt to make multiple attempts. I've heard people report success after as many as five tries.


----------



## keenanSR

mikeyts said:


> Results seem to vary with the person you get on the phone, so it doesn't hurt to make multiple attempts. I've heard people report success after as many as five tries.


Absolutely, I think it took me at least 3 tries with the first being a flat out rejection, the second being a no response, while I think it was finally the third or fourth try that did the trick, no questions or explanations, they just did it. The longest part of the call was the rep reading the boilerplate.


----------



## berkshires

Thank you. I got a rejection, but I am going to try again. My S3 was 6.95 (mtm or 1yr original contract, don't remember) and became 12.95 about a year ago when I never fixed my dead lifetime S2. That S3 is 4yrs old (or is it 5 now?) from Nov of year of release, and obiviously has paid somewhat more - if that makes a difference.

Another TiVo HD is going to 9.95 from 6.95 in 2 weeks and 2 others plus 2 S2s are 6.95 "forever"


So I have 6 current active subed TiVos, 1 dead lifetime, and a peak of 7 simultaneous active subed TiVos over an 8.5 yr history. Hopefully some cred from that record.


----------



## innocentfreak

You really don't qualify for what the original offer was intended though so don't be surprised if you don't get it. The original offer was done to make a goodwill gesture to those customers who chose a 3 year prepaid plan since lifetime was no longer an option at the time.


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## TheWGP

Just wanted to report back and say that I'm still scheduled to hit the 99 renewal on October 24.

Also wanted to mention that my unit was a brand-new Tivo HD courtesy of Blockbuster, which I had just switched onto the old S2DT prepaid 3-year plan BEFORE I called in. It only took me one call, but I guess those prepaid 3-year plans were the target for this... I guess it's now YMMV on getting them to apply it to a Tivo HD transferred onto the plan.

I would definitely transfer from the S2DT to the HD BEFORE calling, if you're going to try this - that way there's no going back on it and they have less of an argument that "you can just keep that one too."


----------



## milo99

innocentfreak said:


> You really don't qualify for what the original offer was intended though so don't be surprised if you don't get it. The original offer was done to make a goodwill gesture to those customers who chose a 3 year prepaid plan since lifetime was no longer an option at the time.


yea.. that's my situation, but i have been refused over the phone, and i sent an email a month ago to [email protected] and haven't heard a peep. Just realized that others sent the email to [email protected] instead, so trying that route.


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## j_sunne

Activated a S2 in Dec 2007. Emailed [email protected] about the offer, and the next day got a rejection that I didn't qualify "at this time" but could call to take advantage of the $299 lifetime offer I recieved. 

I'l try again as it gets closer to my expiry date. I went the $299 prepaid route, so a bit surprised I was rejected. Maybe you need to be within a month or so of expiration to "qualify" for the $99 PLS.


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## milo99

well, turns out emaling the correct department ([email protected]) worked! sent the email Sunday, got an email back yesterday late afternoon telling me i was eligible, just need to call customer service and give them my reference #. did so and the guy gave me the $99 deal with no issues! 

another big thanks to the folks here!!  (my original 3 year sub ends on 11/6 fwiw)


----------



## mikeyts

milo99 said:


> well, turns out emaling the correct department ([email protected]) worked! sent the email Sunday, got an email back yesterday late afternoon telling me i was eligible, just need to call customer service and give them my reference #. did so and the guy gave me the $99 deal with no issues!
> 
> another big thanks to the folks here!!  (my original 3 year sub ends on 11/6 fwiw)


Did you have the 3-year prepaid or the $6.95 month-to-month with 3-year commitment (which actually works out to $50 less than the 3 year prepaid)? Above you answered a post that wasn't directed to you, but to someone who had the 3-year month-to-month.


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## djwilso

I recently received the email below from TiVo.

Originally, I was on a 3-year Prepay plan with my original Series 3 since lifetime was not available to me. Before this expired, I set a future Annual plan, which is going to expire in November.

