TiVo Reviews 

I had a tivo bolt that kept rebooting for no reason. I was told if that happens a lot, the box is defective. It eventually died and I lost all my programming and one pass lists.

So I purchased another box and on Sunday October 9, 2022 I purchased a tivo edge. The activation date for this box was 10/11/2022. But then I got a message on the screen that Tivo has detected a serious problem.

On Sep 4, 2023, 9:56:27 AM they sent me another box. It was a ‘renewed’ box and I had to pay an exchange fee and since then things have gone downhill. In the previous week the box spontaneously rebooted for no reason.

I tried to resolve the issue by troubleshooting like they told me to. Then I had to wait to see if it would happen again as it didn’t happen all the time. I was told if the box was rebooting for no reason then the drive was defective. Since the reboot happens intermittently I had to wait to see if it would happen again. But because the rebooting happens at irregular intervals the box was passed the 30 day guarantee so I had to pay an exchange fee to get the defective box replaced.

This box is a ‘renewed’ box but now it seems I may have another defective box.

It seems to start to reboot in the middle of a show but then stops but then I have to go back to the show I was watching. That's not normal. 

I've had 2 defective boxes in less than a year.

This box has 2TB of space but only after using 6% of used space most of the shows indicated that they will be deleted within 24 hours. That's also not suppose to happen. It shouldn't be telling me it will be making room by deleting shows when there is so much space left. I called Tivo about this problem and was told this was not normal. I was instructed on how to fix the problem.

Then the box rebooted without warning on 09/21/23 at 1:55 it took about a minute. This is the second time in about a week or two this has happened. After contacting Tivo again I was told it sometimes has to reboot but was not told how often this needs to happen.

I am concerned that this ‘renewed’ box is defective. Especially since I have to wait to see if it will spontaneously reboot for no reason.

Communicating with the company is hard since I have to fill out the contact form everytime and if I don’t save the information I typed in by copy and pasting it in a text file it’s gone in about a week or two. It indicates the issue was resolve and closed and no further information is listed. All of the communications with the company about that issue seems to be gone. And I have to start over.

If the box I purchased was defective it should have been replaced with a new box not a ‘renewed’ box. And I should not have had to pay an exchange fee. If I can get a new box soon I can transfer all the one pass lists and shows I made in the two weeks I’ve had this box. Otherwise I have to start over.

I am on a fixed income but it seems the only way I can get a new box is to purchase a new box again and then I have to pay for a service plan again. Since I purchased the lifetime service to get all the programing without paying a yearly fee. But I would have to pay for the service plan, either the yearly plan or the lifetime plan, again.

My lifetime service TIVO BOLT failed prematurely. It cannot be repaired due to proprietary parts that TIVO does not make available to the #1 repair co. They will not move my subscription to another BOLT that I own. The BOLT models appear to be so cheaply constructed that they are intended to fail and force you to pay $549 for another subscription. Stay away!

I recently purchased tivo stream 4k. It is a nightmare to set up, about 5 passwords & a 2 hour live chat & a fake us address & now it seems to work.

I would not recommend this un user friendly system to any1.

Tivo failed to cancel my contract and continued to bill me. I tried tivo at first and found it not useful to have as I disliked most of what tv had to offer at the time. My parents gave me an old tivo. I set up a contract. i tried to cancel it by the end of the trial period. The customer service reps harassed me to keep it instead of canceling it. i asked them to cancel it. They failed to cancel it. I got billed monthly for a tivo I no longer had and a contract I was force signed into against my will. I tried canceling at the end of the year duration but they failed to do so. They continued to bill me and harass me to keep it active. I had to declare my credit card stolen and paid the ridiculously high termination fee to end it all.

My other family members have had such issues as well when they decided to cancel their contract. When you cancel it on the website it doesn't officially cancel it. The internal system will continue to bill you and you're forced to contact the 800# and speak to someone who can end it on their side. This is poor business practices.

I didn't particularly care for my tivo. The algorithm started filling up my tivo with garbage shows I never watched nor liked. It filled up so frequently with garbage shows I had to go in and delete it. I tried setting it up to auto record 3 or 4 shows I highly enjoyed watching. The tivo would quickly fill up with other garbage I did not tell it to record. If I tried a time recording it would often fail to get the correct time for the show.

