TiVo Customer Service Complaints - page 2

Everyone time I raise an issue, I'm told I'm wrong.

I've worked in I.T. for almost 20 years and I've done TV repair so I'm not your average customer. When I've actually gotten a decent support person, who looked and literally said "Wow. you've already tried everything I would suggest". Yet, I'm wrong that there are issues.

My current problem is a change was made to my channel line up; I just need to delete and re-scan the channels. My wife just re-scanned so we now have duplicates. It an easy to fix solution that's happened many times over the 5 years that I've had my Premiere. Unfortunately, over that time there's been a bug on the channel scan screen where after hitting thumbs down three times when you go to hit enter, it will go to the previous screen. Historically this has existed on both the channel scan and the delete scan menus. This time, its only on the delete.

After support tried blaming things like my network connection -- my internet connection has NOTHING to do with having a change in my cable line-up and needing to rescan plus their suggestion of turning off my TiVo, Cable Modem, and Router and then turning them on one a time would have disconnected my chat session AND would have taken over an hour.

Their next suggestion was to repeat guided setup; we did that and contrary to their claim that it would scan for new channels, it never scanned for new channels. I'll back that suggestion in that I thought repeating guided setup would re-scan channels (was it changed in a recent update?). Still the idea that you would need to re-do a guided setup -- to reconfigure you network, re-tell the TiVo what cable service you have, pick out the right service package, etc which requires multiple connections to the TiVo service that run SLOW and wastes an hour just to re-scan. You have a menu option to re-scan -- of course the support person argued that those menus didn't exist and guided setup was the only way to do what I needed. I guess the jokes on him sense it didn't even do what he wanted.

Today I was told that going to the previous menu is the expected behavior. That's not how its worked for five years. It also doesn't delete the channels. So to say there's no issue and it works as expected means that they don't expect it to actually work.

I was down close to three weeks last month and I've been down a week this month. I think its just time for TiVo to go.

Tivo's email customer service really sucks. The responses are scripted and do not address your problem.

Save your money.

TiVo Customer service sucks. I canceled my service in Sep, but they just keep billing me, it is now Dec. I call every month, they keep telling me they have canceled my service, but keep billing me. Today was the 5th call. 'Jack' told me the could fix it. I hope I don't get a bill in Jan!!!

TiVo makes it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic renewal of your service. You have to call and wait for service representative and then talk to a second representative before they will finally cancel you. They will not take any emails or other communications to cancel the service.

I've been a TIVO user for almost 10 years. I liked the unit so much I bought 2 (1 for the living room & 1 for the master bedroom). I even upgraded to the new versions of the TIVO box and recommended them to my friends. And to show my ultimate commitment and bought lifetime subscriptions for both my TIVO HD units. That's why I was so disappointed in how I was treated by customer service when I went to upgrade my TIVO HD units to a Roamio .

For the last few months TIVO has been sending me e-mails warning that my TIVO HD would lose some of its capabilities due to changes by my cable provider. I called customer service and the sales rep convinced me to upgrade to the Roamio. To make my transition better he said they would transfer my Lifetime subscriptions over from my HD boxes to the new Roamio boxes. So fell for the sale pitch, paid the money and waited for my new boxes to arrive.

In 3 days I got the Roamio as promised but when I went to activate the units I got a nasty surprise. Even though the Sales Rep had put in the "notes" that my LifeTime subscription was to be transferred to the new box, the new person I was dealing with said it couldn't be done. After being transferred to a supervisor she said that the sales rep was mistaken and there was nothing they could do. This really rubbed me the wrong way. I understood that technically you can't transfer a LifeTime subscription from 1 box to another since the subscription is tied to the serial number of the box. But in reality what was being promised was a free LifeTime subscription. At the very lease I would have expected them to try to make things right with discounting the subscription. Instead, I was quoted the company line and offered to buy another LifeTime (at FULL PRICE) or pay a month subscription (at FULL PRICE) also.

BTW, those "capabilities" I was going to lose (i.e. Amazon streaming & Pod Cast viewing) was because TIVO didn't want to support the new MPEG format. I had already started using my BlueRay and Smart TV as a workaround.

I don't write reviews (good or bad) but this experience has driven me to my keyboard to type out my first. It's unfortunate I'm writing about a company I use to value. I guess things change with time and maybe it's time for me to have some of the other DVR options a 2nd look.

