Tivo steals a hundred bucks from me. Says Yoink!

I was an early adopter of Tivo. I've been a customer for a solid 10 years. Those of us who have been loyal customers have been paying the yearly fee in advance rather than the monthly fee. You save maybe 20 bucks a year.

So, when my Tivo died a couple of weeks ago I got a brand new shiny one shipped from Amazon.

Then we called to cancel the dead Tivo service only to find out that we they just charged us for our yearly service. Did I mention I pay for service in advance?

And they won't transfer the money to the new box!

Now, I understand if you are just stopping your service. You know you agreed to pay for a full year, and they tell you that it isn't prorated. BUT MY BOX FUCKING DIED. There is no way you can plan for that. And they wont transfer the funds to the new box. But I guess there is some rule that if you buy straight from Tivo they let you have some special preference.

If Tivo only knew how close they came to not even getting my business this time. I mean, why the eff does it take a Tivo four or five minutes to boot? Even the brand new one! My desktop boots in a minute. My phone boots in under that. With Tivo, you have to leave the room and come back because it takes so long to boot. Really? What is the problem? Oh wait - is this still 1985 and I didn't know it?

So now, I'm paying for three Tivos. As an insurance policy. I shit you not. If I keep the dead Tivo service active (which I have no choice, I'm paying either way) and my other Tivo dies within a year I can take advantage of having the money I've already paid - IN ADVANCE - transferred to my new box.

This is what companies think qualifies for customer service these days. I've been with them since the beginning. I guess these are my loyalty points. A big - we're sorry you're effed. Thank you. I'm going to dinner now. On you.