# Bolt after the "free" 1 year service



## junesen (Jun 17, 2008)

What are people doing with their Bolts after the included first year of service? 

I bought a BOLT for about the price of 1 year service because I wanted to try out some of its features (skip mode, stream, faster CPU, faster Ethernet). But I found out that I don't really use stream and the other features are not noticeably better than the 2 Roamios I have. I was pretty much going to let the Bolt service lapse and have it sitting in a closet until my old TiVo-HD (which I gave to my parents) died. 

I might be tempted to get some sort of service on the BOLT and have my parents use it if there is some good deal. Has anyone gotten any good deals for their Bolts after the included service has expired?


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## VillaRegina (Aug 25, 2016)

Where did you buy your Bolt? I bought mine from Tivo in August 2016. I had to decide on monthly, yearly or lifetime! I don't remember getting a year of service? 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


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## Fant (Sep 1, 2016)

VillaRegina said:


> Where did you buy your Bolt? I bought mine from Tivo in August 2016. I had to decide on monthly, yearly or lifetime! I don't remember getting a year of service?
> 
> Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


It depends on how you bought it. Amazon still has it with a year service included if you want. It the price is higher.

I'm in the same boat. Which plan did you get?


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## junesen (Jun 17, 2008)

VillaRegina said:


> Where did you buy your Bolt?


I bought mine off of craiglist from someone who won it in a drawing and didn't want it.


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## VillaRegina (Aug 25, 2016)

I chose the 1-year... I read (and was told by Tivo) that sometimes they give a discount at the end of the 1-year to renew (but I think that I would do lifetime if it were discounted). I have cut the cord and so Tivo's dvr and I are now attached at the hip!!! 

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


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## VillaRegina (Aug 25, 2016)

junesen said:


> I bought mine off of craiglist from someone who won it in a drawing and didn't want it.


Niiiice! You must have gotten a great deal!!!

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

When TiVo released the Bolt it listed for $299 and included 1 year of service. For several months that was the only option. Then some time this spring TiVo changed course and started offering them without service with a list price of $199.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

atmuscarella said:


> When TiVo released the Bolt it listed for $299 and included 1 year of service. For several months that was the only option. Then some time this spring TiVo changed course and started offering them without service with a list price of $199.


That's exactly right.

I got one of those units with one year included.

For those like me, I remember very well that when I had to call to activate, I was asked to provide a credit card and pick one of the available plans (monthly or annual) for when the one-year included runs out. I picked the annual plan at $149/year.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

thyname said:


> That's exactly right.
> 
> I got one of those units with one year included.
> 
> For those like me, I remember very well that when I had to call to activate, I was asked to provide a credit card and pick one of the available plans (monthly or annual) for when the one-year included runs out. I picked the annual plan at $149/year.


Yes. That is what i did when I activated my two Bolts online. I just need to make sure I cancel before the year is up so they don't charge me the $149. If they offered me $300 for lifetime I would go that route. Or a $6.95 a month payment, like I have on my Roamio basic. Otherwise i will be letting those subscriptions expire and go back to using my Roamio Pro as my primary TiVo for recordings.


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## scottfll954 (Jul 31, 2012)

i know that I will get lots of Backlash from this

I called to cancel mine 1 month ahead so it would not auto recharge

and put it in the closet till I find out its been improved

After the one year price the X1 was the same price (condo living pricing).. and I do believe feature wise it adds more value for my TV viewing

Scott


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

Mine is coming due Oct.5 so will have to make a decision soon. 

Got the Bolt mainly for the commercial skip feature and now that my 2 Roamios have it I could live without the Bolt.

Will probably cancel the service unless they give me a good deal on "All in".


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## mjcxp (Nov 22, 2013)

They offered me $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year. I will most likely cancel and use my lifetime Roamio Pro. At the end of the day, the Bolt doesn't offer many tangible benefits over the Roamio Pro.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

VillaRegina said:


> Niiiice! You must have gotten a great deal!!!
> 
> Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


How is the antenna project going?