With your "one pass" i can no longer get what you used to call "season pass" for programs from my local PBS stations. After many years of wonderful service you have really screwed things up somehow. What's wrong?

I just was hung up on by Tivo customer support (obviously an oxymoron).

I called to place my account on vacation hold for several months for the summer. I was place on hold for over 15 minutes while they tried to figure it out. Finally I was told this was a 'one time thing' and that they would do it, but it would only be a 'suspension of billing' not a suspension of charges. When I objected to this and suggested that someone at Tivo should already have had this situation figured out and told them to just terminate the service they hung up.

I was ambivalent about Tivo before, but now know I will get rid of the device and tell anyone I can not to deal with them. Very unprofessional, and the service is not any better than any other dvr.

I called to cancel service the day before new billing cycle, b/c I have not had TiVo equipment connected to my TiVo in nearly 3 months. I got a very junior TiVo representative that, although nice and sweet, was still in training mode. She wasn't very helpful in the process. I wanted to cancel service, but still going to be charge another month, and was denied crediting my account for that charge. I have already paid for at least an additional 2 months due to my own fault. At $14.99/month, that adds up. In addition, I was not offered an incentive to stay, or given a warm and fuzzy to return. Again, TiVo customer service is not scoring any points here.

I experienced extreme difficulty with Tivo Chat Line support getting answers to some pretty basic questions. I asked the same question 4 separate times and the individual I spoke to repeatedly gave me an answer to entirely different question. Question: Will the Tivo Mini be triggered by the RF signal from a Roamio remote. Answer: Yes, the Tivo Mini will respond to the IR signal of the Roamio remote if it is set in that mode. I gave up talking to her and plan on not buying their product, particularly with such poor quality support. Really unbelievable.

With out a telephone line to suuupport itsimpossile ( or it just feels that way.)there is obviously a second problem that resulted from the first problem reported and so cold corrected this past week. I have no call how I'm supposed to get a hold of you without such a number except for going through sales and that's a loss and knowledge to sales because they are now asking if your secretary receptionist. There is a serious need to be able to get to tech-support quality tech-support at other times then during normal business hours. Television doesn't shut down at 5 o'clock in evening. Nor do people who watch television watch it till 5 o'clock in evening.please have someone from tech-support get back to me as soon as possible 215-245-1404 thank you for your help in advance.

In the event you cannot reach me by my normal landline you can reach me by cell phone at .again thank you for your cooperation.

After having a Tivo Premiere freeze and restart almost daily, TiVo support told me to improve its incoming signal quality and power. Via cable improvements, I upped signal quality from 73% to 91%, and made certain the TiVo was plugged directly in the wall, with no plug strip in between. Freezes continued. In addition, the TiVo started recording anywhere from 8 to 32 minutes late. On a tech support call on 10/20/14, I reported all the above to Mark of TiVo. Note that a TiVo whose drive had failed had been replaced previously. When I explained what I had done, Mark told me to run a 54 Kickstart drive test, was rude in giving instructions, insisting that I read an email he sent first. He continually said that he wanted to solve the problem, but he had *no* solutions. Only after I had started the drive test did he tell me it would take 2 hours and that I would have to call back tomorrow to report the results. The drive test came back clean. Now I'm back to where I was before. My only real course of action is to replace this TiVo with a Comcast box, as TiVo has not offered any meaningful solution. Mark's overt rudeness and condescending attitude was the last straw. I own 5 TiVo's in total. It's about to be 4 and shrinking.

Having been a Tivo customer since the beginning of Tivo, I called customer service to find out what the best new machine would be for my needs. I spent an hour on the phone choosing, reworking my subscription etc.

I chose to spend $185 to purchase the newest Tivo Roamio so I could watch Amazon Prime and Netflix through the Tivo DVR. I have been a happy and proud champion of Tivo from the beginning I was very excited to receive the machine.

When I got it I called Tivo to have them help me with setup since I have Direct TV. After all that I was told Tivo Roamio is NOT COMPATIBLE with Direct TV!!!! WHAT?!??!?!

The new Tivo machines are only cable compatible.

This is incredible disturbing.

If I want to see Netflix or Amazon Prime on my TV I have to give up Tivo entirely and use the lame Direct TV DVR (which I hate).

So in effect Tivo is forcing me to NOT be a Tivo customer!

This is the lamest most non user friendly thing I have ever encountered. From a company that until today I would have touted as one of the best for customer service and product.