They are saying that they will automatically charge my credit card for another year if I do nothing.

Will I become eligible for the $99 lifetime service if I wait until a couple days before November 18 and call them? Will I automatically get the email or do I have to call or email them ([email protected])?

Please advise on what I should do to get the best deal, and thanks in advance.



> Thank you for being a TiVo customer. Your credit card will automatically be billed for the TiVo service each year effective 11/18/2010 for your DVR with the TiVo service number 648XXXXXXXXXXX. The service renewal price is $129.00 per year plus any applicable taxes. The credit card we currently have on file ends in XXXX and expires in XX/XXXX. If you would like to update your credit card information or check out other service plans, please visit http://www.tivo.com/manage.
> 
> As a special thank you for being a TiVo customer, we would like to offer you a $100 savings on a Product Lifetime service upgrade. With Product Lifetime service, you can enjoy your TiVo DVR with no monthly bills for the life of your DVR. To take advantage of this limited-time special offer, please visit http://www.tivo.com/manage and select the Product Lifetime option from the future payment plan screen. Then, enter this promo code: PLSR.
> 
> Please note that you will need to make any changes to your service before 11/18/2010 to ensure plan changes are made prior to the next billing period.
> 
> Your friends at TiVo


----------



## keenanSR

djwilso said:


> I recently received the email below from TiVo.
> 
> Originally, I was on a 3-year Prepay plan with my original Series 3 since lifetime was not available to me. Before this expired, I set a future Annual plan, which is going to expire in November.
> 
> They are saying that they will automatically charge my credit card for another year if I do nothing.
> 
> Will I become eligible for the $99 lifetime service if I wait until a couple days before November 18 and call them? Will I automatically get the email or do I have to call or email them?
> 
> Please advise on what I should do to get the best deal, and thanks in advance.


Do not count on becoming eligible, I was in the same scenario as you, got a 3 year prepay when S3 was first purchased, then a 1 year prepay and had the same offer. I called and emailed multiple times about the $99 PLS deal and was denied until they finally said yes as if it was never an issue. I got the deal around a month before my service was due to expire, so if I were you I'd start trying to get a response from them now. If you fail, try again and again, I believe I tried 4 times before I succeeded.

In other words, doing nothing will virtually guarantee you get nothing(other than the auto-renew they've offered already).


----------



## djwilso

keenanSR said:


> Do not count on becoming eligible, I was in the same scenario as you, got a 3 year prepay when S3 was first purchased, then a 1 year prepay and had the same offer. I called and emailed multiple times about the $99 PLS deal and was denied until they finally said yes as if it was never an issue. I got the deal around a month before my service was due to expire, so if I were you I'd start trying to get a response from them now. If you fail, try again and again, I believe I tried 4 times before I succeeded.
> 
> In other words, doing nothing will virtually guarantee you get nothing(other than the auto-renew they've offered already).


Thanks for this advice. I will definitely put the time in to try to get this offer.


----------



## milo99

mikeyts said:


> Did you have the 3-year prepaid or the $6.95 month-to-month with 3-year commitment (which actually works out to $50 less than the 3 year prepaid)? Above you answered a post that wasn't directed to you, but to someone who had the 3-year month-to-month.


i was saying that i had the 3 year prepaid, purchased before lifetime was available.


----------



## unitron

berkshires said:


> ...My S3 was 6.95 ...and became 12.95 about a year ago when I never fixed my dead lifetime S2. ...


You lost your multi-unit discount because the lifetimed S2 died?

Can't you tell TiVo that you don't have a dead lifetimed unit, you just have a "not yet repaired" lifetimed unit?


----------



## mrjam2jab

unitron said:


> You lost your multi-unit discount because the lifetimed S2 died?
> 
> Can't you tell TiVo that you don't have a dead lifetimed unit, you just have a "not yet repaired" lifetimed unit?


Doesn't said lifetime unit have to "check in" at regular intervals to be considered active?


