Re: TiVo
 

I take it, it wasn't mentioned when you signed up?

Re: TiVo
 

There is still a small chance for me I think. After talking to customer services, I called back the guy who put the order through for me as he had given me his direct number. I explained to him what had happened and he said to call back next Monday and he should be able to do something as the system should be accepting TiVo without a phone line then. I've lost my install slot for next Tuesday but he said I should still be able to get it in February.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

---------- Post added at 12:57 ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 ----------

It was mentioned but I was told the phone line would be removed from my order before the install date when the system had the appropriate codes available. I was told I could defintely have a TiVo without a phone line.

I think the chap who took my order is doing his best but he had to fiddle things because the system isn't set up yet to accept TiVo without a phone line.

Re: TiVo
 

Good luck Teresa and come back and tell us how you get on. It would be nice to hear your opinion of the box as well if you do get it installed.

Re: TiVo
 

believe me when i say i really dont like to critise or complain ... BUT

this is just another small element of the tivo rollout that should have been thought of and sorted before it was offered to the end customer ..

I like VM .. i really do but they do have problems communicating even among there own staff so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet and even worse communication with customers. I know its probably inevitable with a large corporate company but these little mishaps do lead to a reputation dent in the long run

sadly i have far less faith in VM now than i did 2 weeks ago but maybe thats just me being ultra picky

Re: TiVo
 

There's a lot of complaint in this thread (and others) about how VM has handled the rollout of TiVo boxes.

With big tech releases like this (early adopters for smart phones and tablets show similar types of complaints), you are never going to be able to please everyone when rolling out and communicating what's going on.

Most of the people on this forum thread are eager for TiVo and are fairly tech savvy and are scrutinising VM's every move, which most users won't be. They'll get to hear about the service when VM offer it to them, or by word of mouth, or by advertising when it comes.

I think we're being unfair to VM. They've got a massive task to roll out new tech to the masses in a way that will keep the majority of their customers happy and hopefully tempt Sky users to join up.

Let's all be patient and put a little perspective on things. Good things come to those that wait, and I'm damn sure it's going to be good.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to hear more first hand experiences from those lucky early adopters in this thread, to test my patience to the max.

Boz

Re: TiVo
 

Ah, ok. the forum will have made an assumption that it was sneaked in, but from what you are saying it's part of the offer, but VM are trying to remove that for you?

Hope it gets sorted for you :)

Re: TiVo
 

To be honest, depending on your broadband service, it may end up cheaper or the same price to take it with the line that without it

Re: TiVo
 

Quite often that is the case and you do not even have to use the phone line except to call Virginmedia for free.

Re: TiVo
 

Just thought that I would inform other's of what I've been told in regards to the lauch of TiVo and the 1 in a 1000 issue.

I have been informed by my contact within the CEO Office that they had 25,000 people register for TiVo out of those they chose 1000 VIP 50 customer's (I know other's have been selected so maybe the CEO office was lying or other member's are)
He also insisted that TiVo is not being fully released until March and pricing details for all customer's had not been finalised and would be issued in March also.

That is what I was told, maybe fibs maybe truth. I'm going to forget about TiVo for the time being and enjoy the service's I have ALL which fully work anyhow!

I didn't contact the CEO office to moan about the 1 in a 1000 and was to do with another ongoing billing issue but thought I'd ask the question whilst I was in contact.

Maybe this information will be useful to some and maybe annoy other's, just thought I would share this.

Here is a copy of what was said I've obviously edited out private info.....

Hi .......

The details for pricing for TiVo for VIP50 package customer have not been released yet. I expect this to be in late March when the service is fully
launched.

We had over 25,000 registrations and of these we have selected 1000 VIP50 customers to get the service a little
earlier. As mentioned above the service will be launched fully in March.

Re: TiVo
 

I think that appears to be the take home message, forget tivo for at least 2 months.

Perhaps a few staff got a little carried away on hear with the excitement about imminent launches etc.

Re: TiVo
 

Thanks for that, just a shame that VM didn't communicate that a bit better to everyone waiting on here, even if they had announced something after the surprise at the weekend, at the moment its taken a bit of the shine off of me wanting to get TIVO

Re: TiVo
 

Fair point, but the broadband is delivered down the phone line with BT (ie needs to be enabled to the house for voice to be able to deliver the phone). I suppose they could cut the voice out at the exchange, but the physical line is required.

VM don't need to provide phone to provide broadband - the phone comes down a seperate twisted pair from the DP and the broadband/TV is delivered via coax. So the only reason for the bundles is business related, not a technical limitation.

Re: TiVo
 

From what I can make out of the Tivo roll out is that a group were selected to make sure that when the full roll out happens it was as much bug free as possible.
If you think about it, if they just went ahead without it being debugged the amount of calls made to VM would be an avalanche, there would be more complaints than what happens at the moment about the slow roll out. Can you imagine the postings and people using this site looking for information might have brought this crashing down...
Think the only critism I have about VM was announcing the Tivo box before it was ready for a bigger initial roll out, but on the other hand I dont think that VM would have managed to keep it secret on any type of secret roll out.

---------- Post added at 14:13 ---------- Previous post was at 14:11 ----------

Willing to pass on any info, about the box, just let me know what you need! ;)

Re: TiVo
 

so late March for existing customers to know the price and available to new customers from April .... dont give existing customers long to get their order in especially if that is 23,000 plus installs to do

i hope the last part about 1000 VIP50 customers to get it earlier means the other VIP50 get the same deal just later down the line as i think that is the fairest deal .. yes of course im jealous of the lucky ones , who wouldnt be .. but more than that they have the reward of early instal for free ... other VIP peeps should get the same free instal but at a later date .. thats treating customers equally

thanks for the info ... once again though shows that different VM staff are saying different things to different people even when they are from the same CEO office

personally having reviewed my TV use and habits i asked myself ... do i need something extra for £149 ... and i say to myself NOPE .. so unless its free then tivo aint for me

Re: TiVo
 

finally I can agree with something you say :) I'm more than happy with my sexy V+ box so why pay more?