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## VillaRegina (Aug 25, 2016)

thyname said:


> How is the antenna project going?


Thanks for asking! I was going to update when I had news! I only had 3 companies involved. One gave me a $699 price without even seeing the job... One came out - it was just "a guy" who only takes cash and I immediately had second thoughts about... One is licensed and insured and is a pair of guys who are booked way in advance (they do home theater and computer network installations, as well) and I think my job is pretty tough for the money but they have promised me that they will get it done... I figure I am losing shows because of pixelation (mostly 3 and 27) but I was paying $120 a month to Dish and didn't have them for months! So I am going to be patient for a while... I didn't really want anyone on the roof when we were going through a period of 110 degree heat indexes! Now we just had a week of bad rain and flooding... We should have cooler weather for the next month and a half... I want it DONE by then!!! Fingers crossed!!!

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


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## aspexil (Oct 16, 2015)

Well, I'm set up for the annual plan. Since we only have a Bolt and we are OTA there is no other option. We need a DVR as we hardly watch anything live (just the morning and evening news really). And with the Mini in the basement the WAF is high because she can watch tv while working out without having to punch holes in the wall to run more antenna cable down there. 

Considering what we used to pay for Comcast this is still a bargain even if we are forking out for SlingTV too.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

VillaRegina said:


> Thanks for asking! I was going to update when I had news! I only had 3 companies involved. One gave me a $699 price without even seeing the job... One came out - it was just "a guy" who only takes cash and I immediately had second thoughts about... One is licensed and insured and is a pair of guys who are booked way in advance (they do home theater and computer network installations, as well) and I think my job is pretty tough for the money but they have promised me that they will get it done... I figure I am losing shows because of pixelation (mostly 3 and 27) but I was paying $120 a month to Dish and didn't have them for months! So I am going to be patient for a while... I didn't really want anyone on the roof when we were going through a period of 110 degree heat indexes! Now we just had a week of bad rain and flooding... We should have cooler weather for the next month and a half... I want it DONE by then!!! Fingers crossed!!!
> 
> Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk


Thanks for the update. Keep us posted on your Original Thread.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

mjcxp said:


> They offered me $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year. I will most likely cancel and use my lifetime Roamio Pro. At the end of the day, the Bolt doesn't offer many tangible benefits over the Roamio Pro.


Yes, this is exactly what I was offered and told is their offer for those coming off of their free year of service too.


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## dhoward (Mar 15, 2002)

I don't know how you people get these deals. every time I read about a deal that will save me money when I call Tivo they never heard of it. I just called and they claim there is no such deal. I am now on hold waiting for a "level One" rep. How do you people do it? Is there a special number you call?

The Level One knew nothing about it either. Instead I settled on converting my Roamio Basic to lifetime for $199.00 Lucky me....


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

dhoward said:


> I don't know how you people get these deals. every time I read about a deal that will save me money when I call Tivo they never heard of it. I just called and they claim there is no such deal. I am now on hold waiting for a "level One" rep. How do you people do it? Is there a special number you call?
> 
> The Level One knew nothing about it either. Instead I settled on converting my Roamio Basic to lifetime for $199.00 Lucky me....


I agree, it never works when I call TiVo for these so-called deals. I'm probably going to cancel when my free year is up unless they can do something for me on the lifetime especially since they're already coming out with new Bolts.


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## rjrsouthwest (Feb 19, 2016)

atmuscarella said:


> When TiVo released the Bolt it listed for $299 and included 1 year of service. For several months that was the only option. Then some time this spring TiVo changed course and started offering them without service with a list price of $199.


I bought one of the bolts that came with one year of free service from Fry's Electronics when they were closing them out for $199 with free shipping. When I registered it I got the first year of service for free and the one year $150 renewal was automatically selected.

I guess when the renewal comes do I will have to call and see what kind of deal I can work out.


