lundi 19 mai 2014

Short Warranty, overpriced extended contract

Got a rude shock today.

I bought a Roamio in late Feb and Mini a few weeks later. In the last two weeks the Roamio has hiccuped twice and the mini once, although it was likely the Roamio that had the problem. Specifically, twice the Roamio play back of recorded programs failed. Swapping HDMI cables didn't solve the problem, but rebooting did. Happened two times. Then the Mini stopped playback and said it lost connection w the R. Rebooting the Mini fixed the prob. Sounds to me like the R may be on the cusp of early failure.

SO, I called Tivo. Found out they only have a 90 day warranty! After that super short period you get dinged big time for any problems. Even if the prob starts within the 90 days I might get dinged if it finally got bad enough next month. BUT, I could buy an extended warranty. We all know about extended warranties. Major profit center -- always a ripoff; but if I didn't want to be out bigger bucks in a few months because of a box w infant mortality issues I needed to sign up. OK, you got me between a rock and... How much? $40 for the Roamio. Considering the mini has no hard drive or tuners, how much for the Mini? $40!

Obviously Tivo can charge whatever they want and I can take my business elsewhere. (Actually not, there are no viable non-cable/satellite DVRs) but Tivo has really gone from being ok to being the sibling to Comcast.




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