I am SO disappointed and shocked and the ease with which Tivo is willing to lose customers. And by the way Direct TV and Tivo used to be partners.

I can't imagine what this is about but it is really stupid and is incredible bad business. To blatantly say out loud that you don't care about an entire group of loyal customers is a slap in the face that does not feel good.

The following information represents my opinion of TiVo and its Sales Support personnel based on a situation in which TiVo, in my opinion, wronged me. This posting not intended to be malicious, demeaning, slanderous, or misrepresenting in any way. It is intended to communicate what I believe is a breakdown in integrity and to stress that it is important for any customer to record calls that are made to TiVo customer support so that you have a formal record of conversations. The following is accurate to the best of my memory, with the final call from TiVo having occurred less than 1 hour ago (09-Oct-2014: 8:22pm CDT).

I am very disappointed in TiVo. Last week, I chatted with a TiVo rep. Rep recommended that I call the Sales Support line to investigate a $150 discount for which I might qualify. Called the Sales Support number and the rep confirmed that I was eligible for a $150 promotion, and that the price of the Roamio Plus was also discounted by $50 and a $100 discount on Lifetime. I told the rep that I would consider it. Next day, I called Sales Support to order the Roamio Plus with Lifetime, but was told that no such promotions were available. I escalated to his supervisor and talked with ***** (withholding name, as my intent is not to get a specific Supervisor in trouble or cause her any problems, but I hope she reads this and learns...). She backed up her support rep and told me that these promotions were not correct. However, she agreed to research the previous call (kudos for that). Upon review, she called me back (she had to try a few times, so kudos to her for her persistence) and told me that 1) she understood how I "might" have understood that there were promos (sounds like perhaps a voice of reason), and 2) the original rep had been "counseled" (sounds like perhaps an honest mistake on his part), that there was no way the transaction would have gone through with the original rep (has no bearing on the current situation), and that only the "current" promos would be honored (that is where you crossed the line from explaining the situation to making excuses and refusing to do the right thing).

Given this history, here is my situation. I was quoted prices that TiVo WILL NOT HONOR. Perhaps these prices were offered in error, but the fact is that I was quoted very specific promo prices. TiVo refuses to honor prices quoted to me by one of their Sales Support reps. TIVO REFUSES TO DO THE RIGHT THING BY NOT HONORING THEIR PRICING TO ME. Are TiVo Sales Supervisors trained to refuse to do the right thing, or could it be that the Supervisors do not represent the best interests of the customer when a wrong is committed by a TiVo employee, or is there pervasive situational ethics within the TiVo Sales Support organization, or is this an isolated instance? Who can know? My opinion is that this is an apparent integrity issue that presents itself when a supervisor refuses to do the right thing for the customer.

So now I face the dilemma of whether I repair my Series 3 HD and continue to use it, buy a Roamio Plus while trying to ignore the apparent integrity issue of TiVo, or do I buy a competitor's product? I am not certain which route I will take.

But what I am certain about is that I am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED that TiVo would permit its supervisors (very specifically...Supervisor ****) to act in a way where they feel it is acceptable to explain away an obvious error, instead of accepting responsibility for its employees and honoring the price, EVEN if it meant finding a high enough manager that could authorize a price override. Chances are that the only way that upper management at TiVo will even find out about this is from this posting. And then once you do, will you do the right thing for me...the customer? My only recourse now is in the court of public opinion...

After being a Tivo customer for over six years I decided to drop the programming feature and save the monthly cost.
I didn't know that Tivo had embedded software to disable my ability to just push "record" on the remote and have it work. This is just to record what I have tuned and am watching at the time. How is it that a device that I own can be disabled just because I won't pay a monthly fee?
Doesn't seem right.
Class action suit, sign me up.

My Tivo Roamio Pro worked OK, but the embedded stream has been broken since I got it. I called up and had to speak to 5 front line reps and 2 managers before they agreed to send me a replacement. On every single call I said I am going to hook up the new one, transfer my shows and season passes to it from the old one then send back the old one. They sent the new one with no cables. I called and spoke to 5 different reps again, because each one was more clueless than the first. I asked each of them how do you expect me to transfer from the old one to the new one if you don't send me cables for the new one, if I cant plug it in to get power, and I was told, by each of them "I'm not sure, I'm not technical".

They want a $600 deposit for the replacement, its not even new, its a refurb, and they dont provide cables as policy, even when you tell them in advance that you will be hooking up both at once, in 5 separate calls, over a 2 week period.