----------



## scandia101

mrjam2jab said:


> Doesn't said lifetime unit have to "check in" at regular intervals to be considered active?


A lifetime Tivo must "check in" at least every 180 days to maintain any MSD rates on other Tivos.


----------



## djwilso

Well, I sent in my first request to [email protected] for the $99 PLS promotion and got a denial the next day, shown below.

Should I use any particular wording or state that I will cancel my service in my next attempt?



> _Subject: $99 PLS for Series 3 w/ expiring 3 year contract
> 
> Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. Unfortunately it does not look like your account is eligible for the $99 Product Lifetime Service promotion. I apologize for any inconvenience.
> xxx-xxx is the reference number for this inquiry. Please refer to this number if you choose to contact us again regarding this request. In order to respond to this email, please log into your account at www.tivo.com/mysupport. Replies directly to this email will not be received._


----------



## innocentfreak

djwilso said:


> Well, I sent in my first request to [email protected] for the $99 PLS promotion and got a denial the next day, shown below.
> 
> Should I use any particular wording or state that I will cancel my service in my next attempt?


Not unless you truly opted for a 3 year contract prepaid because lifetime wasn't available and your 3 year contract is up or about to be up.


----------



## djwilso

innocentfreak said:


> Not unless you truly opted for a 3 year contract prepaid because lifetime wasn't available and your 3 year contract is up or about to be up.


I originally had a 3-year prepaid in Nov 2006 and got that because lifetime was not available.

At the end of that in Nov 2009, I added 1 year more of service which is now set to expire on Nov 18 2010.

Someone else above stated that they were in the same situation and were allowed by TiVo to get the $99 PLS deal.

Not sure why I would not be eligible as I've already paid an additional year beyond the people that are just getting the deal at the end of their initial 3 years.


----------



## keenanSR

djwilso said:


> I originally had a 3-year prepaid in Nov 2006 and got that because lifetime was not available.
> 
> At the end of that in Nov 2009, I added 1 year more of service which is now set to expire on Nov 18 2010.
> 
> Someone else above stated that they were in the same situation and were allowed by TiVo to get the $99 PLS deal.
> 
> Not sure why I would not be eligible as I've already paid an additional year beyond the people that are just getting the deal at the end of their initial 3 years.


Keep trying, I had the same scenario although I purchased my S3 the week they came out in Sept. On my first try I was told that the offer was only from Nov '06 on(which didn't make any sense to me, but whatever..) so maybe your purchase date is near or on that qualification date, although I'm not sure it really matters at this point.

Just keep trying, they actually called me back after sending the email the last time and it was a piece of cake, no story or pleading at all. I think it might be a matter getting the "right" CSR to respond.


----------



## unitron

djwilso said:


> I originally had a 3-year prepaid in Nov 2006 and got that because lifetime was not available.
> 
> At the end of that in Nov 2009, I added 1 year more of service which is now set to expire on Nov 18 2010.
> 
> Someone else above stated that they were in the same situation and were allowed by TiVo to get the $99 PLS deal.
> 
> Not sure why I would not be eligible as I've already paid an additional year beyond the people that are just getting the deal at the end of their initial 3 years.


Maybe at the end of that 3 years you were supposed to have automagically known that you were at that point eligible for lifetime, and by adding an additional year instead you are considered to have turned it down.

Contact TiVo again and ask if you would have been eligible for lifetime back in November of 2009. If they say no, ask why not, since others in your situation seem to have been. If they say yes, you would have been, ask them why they didn't tell you about it at renewal time--in other words, shame them into it.


----------



## keenanSR

unitron said:


> Maybe at the end of that 3 years you were supposed to have automagically known that you were at that point eligible for lifetime, and by adding an additional year instead you are considered to have turned it down.
> 
> Contact TiVo again and ask if you would have been eligible for lifetime back in November of 2009. If they say no, ask why not, since others in your situation seem to have been. If they say yes, you would have been, ask them why they didn't tell you about it at renewal time--in other words, shame them into it.


