TiVo Customer Service Complaints - page 4

I am generally happy with my Tivo which I had for 10 years and paid lifetime subscription when I purchased it. The hard drive went flacky but I replaced it with a larger hard drive that gives me 138 hours. The problem is their service. You have to prove to them that it is their problem as in podcasts not recording and even when you do they won't admit to it or fix the problem. Their help desk is a helpless desk. I think they think all of their users are techno idiots.

I travel and use the Tivo desktop to download the programs I like. Trying to delete the files after they are downloaded is a real painful experience. After deleting a few videos the deleted folder show up. This goes on for an hour. I have three Tivo boxes even a recently purchased very expensive XL Premium that has the same problems.

Now they lost their names in Tivo and the support person at Tivo states they might be fixed sometime at the end of the week.

I design networks and advanced computer systems and I am tired of dealing with idiots in customer service.

Tivo has changed their subscription policy now you're on auto renewal it's one year at a time though they refer to it as monthly (meaning you pay monthly not you're on month to month). You have 30 days to cancel after your anniversary date or you're locked in for another year. There is no way to cancel online so you must call and go through the process with a rep which is a pain in the neck because they send you through the customer retention process. I got a nastygram from tivo after I failed to pay for future service I had not agreed to. I was then sent to collections. I've done business with all manner of companies for a long long time from cel phone providers to credit card companies this is the first and only time I've ever been sent to collections! I always pay the bills I agree to, in this case Tivo's out of the ordinary agreements border on illegal. I would encourage anyone with legitimate Tivo billing issues to contact their state's attorney general they may be in violation of your states laws.

After having a TiVo since 2008 I had to upgrade my box to a digital version in 2011. That is fine I understand the change in the technology so I called to just have the subscription cancelled (instead of upgrading). During my call they offered me a good deal on a refurbished unit. I accepted the unit and thought that the old unit was cancelled. I had the refurbished product shipped to my house and activated but the TiVo company continued to charge me for the previous unit. I missed this for several months on my checking account as the payment was made as a direct deposit. OK I am an understanding guy but when I called about the 140 dollar mistake I was offered 3 free months only (roughly equal to 30 dollars). I promptly cancelled my subscription and will recommend to all that I know that they should just get a box through their cable company. This feels like someone just robbed me and after 4 years as a costumer of TiVo. Wow, makes you feel good doesn't it.

Sincerely,

I Just Got Robbed

Bought a new Premium DVR to replace my old Tivo 2.....Told the CS rep but apparently was not logged in to the notes.....TIVO continued to charge for my old tivo service....call them and they told me they would review but not credit my account

I will never use Tivo again. I have to cut back on some expenses. I figured Tivo and cable would be a good place to start. So since I can't afford the bill I have an option to pay an early termination fee that is more than the rest of the years service.

I have been a Tivo customer for 7+ years. I decided to cancel my account on the 1st day of the month which is the beginning of their monthly billing cycle. They refused to refund any of the monthly charge even though it's the forst da of the month. Up to that point, I had a favorable view of Tivo but no longer and felt compelled to let folks know how I feel. Even the cable company will do partial credits if you cancel in the middle of a billing cycle. Tivo abviously is more focused on making money than great customer service.

I have been a Tivo customer since 2005. I purchased a lifetime service warranty which was sold as transferable. I have tried to upgrade the box, but I am now being told that the terms and conditions of my sale are subject to change and they will no longer transfer the "lifetime warranty". They are making no off to make this right and admit that it was originally sold as a transferable service contract. Watch out for this company.

I'm currently trying to upgrade from a Series 2 (standard definition) to a Digital Tivo (Premier,XL,Elite). I originally called to cancel and was told to hold on because I could upgrade to a digital box (if I didn't like the cable company provided Moxi box) and that my plan would transfer over. Now I'm being told multiple stories from I can't upgrade and transfer my plan, all the way to I can transfer but will have to pay a higher price for the box than advertised. All in all I get the same feeling I get when I call Charter for customer service.....round and round the merry go round.

We paid for a "lifetime" tivo contract and had an electrical storm which fried our DVR and now Tivo refuses to tranfer the contract to our new DVR. They want to charge us $800 to sign up again and then there is no guarantee that if the new box has a problem that they would transfer the new contract. DON"T SIGN UP WITH TIVO...your cable provider is less hassel!