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## junesen (Jun 17, 2008)

mjcxp said:


> They offered me $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year. I will most likely cancel and use my lifetime Roamio Pro. At the end of the day, the Bolt doesn't offer many tangible benefits over the Roamio Pro.


I feel the same way. I think the problem for me is that they went with the 2.5" hard drives. Which means that getting a replacement drive will cost > 3x than if they went with a 3.5" drive (or adding an "external" internal 3.5" drive which I consider a big kludge).

So I'll probably try to sell it after the "free 1 year service" is over. What's the going rate for a 500GB Bolt with no service?

Jeff


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

mjcxp said:


> They offered me $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year. I will most likely cancel and use my lifetime Roamio Pro. At the end of the day, the Bolt doesn't offer many tangible benefits over the Roamio Pro.


Same deal for me so I canceled, might hang onto the Bolt for a while just in case any all in deals pop up.


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## mjcxp (Nov 22, 2013)

I was told that if you cancel the Bolt service plan you will lose the continual care warranty if you reactivate it in the future. Last night, I transferred my old recordings and season passes from my Bolt to my Roamio Pro. The Roamio Pro felt a lot slower than I remembered so I decided to keep the Bolt on the promotional $12.99/month plan.


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

What is the 'continual care' warranty?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

mattyro7878 said:


> What is the 'continual care' warranty?


A continuously monthly or annually subbed Bolt that becomes defective will be replaced for $50. There is no time limit on the warranty it runs for as long as the unit has a continuous monthly or annual sub.


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

I wasnt aware of that, thank you. Do my audio dropouts constitute a defective Bolt? I have a Premiere in the same system and it has no dropouts whatsoever. swapped coax feeds, dropouts stayed with Bolt


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mjcxp said:


> I was told that if you cancel the Bolt service plan you will lose the continual care warranty if you reactivate it in the future. Last night, I transferred my old recordings and season passes from my Bolt to my Roamio Pro. The Roamio Pro felt a lot slower than I remembered so I decided to keep the Bolt on the promotional $12.99/month plan.


If true then that sucks. Although I've voided my warranties anyway when I added the 4TB drives to my Bolts.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

mattyro7878 said:


> I wasnt aware of that, thank you. Do my audio dropouts constitute a defective Bolt? I have a Premiere in the same system and it has no dropouts whatsoever. swapped coax feeds, dropouts stayed with Bolt


I can assure you that TiVo tech support will blame something on your side such as your cable, antenna, internet, etc. They have blamed my equipment for the last several times that I've called.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

lujan said:


> I can assure you that TiVo tech support will blame something on your side such as your cable, antenna, internet, etc. They have blamed my equipment for the last several times that I've called.


What causes the audio dropouts? I don't have any with either of my Bolts.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> What causes the audio dropouts? I don't have any with either of my Bolts.


I don't know but anytime I've had other issues with the Bolt which I never had with the Premiere the CS have told me that it's my problem. This is why I don't think I will get the lifetime when my year is up unless they have a really good sale.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

lujan said:


> I don't know but anytime I've had other issues with the Bolt which I never had with the Premiere the CS have told me that it's my problem. This is why I don't think I will get the lifetime when my year is up unless they have a really good sale.


Audio dropouts would be extremely annoying.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

One of my Bolts subscription plan expires in two weeks. I just got off the phone with Tivo and they gave me the $12.99 monthly or $129.99 yearly options.(after telling them I would cancel the service) I chose the $129.99 yearly option for renewal.
I'm still hoping there will be a sale on Lifetime. My other Bolt plan expires on January 1st. So I can wait up to seven more weeks for a sale.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

aaronwt said:


> ... I chose the $129.99 yearly option for renewal.


Is that a new option, or did you mean $149.99 yearly?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mdavej said:


> Is that a new option, or did you mean $149.99 yearly?


No. After I said i would cancel they offered me that deal.

