Bryce Yehl

After posting my little letter to TiVo, I filled out a support request on their web site and received the thoroughly helpful response below. My TiVo is planning to reboot itself again in about 2 hours, and it’s a safe bet that it will reboot itself again tomorrow.

Hello Timothy,

Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. I understand that every night this week your TiVo DVR has rebooted at 02:00 EST.

Unfortunately, I am unable to resolve your issue via e-mail. It would be more effective for you to call customer support.

Please call: 1-505-348-2800, between the hours of 8AM and 8PM PST to speak with a customer support representative.

You may also visit our web site at: http://tivo.com/support, to use our interactive troubleshooting guide, find a graphical solution to answer your questions or submit a case to one of our technicians. If you need to make any billing changes or update your customer information you can do this online at: http://tivo.com/manage.

Do you have a home network? With our new Home Media Option you can use your DVR to listen to music or view photos from your PC, share programs with other DVRs in your household, and schedule recordings remotely from the web. Check it out at: http://tivo.com/new.

Kind regards,
Tim
TiVo Customer Support
Web response tracking number: 127XXX
http://tivo.com/support

*All names and brands are property of their respective owners.

Tonight I arrived home from work at 10:30 EST and promptly called. The ACD informed me that hold times are at least 30 minutes. With my years of experience being on the receiving end of support calls, I knew full well that if I made it out of the queue then the person answering would do their best to get rid of me quickly. When Shelton answered at 11:04 he did not disappoint. Deftly ignoring my statement that my TiVo has rebooted a 02:00 every night for about a week, he proceeded to explain to me that when updates are pushed out TiVo will schedule a reboot at 02:00 because most people are asleep.

I’m the sort that might ordinarily argue that the God-forsaken machine is supposed to accomodate my viewing habbits, but that issue is beside the point and I try to flip the asshole switch to “Off” when seeking help from others. I restated the problem, twice, and Shelton caught on that I wasn’t going to hang up until he offered something that at least had the appearance of addressing my issue. He took my version number (4.0.1-01-2-240) and kindly asked me to hold for five minutes while he consulted with others. After eight minutes he returned to let me know that I hadn’t been abandoned and left me for another three.

Shelton told me that there is a software update for users of a particular Linksys WiFi adapter. Presumably that update is failing to install properly and is buggering up my TiVo, but he offered no such explanation. Instead he offered that a Level 2 technician would contact me in 24-48 hours and provided me with Ticket #156XXXX. Total call time: 53 minutes.

Hopefully a Level 2 technician can resolve this without my actually doing anything, because on a good day my EST at-home schedule overlaps with TiVo’s PST support hours for about 90 minutes.

PS: Shelton was friendly, courteous, and professional during our entire conversation. I’m confident that he provided the best support possible within the confines of a New Mexico call center.