Bye Bye Tivo...

If you know me well you know that I LOVE my tivo! It has freed me from being able to watch the shows I love, and still have a life! In college all my friends knew that Thursday Night at 8pm there was a bunch of us glued to the tv watching Friends and not to bother us. We would race across campus for Powerhouse, which was a praise and worship time on campus. I would rush back to see ER. Now with tivo I can set my shows to be recorded for the entire season, and not have to worry about missing them when something came up.

A few weeks ago the color on my tivo had gone bad. I unplugged the tivo to reset it and it was fine...for a few days. So I went online to their troubleshooting guide and it suggested to replace the wires that connected the tivo to the tv. I did that, and it worked for a few weeks. On Saturday I turned on the tv and the color was distorted again. I decided to call tivo to see what they would say, afraid that the would tell me that I would have to replace it, since thats what I had to do a little over a year ago.

I dialed the number, went through all the prompts, was on hold for a little bit and finally got someone. I told him the situation and he asked if he could put me on hold while he researched it. I was on hold for a LONG time when...we were disconnected!! I waited a few minutes to see if he would call me back because I knew he had my number in the system, but he did not.

Wash...Rinse...Repeat...and get disconnected AGAIN

Wash...Rinse...Repeat...and get Josh

Josh was very nice and seemed to be much more knowledgeable than the first 2. He had me try a different way of connecting the tv and the tivo and some other things. He asked if he could put me on hold. I told him as long as we weren't disconnected then he could. Josh promised me that we wouldn't be and if we were he would call me back, and double checked my phone number. I waited on hold for a few minutes when...WE WERE DISCONNECTED!  But alas! Josh called me back! yay! He told me it was something with their computers and apologized. He asked if I had another tv to try to hook the tivo up to because he thought there was a problem between my tv and the tivo. I only have 1 tv, and even if I had another this was the tv that I wanted the tivo to work on. Sadly he told me that the only thing that we could do would be to replace it for $150! I told him that I wasn't willing to replace my tivo every year and that I was going to look elsewhere for a DVR.

So 90 minutes after being on the phone with Tivo I was very frustrated that my morning was shot and I still didn't have a working Tivo. I was very glad that I was able to control my frustration and not take it out on Josh. He was just doing his job, and I recognize that it wasn't his fault.

In come Comcast. Now I am not a huge fan of Comcast, but right now they are on my good side! I went online to see what it would be to get a DVR. I couldn't figure it out so I called. The guy was very friendly and within 10 minutes he set me up to pick up my new DVR. I went to the Comcast place and got my DVR with no problems...and its only costing me a monthly fee that is only $2 more than the monthly fee with Tivo! I got the box home, hooked it up and we were good to go...except the picture was small. It was framed around the whole screen. I called Comcast and they told me that it taked 24 hours for the box to set itself up with your tv. I was fine with that.

Yesterday I turned on the tv to watch the Eagles/Cardinals game and the screen was still messed up. I decided to call and see if I could get it fixed before the Ravens game. I again was pleasantly surprised with the service I received. I was on the phone for an hour and 15 minutes, but the woman that helped me was determined to fix the problem. We have it fixed temporarily, I have to change a setting if I switch from watching HD channels verses non HD channels, and its only puching a button. She was not satisifed with this so she is having someone come out on Friday to look at it and fix it for me. I told her that I needed to leave by 11 on Friday and she said that someone would be there before then and would call when they were on their way. If they were too late then I could always cancel.

Now...yes it is very frustrating that I was on the phone for 2 hours and 45 minutes this weekend with various customer service people...but I get HD channels now...and I still have a working DVR!