Not that he shouldn't try that, but I pretty much went through all that on my first try and never got what I considered to be a satisfactory, logical answer. From my own experience, it will be a no regardless of what you say, or, it will be so simple you'll wonder why you got so much resistance the previous times, it was literally a minute phone call the time it finally worked, the longest part was listening to the rep reading the boilerplate.


----------



## djwilso

djwilso said:


> Well, I sent in my first request to [email protected] for the $99 PLS promotion and got a denial the next day, shown below.
> 
> Should I use any particular wording or state that I will cancel my service in my next attempt?


I went back to them and explained that others were in my same situation and being approved for the $99 PLS promotion and they came back today and agreed. Here is their response:



> Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. Looking deeper into your account and the promotion offered I am pleased to let you know that you do indeed qualify for the discounted product lifetime service plan offer. For some reason our system was not showing you as eligible and I de[sic] sincerely apologize for the error. To take advantage of the promotion you can phone our customer support team and they will be able to apply the special rate for you. The number is 1-877-367-8486. Please provide them with reference number XXXXXX-XXXXXX so they can pull up your account and the notes I have entered.


I called them and spoke to a very nice guy that wasn't able to do the transaction himself but created a new ticket for level 2 support to complete the transaction within 3 to 5 business days. I was read the terms of the PLS and did the survey at the end.

All in all, it went just fine. Hopefully, L2 will get it done as promised and I won't need to call again to complain.

Thanks to all of you here in this thread for your information and guidance on this matter. I really appreciate it.


----------



## milo99

djwilso said:


> I went back to them and explained that others were in my same situation and being approved for the $99 PLS promotion and they came back today and agreed. Here is their response:
> 
> I called them and spoke to a very nice guy that wasn't able to do the transaction himself but created a new ticket for level 2 support to complete the transaction within 3 to 5 business days. I was read the terms of the PLS and did the survey at the end.
> 
> All in all, it went just fine. Hopefully, L2 will get it done as promised and I won't need to call again to complain.
> 
> Thanks to all of you here in this thread for your information and guidance on this matter. I really appreciate it.


interesting. that's the email i got too, but when i called, the guy i talked to didn't need to create a ticket for L2, he was able to take care of it right there and then, and i verbally agreed to the ToS and what not.

my current plan expires 11/5, and on my Tivo account online, it has under the future plan column:

_Scheduled plan:
$99.00 Product Lifetime service_


----------



## djwilso

milo99 said:


> interesting. that's the email i got too, but when i called, the guy i talked to didn't need to create a ticket for L2, he was able to take care of it right there and then, and i verbally agreed to the ToS and what not.
> 
> my current plan expires 11/5, and on my Tivo account online, it has under the future plan column:
> 
> _Scheduled plan:
> $99.00 Product Lifetime service_


He said something along the lines that he "didn't have a code" to use to put into the system to give me the promotional rate and so level 2 support would need to do it.

I just checked my account page, and it shows this:










So, it looks like it's in the works.


----------



## GAViewer

Based on this thread I called Tivo yesterday and after a transfer to Level 2 and several "Can you hold for a few minutes", I got the $99 deal.


----------



## TheWGP

My Tivo HD (switched from a 3-year prepaid plan on a S2DT) just went onto lifetime after they successfully charged my card the $99 today. I was halfway expecting it to somehow go wrong... nothing yet! *knock on wood*

Thanks to all in this thread for letting me know this was possible; together with the Blockbuster $99 Tivo HD, I'm set for awhile!


----------



## AntiPC

AntiPC said:


> Shot down here. My tivo HD was activated with a prepaid 3 year in 10/07. According to the CSR, 5/07 is the cutoff.


I stopped the month to month plan from starting, sent an email last week requesting the offer, and got the email of the $99 offer today. So the HD box is lifetimed. :up:


----------



## sfvtivo

Nice deal.


----------



## [email protected]

Well, it took a while, but I eventually got this all sorted out.

