# Charter CableCARD Problems.. Sigh. (TiVo Host ID)



## Billy56 (Sep 4, 2007)

Hello All,

I called the TiVo sales line last week about the promo going on for Series2 owners to get a Premiere with Lifetime and Wireless Adapter for $399.99 - I did not qualify online when I entered my current S2 TSN (It's a lifetime'd box I have had for years but haven used in over a year) - Needless to say I qualified when I called in and my new Premiere was just delivered so I called Charter right away to get my CableCard... That's where the problems began.. They will not let me pickup or have a card delivered until I give them the TiVo Host ID but from everything that I have read online about getting it I need to have the actual Card inserted into my TiVo in order for me to access that menu setting where it will be displayed and Charter says until they have the ID that they will not give me a CC because they need to have it bonded before I leave their office or they come to my home, I did have a TiVoHD years back but I had to give it up when life stepped in and I just couldn't afford it back then and I had no problems picking up a card then.

Any advice on what I should do or tell them the next time I try? I have called and spoken to 3 different people and even the 800 number and they are telling me the exact same thing. :/


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## DancnDude (Feb 7, 2001)

You can get a self-install for Charter cablecards. I have Charter and did the install a few months ago. Just went to their local office, said I wanted to get a cablecard for self-install, and took it home. Do you have a local office you can just go to?

You can theoretically get them to activate it through the chat or by calling. I had a bunch of problems with the first-line support, but after contacting TiVo, they suggested I tweet Charter's team. What do to you know, the Charter Twitter people fixed my problem and the cablecard was up and running in 15 minutes. Good luck!


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## ScubaCat (Jun 26, 2003)

DancnDude said:


> You can get a self-install for Charter cablecards. I have Charter and did the install a few months ago. Just went to their local office, said I wanted to get a cablecard for self-install, and took it home. Do you have a local office you can just go to?
> 
> You can theoretically get them to activate it through the chat or by calling. I had a bunch of problems with the first-line support, but after contacting TiVo, they suggested I tweet Charter's team. What do to you know, the Charter Twitter people fixed my problem and the cablecard was up and running in 15 minutes. Good luck!


Did you use @Charter or @Umatter2Charter? I'm beginning to think I'll never get this cable card activated properly. I've picked up cards for self-install twice, spent hours on the phone with tech support and been stood up for a truck roll (so far). I've never tweeted before but I have an account to follow others.


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## DancnDude (Feb 7, 2001)

ScubaCat said:


> Did you use @Charter or @Umatter2Charter? I'm beginning to think I'll never get this cable card activated properly. I've picked up cards for self-install twice, spent hours on the phone with tech support and been stood up for a truck roll (so far). I've never tweeted before but I have an account to follow others.


I contacted @Umatter2Charter Somebody tweeted back in about 5 minutes. I had to follow them, and they had to follow me. Then we could tweet privately and they got all my cablecard numbers and such via Direct Message after that. Was all working within 30-45 minutes. Certainly worth trying!


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## ScubaCat (Jun 26, 2003)

Thanks for your response. I tried sending a tweet to @Umatter2Charter and never got a response. Then I realized I had my twitter account set to private - so I assume it was never seen. I changed my setting to public and tried to resend the same tweet but now I'm getting an error message (forbidden). It's only my second tweet! I can't win for losing today. 

I'll figure it out eventually. I do appreciate the suggestion. I don't think the local Charter guys will ever get this right.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

ScubaCat said:


> Thanks for your response. I tried sending a tweet to @Umatter2Charter and never got a response. Then I realized I had my twitter account set to private - so I assume it was never seen. I changed my setting to public and tried to resend the same tweet but now I'm getting an error message (forbidden). It's only my second tweet! I can't win for losing today.
> 
> I'll figure it out eventually. I do appreciate the suggestion. I don't think the local Charter guys will ever get this right.


Use https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/charterdirect. Give them your account info, the host id, the data id, and the serial number of the card and they will activate it. The Charter Direct forum is private so no one can see your info (they have a regular Charter forum so don't confuse them when posting).


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## ScubaCat (Jun 26, 2003)

Thanks rainwater! I'll give that a try.:up:

I figured out why the tweet didn't work. Apparently you can't send the exact same tweet twice. I added one character and it went. #StillLearning


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## ScubaCat (Jun 26, 2003)

I heard back from Charter on Twitter before I could finish setting up an account on DSL Reports, so I'm going to see how that turns out first. It's already been several hours so I guess my problem must be a little more complicated than DancnDude. I have received a few messages, so they are working on the problem. :up:


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## DancnDude (Feb 7, 2001)

ScubaCat said:


> I heard back from Charter on Twitter before I could finish setting up an account on DSL Reports, so I'm going to see how that turns out first. It's already been several hours so I guess my problem must be a little more complicated than DancnDude. I have received a few messages, so they are working on the problem. :up:


Glad to hear that at least they are looking at it. And to know that these guys are at least higher than the first tier support so they have more knowledge about how things work and they just aren't reading from a script.


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## ScubaCat (Jun 26, 2003)

They fixed it! Thanks for pointing toward the people that could actually fix my problem. I now have all my channels. Hooray!

I'm going to remember this avenue if I ever have any serious problems again.


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## DancnDude (Feb 7, 2001)

ScubaCat said:


> They fixed it! Thanks for pointing toward the people that could actually fix my problem. I now have all my channels. Hooray!
> 
> I'm going to remember this avenue if I ever have any serious problems again.


Very glad to hear it! :up: :up:


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

ScubaCat said:


> They fixed it! Thanks for pointing toward the people that could actually fix my problem. I now have all my channels. Hooray!
> 
> I'm going to remember this avenue if I ever have any serious problems again.


DSLReports and Twitter are the same team at Charter. I use them all the time for pairing cablecards because they never have had a problem doing it unlike installers who try to come out and fail every time. I would use them over calling tech support every time.


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## ScubaCat (Jun 26, 2003)

rainwater said:


> DSLReports and Twitter are the same team at Charter. I use them all the time for pairing cablecards because they never have had a problem doing it unlike installers who try to come out and fail every time. I would use them over calling tech support every time.


I'm glad to know both paths lead to the same team. I absolutely agree with you about using them in the future for cablecard issues.

No one at my local Charter office ever asked me for any information beyond the serial number of the cablecard - which they should have had already from when I picked it up at their office. I knew when Ashton asked for my Host ID and Data ID that the problem was about to be solved at last.


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