Stay away from TIVO. This company has gone downhill in the last few years. My 6 yr old TIVO quit working, so I called and ordered a new one and cancelled service on the dead one. 6 mos later I see they are still charging my credit card for the old one. Thinking it was no big deal I called them to have the charges removed. "Oh no, they said, we can only give you 2 months credit."
I told the rep they were stealing from me and they need to step up their customer service. I am filing a dispute with the credit card co. If that doesn't work I will no longer authorize them to charge to my card. They can go fish for their stinkin' early cancellation fee.

Moved and found out that TIVO was not compatible in my area - as I was 30 days past the cancellation notice, TIVO claimed there was nothing they can do to refund the full, pre-paid yearly service fee. Though I will NOT be using the service at all. I called and even asked for a partial or half of the amount back, they refused. This is even after many service calls to get my DVR series 3 compatible with my (previous) cable company.
I asked to speak to a supervisor, they refused.

This company has the crappiest service reps, I did a chat, and the guy started with an attitude with me! As a lifetime (Product Only!!!) member, I very disappointed how they handle their membership base. I like the product, just not the employees.

Tivo blows the fat bubble! What a HORRIBLE COMPANY! I'm so pissed. Sorry for my anger here but DO NOT deal with this extremely crappy company! The customer service is THE WORST> We ordered last dec. it was day 31 we tried CXL and they said "no way" only if you pay 250.00 fee. So we decided to try it out. It is so slow on some Computer streams .... bleeps out a lot. Then in Sept. 10 months later the things just quits. So we call for help and they say " for the low fee of 50.00 send it to us and we will fix it" WHAT THE HECK! NO WAY the product is total crap and the people who work there don't care a crap for you. What do they care. They have a job they get paid so SCREW THE CUSTOMER!! BLACK LIST THIS company I know I am and I'm shouting it from the bloody roof tops. Ha on that note forgive my frustration and have a good day now that you know not to order Tivo!!

My TiVo worked well for two years. suddenly it can't record and complains that there is no signal. The service people say that the set can't work with an antenna. But it has for years. Now Tivo says that I need to get cable. Are they in league with the cable companies?

I canceled my Tivo service. At the time they offered me the right to call back within 30 days to start service again with a better program. I declined. I disconnected my tivo. I had automatic billing and Tivo did not bill my credit card for two months. Then, after I stopped watching for the charge, they started billing my account again. When I called to complain and indicated how suspicious this looked, they said that I had been offered two months free and that is why the billing started again in the third month. I asked how that could be when he offered me the right to call and reconnect service within 30 days. The account representative admitted that this was in my notes. They did reverse the charge. However, I must wonder how often they pull this scam and people do not notice the charge on the credit card since it is months past when they would be looking for it.

AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL.

Stay away from Tivo like the plague.

Just got off the phone with them. After 2 months service, I owed $150 cancellation.

I cancelled because Tivo did not do 1/2 the things I was told it could do.

I wanted HBO on Demand. NOPE.

I wanted HD YouTube videos on my HD Premier Box on my HDTV. NOPE.

I wanted to download movies from Amazon that were watchable and not all "glitchy" and crap-quality. NOPE.

All this for $20/month? Then when you call to complain and cancel, they charge you $150?!

Seriously, SCREW TIVO.

Unethical, unprofessional. Hope the company burns.

Tivo just threatened to send me to a collection agency for a service i never received, then they tried to charge me AGAIN for another year of non service, my lucky break was that the credit card they had on file had expired and they could not draw funds, exact carbon copy of AOL practices, no provision of services and tantamount to theft of funds from your bank, do not give these guys direct debit or automatic renewal. They will steal your money.

Having been a customer since January of 2005 but no longer needing/wanting Tivo Service, I called to cancel the service back in December of 2010. I was assured that it would be taken care of but noticed that they continued to bill my credit card every month for the $12.95. When I called it to the attention of my Credit Card Company, they witheld payments for a couple of months and said they would contact the Vendor to make sure that it didn't happen again... Lo and behold the Billing started again and continued for another six months until today 6/13/2011. I was told while theere records showed that I did attempt to cancel back in December, there records indicated that I agreed to continue with the service, and the fact that I didn't complain until now indicated that i indeed agreed to continue the service...Which was a Lie! Anyway, the told me that they would credit three months out of the Six that I was overcharged as that was there policy. Tivo is NOT a Consumer friendly company. You have to telephone them to Cancel and they put you on hold for up to 30 minutes before you can talk to a real person. I would never use there service again ever!!! Andf I would strongly advise others NOT to use there service as well.