When I first called, at the end of September, I was told that the cutoff date on the offer was for DVRs purchased before the end of October. But as the original expiration date had been April, IIRC, there was a good chance that the deal would be extended.
So around two weeks ago I called TiVo again, and was told that I was, indeed, eligible.
"Give us a few days to sort it out", I was told, "and you should see the change reflected on your account". A week and a half go by, and there's still no progress, so I call again.
Apparently the account shows approval for the upgrade, but for some reason that's all - the status hasn't been changed. It's bounced up the chain (again), and I'm assured that this is all fixed, and the account should upgrade in a day or so.
Fast forward to the end of the week, and the account still doesn't show the change. So I call in again, and after a somewhat longer wait on hold than the system predicted (15 minutes, not the 5 minute estimate) I get through to an account rep, and give her the reference number. Sure enough, she confirms what I see, and puts me on hold while she escalates it one more time.
About a minute later she's back, and apparently has the authorisation code she needs. She reads me the boilerplate agreement over the phone, I OK it, and we're done.
As soon as I get off the phone I re-check the account status, and it shows a future plan of $99 Product Lifetime Service starting when my original 3-year plan runs out (which is around two weeks from now).

So that's taken care of. Now I just need to deal with my second box (bought at the same time, with lifetime service - it was available when adding a second system to an existing account). It's doing a very good impression of a brick. It started by just going into a reboot cycle, but after a few times it didn't even do that, but just sat there with no lights on the front, no fan noise - nothing. Then, just to confuse me, about a day later it blinked the green "power" light on the front of the box a couple of times. I think it's dead, Jim.

I'm wondering whether to go for an out-of-warranty exchange (which should preserve the lifetime service status, right?), switch to a Premiere, or fall back to a single-TiVo household. Decisions, decisions ...


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## Tivoitis

I had a 3-yr prepaid and a 3-yr monthly, and received the $99 PLS email only for the 3-yr prepaid. I called in to discuss getting PLS on both, but the CSR told me I was only eligible on the 3-yr prepaid. When I couldn't get it for both, I declined to renew

I called back at a later date (I think a day or two before the end of the original 3-yr prepaid), went directly to the cancellation department and asked that the $99 PLS be made available for both. This CSR put me on hold and eventually came back with good news - $99 PLS for both, which I happily agreed to.


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## j_sunne

My service was activated Dec 2007 and under no circumstances have I been able to get the offer. I had emailed tivo-support 3 times being rejected each time, called and was escalated to level2 and finally set out to cancel service. The best I was offered was $199 lifetime or $9.99 /mo by the agent processing my cancellation. I was told I needed to provide an email offering me the $99PLS by the first agent, while the cancellation agent, after speaking to accounting, said he was told $99 PLS is no longer offered as of Nov1. I had been emailing support about this since mid October, but it didn't matter. 
This runaround has left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm much more likely to look into alternatives to tivo over the next couple of months.


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## shwru980r

I doubt you can do can do any better than the $199 lifetime service offer.


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## j_sunne

I went with the $9.99, but the fact it's so arbitrary is whats maddening. If the $99 PLS was offered to make up for the fact that lifetime wasn't available when subscribers signed up for a 3 year prepay, those of us who were new subscribers between Dec 2007 and May 2008 who went with the 3 year prepay should also be able get this offer. During those months only current subscribers could get lifetime.


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## mikeyts

j_sunne said:


> I went with the $9.99, but the fact it's so arbitrary is whats maddening. If the $99 PLS was offered to make up for the fact that lifetime wasn't available when subscribers signed up for a 3 year prepay, those of us who were new subscribers between Dec 2007 and May 2008 who went with the 3 year prepay should also be able get this offer. During those months only current subscribers could get lifetime.


PLS actually went away on 15 April 2006 and returned on 15 May 2008. I did a little research and posted it here.