Let me start off by saying I have been a loyal customer of TIVO since 2006 and have gone to battle many times with friends, co-workers and even strangers, making strong justifications that TIVO was worth the extra cost. Not anymore. The box I purchased back in 2010 has been acting up, so I called customer service to see if there was any cheaper options for longtime customers to purchase the Roamio than the big bucks listed on the website. I was told I could get a whopping $20 of the cheapest $199 option but that there were no other discount or upgrade options for the mid-grade or high-grade Roamio boxes. I spoke to the CS agent about cancelling my service and she seemed to think that was ok and didn't care either way. Is this really how TIVO thinks it's going to keep customers now that they have all this competition? I am sorely disappointed in my interaction with this company today... and will be cancelling my service.

After many years with TiVo we are no going to cancel our plan. Their customer service sucks. We ordered a new Romio and it was shipped by UPS but never showed up. They started a claim to issue a refund but then refused to honor the original price. When I asked to speak with a manager I was told there was nothing they could do for me. That was after 46 minutes of sitting on hold listening to crap music. So disappointed.

TiVo DVR has a bug in its fast forward playback function. It causes the display to jump 7 minutes of its current display position.
This bug has existed for many years and an old work around does not work on new TiVo DVR's. Thus, the newer DVRs do not work as well as their older ones. If you want to upgrade to a newer model, you may be getting an inferior model.
TiVo's programmers need to correct this bug. It may be a wild pointer in their 'C' code, not hard to find and cure. Perhaps they should do it this year.

Tivo Is a Joke The Customer service Contradict one another and some will lie just to appease you. I am waiting for a Class action law suit. Yea its that bad. Even Netflix which operates through Tivo has been lied to and they did not even know it. Upper management puts it on the customer service agents shoulders and does not do things in a pro active manner. Give it time it will go the way of the DO DO bird.

tivo support is sub-standard.
I they actually respond, it will just be 'bad' - right now it is heading toward terrible.

attempted to activate new device - told to call - online chat says call...but call center holds for 20+ then disconnects, obviously they also think it is too long.

1 hour and counting...

Owned tivo series 2 for years. cable company goes digital signal, series 2 cant interpret. buy Roamio. 1) Tivo never tells me need cable card. 2) Tivo reps say I can transfer shows on series 2 to roamio, BUT don't tell me I have to use Ethernet Cable and I am on wireless network. 3) Roamio does not allow to watch cable on demand channels.

TiVo scammed me out of $200 and won't pay it back. I asked them to reverse a transaction the next day and they still have not done so (it's been two months). They are liars and thieves.

I have a long history from my place of employment when it comes to getting answers. Basically I act a little dumb on the subject then I start asking questions based on the "wrong" or "Misleading" answers I have been given. Regarding taking my old series II in and having it exchanged for a reconditioned one or upgrading to a newer model but having my life time subscription transferred. First I was told you can't have life time transferred. I own three Tivo machines. I had already had this done with a series 3 that was also out of warranty. So I knew that this was a lie, then I was told by the same person that the reason I couldn't get my series ii replaced is because it was out of warranty, I pointed out for this person to look at my series 3 and they would see that it was out of warranty when it was replaced. Then they told me that I would hear from the person they passed my info on to. I waited 5 days before Emailing Customer Support. This goes on through a few different people at customer support but no answers being given. Then on the last letter I was told that it was impossible to transfer life time from one machine to the next then in the same letter they (Tivo) said if I wanted to transfer life time to another machine I would have to call there (sic) Customer support phone number. I have the feeling that I am being kicked to the side of the road.

so after a power outage I called TiVo and he said to send it in and they will fix it for 149
he didn't even want to know what was wrong
so I waited for 3 hours hoping to get a different person who would suggest other possibilities but that person said the same thing
then I looked online and went down and pressed the power button on my DVD which was connected to the TiVo and it is fine

TiVo apparently takes pride in operating a "One Way" payment service system. (My contract goes back to 2008, or earlier.) A consumer may contract for TiVo service on-line, quickly and easily. But don't try to cancel -- not available on line. TiVo requires telephone cancellation -- and then keeps no record of the conversation, after leaving a customer on hold 40 minutes. Now, I have received notice that a credit collection agency will proceed against me on my month-to-month, terminable-at-will contract for failing to pay for what was already terminated.



I believe these practices to be unlawful in California under our consumer protection laws and I intend to take action. Please contact me if you are disgusted too