I bought a TIVO set and signed up for service only to find out that the unit will not work with my phone company who provides cable service but does not use cards.

After many months to trying to find a work around, I gave up and tried to cancel my service. The rep acknowledged all of my problems which were documented but said that company policy was not to cancel after 30 days. News to me! In spite of the fact that the unit will and cannot work with my cable provided, I was told that I was expected to continue to pay for the full year in spite of the facts.

TIVO is bad news. I would strongly recommend against using them after this experience. "buyer beware"!

Bill T.

We upgraded our existing Series II to a Dual Tuner model, was assured that the original account would be cancelled and, 18 months later we find that it wasn't.

We called support and explained the situation and the guy admitted that they could see that the Series II had not been hooked up for the past 18 months... but that their policy was to only give us a 3 month refund. He then kindly offered to sell me a lifetime upgrade for that unit for $99 and that I could then sell it on ebay for about $150. Only problem is that those units on ebay sell for about $75.

I asked them to pull up the audio files of the original support calls to show that we'd told them to cancel and they basically said they didn't care.

The supervisor told me that their 3 month policy was put in place PRECISELY for the situation when the customer asked for their service to be cancelled and it wasn't.

He went on and said that by not contesting the credit charges we had been accepting their service according to their stated agreement and it wasn't their problem.

After repeatedly telling me that it was our responsibility to check our credit card statements and notice erroneous charges, he finally went out on a limb and offered me a six month refund... $77.00 instead of the $222 some odd we'd been billed.

At this point, I think we're going to have to take it, but I am NOT happy at all.

Tivo didn't work, canceled service...still charged for additional 10 months as I was outside the 30 day free cancellation period.

Ripped me off too. I upgraded my tivo and deactivated my old one, which they used to have a button for, then a year later I wanted to activate my old one in another room and I realized they had been charging me for the inactive one. They were horrible on the customer service end. It was like they were messing with me. they told me that even though it wasn't hooked up they don't know that, so they keep charging me and it's not their problem, but I kept stumping them. The guy finally admitted they could see that the tivo wasn't receiving updates so it probably wasn't hooked up, but really not their problem.

After I realized I wasn't going to get my money, It really just became about getting them to admit they were being crooked, and messing with them the same way they were messing with me. Like someone else said, they basically admitted what they did was wrong, but weren't going to do anything. After I threatened a class action lawsuit I got like thirty-something dollars credited to me. They took $155. from me and I can only imagine how many others.

It sucks, because I loved Tivo and now I hate them. Scammers! I will quit using their service when my subscription expires and tell everyone about their shady practices.

I cancelled my tivo service in May when I switched over to Qwest. It wasn't until 9 months had gone by when I saw a charge from Tivo for $12.95 on my credit card. Looking back through bills they had been charging me this for months.
I called Tivo and they said that because the woman who cancelled my service put in her notes they were giving me 2 months to sell/give away the tivo to somebody else they could not refund any of the money. She never told me I would be billed for it the rest of my life.
So for the last 7 months they have charged me for service they have not provided and will not refund that money because of the wording this woman wrote down. I finally got supervisor "Anthony" who went out on a limb and gave me back 3 months worth. He kept telling me what a huge favor he was doing me. Apparently only stealing $50 from me instead of $90 is supposed to make me thankful.
Even though they know exactly the day I cancelled the service and that no service has been given since that day they will not refund the remaining money.
Where are the ethics of this company? Non-existent.
I guess they haven't learned stealing money for services non-rendered is a crime.
I know I will never return to Tivo nor will I recommend them to anybody. In fact, I'll do just the opposite.

I tried the tivo service for 20 days, at $12 a month for only basic service from my cable company.... didn't seem like something I needed. Although I called to cancel, 7 months later they are still charging me their montly fee, and now because I put a stop payment - they want a cancelation fee of $70 some dollars. They said that when I sign up, I agreed to have a contract of one year. Don't really remember seeing that, it might have been some small writing some were. I talked to their customer service and either I pay or they will send me to collections.... way to go Tivo, twisting my arm to survive.... MY RECOMENDATION, IS DITCH TIVO SERVICE.