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## j_sunne

I thought current subscribers had lifetime available for a while before new subscribers around Nov 2007. I never had an opportunity to get it in Dec 2007.
With my first correspondances with tivo-support over this issue, I was told lifetime was available when I signed up. It wasn't. After working my way to level 2 after several more email rejections, I'm now being told the $99 PLS expired at the end of Novemeber and nothing can be done about it even though I'd been asking about it for weeks. I'm surprised more folks here aren't hitting this Dec 2007 wall.


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## mikeyts

There was a special offer or two which gave current subscribers access to PLS when buying a new unit, and I suppose that if you were a current subscriber who bought a new unit and passed on PLS you don't deserve this deal.


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## shwru980r

j_sunne said:


> I went with the $9.99, but the fact it's so arbitrary is whats maddening. If the $99 PLS was offered to make up for the fact that lifetime wasn't available when subscribers signed up for a 3 year prepay, those of us who were new subscribers between Dec 2007 and May 2008 who went with the 3 year prepay should also be able get this offer. During those months only current subscribers could get lifetime.


But the fact remains that $199 PLS is still a good deal and could easily be recouped if you decide to sell the Tivo and go with another option. An S3 without lifetime service isn't worth very much.


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## jayerndl

Was/is the $99 PLS offer applicable for the series 2 units? I bought a S2 in Dec. 2006 with a $299 3 year plan (i don't think PLS was available at the time). I then renewed for $129 for the next year. Any way to get PLS for $99 on this unit? Thanks.

Jay


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## darksurtur

jayerndl said:


> Was/is the $99 PLS offer applicable for the series 2 units? I bought a S2 in Dec. 2006 with a $299 3 year plan (i don't think PLS was available at the time). I then renewed for $129 for the next year. Any way to get PLS for $99 on this unit? Thanks.
> 
> Jay


I'm not sure this is even worth bothering about. The value of a lifetimed S2 is around that, so if you want one just grab one from ebay or craigslist and end up with extra hardware.


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## djwilso

jayerndl said:


> Was/is the $99 PLS offer applicable for the series 2 units? I bought a S2 in Dec. 2006 with a $299 3 year plan (i don't think PLS was available at the time). I then renewed for $129 for the next year. Any way to get PLS for $99 on this unit? Thanks.
> 
> Jay


It's probably worth sending off an email with your details to [email protected] to see what they say.


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## lessd

jayerndl said:


> Was/is the $99 PLS offer applicable for the series 2 units? I bought a S2 in Dec. 2006 with a $299 3 year plan (i don't think PLS was available at the time). I then renewed for $129 for the next year. Any way to get PLS for $99 on this unit? Thanks.
> 
> Jay


It was only for people who paid a 3 year pre-pay when Lifetime Service was not offered as an option.


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## mikeyts

lessd said:


> It was only for people who paid a 3 year pre-pay when Lifetime Service was not offered as an option.


His main problem is that he signed up for another plan before they made the offer. AFAIK, everyone who got this offer had pre-paid plans which were going to expire soon.


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## tmrfe

j_sunne said:


> After working my way to level 2 after several more email rejections, I'm now being told the $99 PLS expired at the end of Novemeber and nothing can be done about it even though I'd been asking about it for weeks. I'm surprised more folks here aren't hitting this Dec 2007 wall.


I am one of those customers that hit that wall. The Level 2 CSR I spoke to claims that I am not eligible for the $99 offer because PLS was available as of November 2007. Unfortunately, TiVo support fails to have any record of the fact that a new customer, such as myself, could not have purchased a TiVo with Lifetime Service in December 2007. PLS was only available to existing customers purchasing a new box. Providing published news articles to that end failed to convince TiVo support of the facts. It is my opinion, based on TiVo's reasoning for making this offer available to anyone at all, the $99 PLS offer should be extended to new customers in the time-frame from November 2007 to May 2008.