I had other issues going on where they kept trying to charge me for those fraudulent Ebay TiVos from 2015. Even though they weren't on my account they kept erroneously sending me emails saying that I owed them money. So I had called them about that for the third time today and while I was on the phone I asked about the Bolt with expiring service. And said if the $150 was the lowest price then i would just cancel it. After I said i would cancel the service they offered me $12.99 a month or the $130 a year. I would have preferred to get Lifetime. But not at the current $550 price.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

My one year free subscription expires in April but I will definitely cancel if they don't offer a discounted lifetime because I really can live without it.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

I got smacked with the $149 renewal by surprise this month. They might have had the courtesy to send me a warning email like some other annual subscriptions I hold.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

They told me I should contact them at least nine days prior to expiration to make sure I don't get the automatic charge.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

mikeyts said:


> I got smacked with the $149 renewal by surprise this month. They might have had the courtesy to send me a warning email like some other annual subscriptions I hold.


I used a card that expires right before the one-year free service so they won't be able to do that with me.


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## texasPI (May 9, 2010)

Mine is coming due soon, too. I've liked it so far but the change in guide data providers has frustrated me.


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## notrhj (Oct 25, 2016)

There may be some lifetime options for black Friday, hope springs eternal


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

notrhj said:


> There may be some lifetime options for black Friday, hope springs eternal


.... or most likely for cyber Monday (if anything at all)


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## cubdukat (Nov 15, 2015)

Mine ends in February, right around tax time. I'm definitely going to renew it.


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## RePo (Jun 5, 2016)

The Thanksgiving deal today is a Factory Renewed 500g Bolt for $99 and lifetime activation for $349. So best deal on Lifetime for my Bolt now is another new Bolt instead for $450. Guess that gives me some spare parts that way too. I'll move my 2tb HD and cable card over and nuke all my shows to save $100.


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## ajwees41 (May 7, 2006)

lifetime is dead it's all in one now


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

No new posts for several weeks here. Anyone else getting a deal offered on Bolt service after the 1st yr? I bought a Bolt for my daughter to use OTA and now I'm planning to just replace it with a refurbed 500gb Roamio OTA purchased during the $199.99 Thanksgiving deal. I plan to mothball the Bolt unless they offer me something better than what I'm seeing. I'd likely go for an "all in" deal at under $200 but it doesn't sound like they are all that motivated.


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## Fant (Sep 1, 2016)

Even Black Friday deal was $350 for lifetime so you're never going to get $200 for lifetime on bolt.


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

Fant said:


> Even Black Friday deal was $350 for lifetime so you're never going to get $200 for lifetime on bolt.


You are likely correct, but I believe the $349 "All In" price was for people buying a new unit, not people calling to cancel service. I've seen several recent reports in other threads of people being offered "All In"
deals on Roamio units, even OTA models for under $200 lately when they call to cancel. They never used to offer much of anything on OTA models. I'm going to be adding the Roamio OTA "All In" to my daughters account before I cancel her Bolt, so they will see I don't need the Bolt any longer. That's why I thought they just might want to keep it activated. It's just not worth it to me to have an ongoing subscription for it. Also with refurbished 500GB Bolts being sold by TiVo (with free shipping and 90 day warranty, I believe), the resale value on a used non-subbed Bolt will be very low. Maybe $50 or $75? My hobby is helping folks become cord cutters so a Roamio OTA "All In" is really the product I recommend. I bought a couple of the $199 units while they were on sale (already sold them both) and probably should have bought several more!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

My second Bolt is up for renewal on January 2nd. I just called and asked if there was some way to move my $6.95 Romaio Plan to the Bolt and as expected they wouldn't budge. So I said I didn't want to pay the $149.99 price. And that if I couldn't get the $129.99 plan my first Bolt got last month that I would just cancel service. So they were able to give me the $129.99 for the next year of service. Which really isn't bad at an average of 10.83 per month. But certainly not as good as the $6.95 a month plan on my ROamio Basic from a few years ago.

I had considered getting the lifetime refurb Bolts last month. But in the end I didn't want to really mess with moving things around.


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