I do NOT recommend tivo. I honestly just get everything digitally through my computer now. there are so many streaming websites out there just select one or two and get all your media that way. You can buy digital copies of media as well. I'm old school I like to own the actual disc. With digital copies the company can terminate your contract at any time they deem worthy. Be they have a just cause or not. That makes me realize that discs are the only safe way to retain your media.

My experience is based back around 2010.

NOT HAPPY with communication or service

I purchased a TiVo Bolt 500 GB on Nov 27, 2017 plus the one time service fee (which is I don't have to keep purchasing the service to record shows each year)

After the last update for the software for my TiVo device, which was before the pandemic, things have changed and not for the better. I've looked on Google and on TiVo.com and I can't find an answer to fix it back to the way it was.

The first issue is the thumbs up/down buttons on the remote no longer work.

I have a one pass for shows/movies and TiVo records the shows/movies but there are two problems.: 

1. TiVo records twice or more times the same movie/show/episode. And since a lot of channels are showing the same episodes or movies many times in one week it has become a chore to delete the several recordings of the same episode or movie.

2. It is recording shows/movies that I would not watch and since the thumbs up/down no longer work I have to take the time to delete these shows so they don’t take up room.

I emailed TiVo regarding these issues on Dec 10, 2029 and Apr 5, 2020 and I have not received a reply.

I believe that TiVo is forcing me to purchase another box. Since I have a lifetime subscription for recording shows/movies if I purchase another box I lose that and will have to purchase a subscription with the new box. Also I believe that TiVo sold me a defective box as it will randomly restart for no reason.

I feel abandoned by TiVo for not addressing my emails.

I am on a fixed income. It took me at least a year to save up to purchase the box and subscription that I have. I am on a fixed income and I will have to start over again if I want to purchase another box.

And today 10/9/22 I'm getting a message "the tivo box has detected a serious problem and is now attempting to fix it. This will take 3 hours. Please do not unplug or restart the tivo box! If you have a plasma TV or concerned about image burn in turn off the TV for 3 hours. If that doesn't work call customer service." Customer service does not work on the weekends and I can't get to live TV. Which means I have to wait till tomorrow to get anyone from technical support.

TiVo's call center technical assistance continues to disappoint & reinforce my decision to go with a Cable provided DVR.
I spoke with Ezra at the Philippines Call Center - he was pleasant and somewhat helpful as I attempted to get my TiVo HD back online. I started the process of Guided Set-Up and he said that a hot spot Internet connection would work as Internet connection. I just wanted to watch my shows that were saved on my old HD model.
I started the process, then got hung up on the last step, I think it was getting program information...I called back spoke to a woman and she said "Hot Spot will not work with my TiVo" I told it was working, she said no it won't. I then ask her how familiar she was with the older TiVo models....she said she was. I asked to speak to a supervisor she insisted three times that - that was not needed. I insisted a fourth time and she said she would connect me. She then hung up on me. Great service.
I called back, got Ezra again, agent the first time. He was a little confused over my question...would hot spot work, and I just wanted to watch my saved programs. I then asked to speak to a supervisor again. He put me on hold and after 10 minutes...yes 10 minutes I got supervisor Jeff.
Jeff gave no clear answers and just kept repeating what I was saying to hime, and he said "Hum" a lot. Hum, this, Hum that.
He then told me to look at my TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter. He kept asking if the two lights were lite or blinking. I told him there was only only light with two symbols on each side of it. He told me to turn it over and look for another light. I asked him if he was aware of what these look like...there is no light on other side, just an rainbow / upside down smile light that goes from power to the internet connected symbol..handshake symbol I call it. He kept telling me I was not connected. I got so frustrated with his hums, and more hums from him, I hung up.
What kind of service does TiVo offer? The worst. So unless you are a tech smart person I would not recommend TiVo as there is no customer service any longer. There used to be...now it has been unsuccessfully outsourced to another country.
Bummer.