As I have already sunk a large amount of money into my Series 3 (including out-of-warranty repairs), I've decided that $99 is my absolute cut-off. Shortly, I will be canceling my service and moving away from cable to Uverse. But in the end, it's really TiVo's loss. I was planning on chalking up my TiVo purchase as an expensive, but decent, DVR experiment before getting rid of the whole thing at the end of my three-year prepaid term. With this offer, TiVo could have gotten $99 more of my money and some positive word-of-mouth, but due to their odd and arbitrary pricing policies, they will now get zero additional dollars from me. Sorry TiVo.


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## j_sunne

I'm curious what they'll offer you after you cancel. 

I'm sure they know lifetime wasn't available for folks in our position, but accounting pushed a few pencils and decided they needed to stop the $99 PLS. Perhaps they sold quite a few units Dec 2007-May 2008 and are hoping expiring 3 year plans will drive some Premiere sales.

As suggested above, I'll likely call back and ask for the $199. I went pretty far into the cancellation process and that was the best I was offered as a Dec 2007 3 year prepay. At least the S3 then has some resale value.


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## tmrfe

j_sunne said:


> I'm curious what they'll offer you after you cancel.


So, I finally called TiVo to cancel my account (after being refused the $99 PLS offer by a Level 2 CSR). As soon as I informed the cancellation CSR why I wanted to cancel my service, his response was, "Well that's strange that the other customer service rep told you that deal was not available to you, because the first thing that popped up on my screen was the $99 lifetime service offer. Do you want to take advantage it now?"

Clearly, the solution to this problem for all the late 2007, 3-year prepaid folks trying to get the $99 offer is this: start the cancellation process and bring up the $99 PLS offer.

I've still chosen to leave Charter (and thus TiVo) for the greener pastures of U-verse, but, at $99...lifetime service is an offer that's hard to turn down. As others have said before, at least it gives my Series 3 some resale value.

Smart move TiVo...it turns out you really DO want my money.


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## j_sunne

tmrfe said:


> So, I finally called TiVo to cancel my account (after being refused the $99 PLS offer by a Level 2 CSR). As soon as I informed the cancellation CSR why I wanted to cancel my service, his response was, "Well that's strange that the other customer service rep told you that deal was not available to you, because the first thing that popped up on my screen was the $99 lifetime service offer. Do you want to take advantage it now?"
> 
> Clearly, the solution to this problem for all the late 2007, 3-year prepaid folks trying to get the $99 offer is this: start the cancellation process and bring up the $99 PLS offer......


Thanks for this. I just went through the same thing. "First thing that popped up"

Frustrating customer service experience, but overall I'm happy with my S3 and Tivo. Very happy with $99 PLS. Hope it lasts a few years.


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## j_sunne

Chalk this up to funny coincidences.

Cleaning up my inbox today, I saw I received an email from Tivo yesterday offering me the $99 PLS offer about 2 hrs before I called and started the cancellation process. This was 5 days before my service was to go to monthly.

So if you're a December 2007 3 year prepay person, keep an eye on your inbox. We're no longer excluded from the offer and you might not have to threaten to quit to get it.


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## rdkapp

Found this thread after being thoroughly frustrated with Tivo CSRs. I have a Series 2 DT that I bought in December 2006 and they had recently discontinued the Lifetime Service option. I remember talking at length about it with a Tivo Sales Rep at the time. I knew several people that had recently bought their Tivos and received the Lifetime Service for $299/$399 (can't remember which). Instead, I had to settle for the 3-year prepaid service for $299. It expired December 2009 and at the time, the email I received only offered me $12.95 per month or $100 off Lifetime Service with the promo code PLSR.

Today, I called to find out my options with regard to my S2 and to possibly take advantage of the Holiday deal on the Tivo Premiere as I now have HD where the S2 currently is. 1st CSR I spoke to told me my only Lifetime Service option on the S2 is $399. I told him that because Lifetime Service was not available at the time, I had already paid for a 3-year service contract at $299 and 12 months of $12.95 (total $454.40) and I wasn't interested in paying an additional $399 for Lifetime Service on a 4-year old box, nor was I interested in paying a monthly charge for service on 2 boxes. I told him that if he could somehow get me Lifetime Service on my S2 gratis or for minimal cost, I would order the Premiere on the spot. He said $399 period and wouldn't budge. I wasn't ready to escalate it to a supervisor yet, so I ended the call.

