TiVo cancelled
I wouldn't call it painless but at least she was pleasant and spoke perfect English.
Tomorrow would have been a fresh billing for the TiVo and the Snapstream box is working reasonably well so it was time to cancel. I waited on hold for about 12 minutes with slightly above hold music. A pleasant woman named Sara..(I think) would be helping me today. I said I needed to cancel my TiVo. She asked why, is somthing wrong? I said no I like it a lot actualy I just cant justify the price for as much as I use it plus I have other options. She said okay well do you have a PSP or iPod? I said I have an iPod. She asked if it was a video iPod. I said it is indeed a 30 gig video iPod. She said do you know you can move your TiVo content to the iPod and watch it on the go since you are so busy. I said I am a Macintosh man though. She really liked that I tink because she brightened up and said We just added the Macintosh platform. I said I know but you have to buy Roxio Toast and that adds $100 to the cost when I already can't justify paying $12.95. She directed me to the Mac TivoToGo page. I said all I can download is TiVo desktop that only does pictures. She insisted for a while there were 2 downloads. Then I read of the page to her where it says TiVoToGo for Mac is exclusively in Toast. She said oh right, well TiVo Desktop is all you need. I then read right off the page where it said you need TiVoToGo to convert it to iPod or PSP or DVD. She said well you can still move the files over and then use your own application to convert it.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS REAL GOOD.
I explain to her that I know I can move the files over but raw TiVo files are encrypted and useless. She said you can just download an application to convert them yourself. I explained this would be illegal under the DMCA and TiVo somewhat agressevly tries to enforce the encryption. She said so there is no way you can get an application to convert the files. I told her that I could get such an application but that it is quite illegal and Tivo could sue me or worse. The total times she tryed to get me to do something illega so I would keep the TiVo service, about 4. If I wanted to be illegal I could just dump the cable too and friggin download everything DRM and commercial free, DUH. She she puts me on hold then for about 8 or 9 minutes, comes back says I have a confirmation number for you. She asks me what I am going to do with the box, I told her it will probably collect dust in the closet. She said I could give it to friends or family and they could activate it. Not worth it though as you can get a better box on their refurb page with the 1 year prepaid for about the same cost because when you resign up this old TiVo box you get a new commitment anyways. She then said well we really appriciate your business and we hope to get you back someday.
Pros and cons of my TiVo customer service experience:
PROS:
- English speaking
- Pleasant
- Rocking hold music
- Somewhat reasonable hold times
CONS:
- Didn't offer me the $6.95 keeper deal I have seen around the net. For $6.95 it would have been worth it for me to keep the box as a secondary unit. At $12.95 sorry too much. I might have even given them up to $8.95, but $12.95 is too much and prices are actually higher now I think.
- Tryed to convince me to violate the DMCA and TiVo's wishes by decrypting files without TiVoToGo in order to keep me as a customer.
Specifically the Terms and Conditions state
The TiVoToGo feature includes security measures designed to prevent infringement of copyrighted works. You agree not to take any steps to defeat any TiVo security measures or to use any third party applications that may bypass any TiVo security measures.
March 1st, 2007 at 7:16 am
When I called to cancel my TiVo subscription I was offered the $6.95 deal, but that was about two years ago. I’m guessing that if you’d asked for it specifically you would have received a discount, but maybe things have changed.
Her strategy does sound strange. But it doesn’t seem like she was trying to get you to break the law as much as she didn’t understand the law. You’d hope that customer service reps would be better trained to know how their software works, and what restrictions exist on using third party applications. But I’ve dealt with too many customer service reps to truly believe that.