I then spoke to a friend that has Lifetime Service on an older S2 without ethernet and since he's not using his box anymore (he has Direct TV), he offered to let me have it to see what I could do. So, I called back, and found out I could not transfer the Lifetime Service to my box, but I could take ownership of his box and have the Lifetime Service with it. Decent option, but since it lacks ethernet, I'm not that interested. This CSR then proceeded to tell me that he could offer me Lifetime on my S2 for $99. I was pleasantly surprised at this offer, but didn't jump on it because I had to end the call to get somewhere. Later this evening, I found this site and more importantly, this thread.

I find it interesting that 2 CSRs could have vastly different information. It was also a bit surprising that the 1st CSR didn't at least seek out a supervisor when I said I would order Premiere on the spot if he could do something for me with the S2, and it really makes me wonder if Tivo is a rudderless ship or if there is just some rogue CSR who answered my 1st call. I can tell you now though, that I have very little interest in the Tivo Premiere and am leaning toward doing the $99 Lifetime Service upgrade and then start working on my own DVR solution. I've read some of the posts in this thread about the Ceton quad tuner, and am interested. I will be researching it some more in the near future.

I am interested in any further input on this subject.


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## whm

I just upgraded to a Premiere (transferred the account to the new box and let the old Series 2 expire). Within a month of letting the S2 service expire, I got the $99 offer to reactivate it for life. Don't know if I'll do since it's not HD. It's tempting though. Comcast has gone to digital so it's harder to actually use the dual tuner capability.


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## unitron

whm said:


> I just upgraded to a Premiere (transferred the account to the new box and let the old Series 2 expire). Within a month of letting the S2 service expire, I got the $99 offer to reactivate it for life. Don't know if I'll do since it's not HD. It's tempting though. Comcast has gone to digital so it's harder to actually use the dual tuner capability.


If that's a dual-tuner S2 (TCD649xxx), you could activate lifetime and then sell to me.


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## lewknukem

I have a Tivo Premier with lifetime but also have an old Tivo Series 2. Unfortunately I bought it a few years ago during the exact few months when they stopped offering lifetime service. 

I just got down to 2 months left on my Tivo Series2 and I was emailed an offer to save $100 on a lifetime subscription for this box (so still $299, no way I'd pay that). I knew of this $99 offer from reading these boards and so I just called to 'cancel' my service and brought up this offer. The Rep said he knew of this offer and told me if I wait a month I should get that email too. Well, I asked if we can take care of it now and so when he tried to see about getting me the offer now instead it 'popped up on the screen' for him. Good luck to everyone else attempting this!


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## waterchange

Apologize if this has already been stated but ...

For those of you who have older S2 units and are still paying monthly but are eligible for the $99 lifetime option, consider the following option. Get a hold of a cheap HD unit first (check Craigslist)). Transfer service from the S2 to the HD first and then add the lifetime. I did this last summer with a $99 Tivo HD that Blockbuster was clearing out and am satisfied effectively paying $200 to get a lifetime HD unit.


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## Jim5506

I just bought an HD TiVo (652-160) through Craigslist from a fellow here in town. He advertized it for $100, and when I asked him what service he had he said it was monthly, but TiVo offered him lifetime service for it for $99 when he called to cancel.

I offered to pay him $200 for it if he could get the lifetime and then transfer ownership to me, which we did yesterday.

The seller showed me the confirmation e-mail from TiVo and forwarded it to me.

It works fine and still has a couple of weeks on the last of the monthly service.

In the next day or so, I'll call TiVo and get it transferred to my account.


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## wmcbrine

Jim5506 said:


> It works fine and still has a couple of weeks on the last of the monthly service.
> 
> In the next day or so, I'll call TiVo and get it transferred to my account.


You might want to wait until it actually gets lifetime before you transfer it.


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