March 1st, 2007 at 8:01 am
I’ve had several DVRs over the years from Dishes to Tivos To motolameboxes. My favorite was the Dishone(probably because of it’s integration into the system.) It was fast, and easy to use without a lot of fluff and the Dual tuner 522 and 622 systems are fucking amazing, great picture, plenty of storage space. Snapstream worked well but when I got an HD tv I didn’t want to deal with it’s output(it seemed to only want to do 1024×768, otherwise it worked quite well for a Windows application(other than the usual Windows problems, The app itself was very stable). Now I have a MotodeathVR from my cable company and a Tivo. The Tivo has a pretty darn good interface but only picks up the analog channels the Motobox picks up all the channels but it is buggy, and the interface is absolutely the worst I have ever seen. The interface for these boxes can be custom designed, why cant the cable comps just have Tivo design the interface and be done with it, great for tivo they don’t have to do expensive hardware R&D and lame workarounds for digital channels, great for the cable comps cuz they get a decent interface. As much as they charge for the DVR cable box I think they can afford it. Personally I’m moving back Dish as soon as I can, year or two probably will move. Dish had great picture, an unbeatable price, and reasonable customer service when I had to deal with them. My cable costs twice as much and looks like some teenager compressed it for web streaming on the digital channels. Great it’s HD, too bad it’s compressed so terrible so all I see is all the pixilation in HD glory.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:46 am
Brad, I think that you are probably on the right track, I did get the feeling she didn’t really understand the raw TiVo files are encrypted, couple that with the fact she is probably told “say anything to keep a customer” and there you are.
That doesn’t change the fact though that it would be a direct violation.
Mabye I should have replied, “oh you just gave me a great idea, I’ll just crack the whole TiVo , thanks!”
March 1st, 2007 at 10:15 am
Maybe you should have given her the info for TiVoDecode Manager so she’d give it out to future callers. That would have been fun.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I was once considering getting Tivo but now I know I’ll never do it. I don’t need to give my business to a company that encourages their customers to break the law, as arcane as that law may be.
March 1st, 2007 at 9:00 pm
I suspect this CSR was confused and thought because of the ready avalability of such applications that it was legal and ok to break the tivo files. I don’t understand why Tivo felt it neccecary to bundle Tivo Downloader with Toast. It’s a standalone application, unless roxio developed it for Tivo there isn’t a real good reason for the double standard. I have Toast 8 however and the Tivo app works as expected, but unless you need toast 8 (I find Toast 7 was a superior version so far) this is not a reason to get it.
March 1st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
You are one cheap mofo. $9/month is acceptable but $13 is over the top? How did you come to that conclusion? That’s hilarious and sad at the same time.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:27 pm
On top of the price of cable it’s too much, especially when you can buy Beyond TV or get the cable DVR for $5. Tivo doesn’t offer enough for $13 a month in my opinion. It barely offers enough for $9. I feel $7 is the right price for TiVo. That’s my feelings, obviously lots of people pony up for TiVo but I think they are pricing themselves out of business.
March 1st, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Not all companies require customer service reps to read off a script or spout the party line. I doubt they train them or encourage them to tell people how to elude DRM. She was probably just talking to you like a real person. Everyone I know downloads movies/tv shows/etc. from time to time or watches them on youtube, and I doubt Tivo employees are an exception. It’d also be easy to acquire a copy of Toast if you were so inclined.
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:02 am
Yes its easy to do this or do that, again Tivo suggested doing some thing illigal. Why should you have to get a copy of toast for Tivo Downloader anyway regardless when it’s not a requirement to get it for Windows.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
I like TiVo and all, but I’m even cheaper than you. I’m a fan of free. So, I got a Plextor PX-TV402U-NA/Mac and now I record whatever TV I want without ANY subscription fee. Plus, it’s completely DRM free and I can archive, burn, iPod0ify, etc… at will. It’s SD, but otherwise - wonderful.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:58 am
I only have SD tv right now anyways.
You nailed it on the head though, can do DRM free for a 1 time hardware price. The software isn’t quite as good as TiVo’s but it’s not bad.
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 am
I think you’ll be happy with Beyond TV. I’ve been using it for a few years now and it offers a lot above what I could do with TIVO. Welcome to the club.
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LOL
May 10th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Tivo is 16.95 now .. quite outrageous compared to 12.95.. I had paid 16.95 for a year before I read this! dang, now I feel really ripped off!!!
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