upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

so i'm an idiot and would like some advise please. i've been with virgin for about 4/5 years and have tv, phone and broadband and was not under a current 12 month contract with them, was just a rolling one if you get what i mean (so i could cancel anytime if i wished). anyway i decided to go with tivo and had it installed today (wednesday) so entered i new 12 month contract, i would like some clarification before i ring them on going about cancelling under the 7 day cooling off period that i've been reading about.

1) am i entitled to it seeing as i've technically only upgraded i think and so not had a new service, have read conflicting things about this only being available if you are a new customer or have had a new service.

2) if i can cancel it and go back to v+ like i had then is my contract back to a rolling one or will then stick me on a 12 month one?

3) could i cancel everything if i wanted to?

basically the tivo's picture quality is dreadful for me, a significant step down from the v+ box and having done abit of research online i've found its a common problem and the fix (something to do with the upscaling iirc) isn't due for a few months. add the lack of red button which i've since found out is not being rolled out fully until early next year (unbelievably later than even normal v+ boxes) and general sluggishness of it all and i'm really disappointed even though i've only had it a short time. the poor picture is the kicker for me tbh, could kinda live with the rest.

muchas gracias to anyone who can help with my queries as i'm terrible at contract/customer rights stuff so any info i can arm myself with before i ring them is much appreciated.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

Hi your not alone with this problem:( ,

I had TiVo installed 3 weeks ago and my initial reaction was the same as yours with PQ being my main gripe,

I do believe VM will fix it and they have been very positive about the problem

I decided to stick with it as the TiVo features are fantastic, my PQ as improved after, adjusting my TV settings

my engineer left my picture settings to stretch (full screen) on all programmes, I found this distorted the SD picture on programmes shot in 4.3 format

I changed this setting to Panel, (in Settings Video) this really improved my SD PQ, HD for me was alway good

You will make your own mind up but for me I would stick with it, because as you use the box more you will see its brilliance

The suggested recording have introduced me to TV I didn't know existed, I would not go back now, but did feel like you directly after my installation

Good Luck :erm:

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I dont think you'll have any problem cancelling the whole lot since you weren't contracted prior to having Tivo fitted - they'll have to treat you like a new contract for a dis-satisfied customer

you might struggle to get anyone to deal with it - cant see customer service wanting to talk to you at all, and retentions will prolly just try to sell it to you

P.S. make sure you record name, date & time of the person that you eventually deal with just in case

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

thanks for the advise. have decided to cancel and reassess around xmas time when hopefully the little niggles and bugs have been sorted and it actually feels like i'm paying for a better product than v+ rather than an inferior one. atm it certainly feels like a product thats not quite ready and is relying on new customers to test it out so they can fix it further in the year. i'll maybe come back then.

ken- have tried different settings including the ones you've suggested to no luck unfortunately, both sd and hd are still poor. was reading your thread yesterday actually (well i think it was yours) about your misgivings about the picture and found it helpful. stuff like this i just wish worked well and i didn't need to mess about with :D, i mean we all pay enough to not have these kind of problems.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

i had my box for about 5 weeks and in that time had 2 replacements and an 3 engineer visits!

Call yesterday and cancel my entire TV package!

Box was locking up, PQ not very good, on Demand didnt work!

Guttted TBH as been looking forward to!

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

so just an update incase anyone is interested.

rang them and spoke to a cool guy who dealt with it very well (was expecting to get the run around from department to department never getting a clear answer tbh). told him i'd like to cancel under the 7 day cooling off period that i'm entitled to and he was fully upto speed with it and after i few questions of why i'm not satisfied and offering to send an engineer round and give me a free month he proceeded to cancel my account with the minimum of fuss which is great.

had to ask about the full refund of the installation fee and cost of the box and he wasn't sure so went and confirmed with his boss (i knew they had to refund me this) which was all good.

so now have full refund and an email confirming this along with the cancellation.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I thought this TIVO was meant to help control Churn at VM :-)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

One (or a few) cases do not make a trend....;)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

Agreed still not great though Hugh ;)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

One person (or a couple of people) in an Internet forum not great?

Methinks a sense of proportion may be required.....:D

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

You may well be right Hugh , I guess only time will tell, to be fair the PQ Issue I suppose is a subjective one as I've seen many on here saying they think the PQ is as good if not better than V+.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

And one person who complained about it said that to be fair it was still better than Sky sd picture quality. The main saving grace though is that it is apparently fixable and going out for beta testing soon.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I just got TiVo on Tuesday and can't say I've noticed much difference in picture quality from the V+.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

To be fair I've never had poor SD with both V+ or Sky+HD however V+ probably just shaded it , its no issue now as I don't have any SL that are in SD.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

That is the surprising thing, that although VM have admitted there is a problem, most people haven't noticed it. I think the sd pq looks fine. It must either vary with different tv's or people have different tolerance of the issue. Some people say the pq gets better after a few days which is IMO just that people get used to the difference between the picture on the new box.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

An individuals TV set could be a contributing factor as well , some sets are notorious for being poor at handling SD.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

That would be true if TiVo was actually outputting SD (which it only does if you force it to), it's all upscaled which brings into play the wonky filtering produced by the box having a incorrect setting in the firmware. It's that incorrect setting that is being fixed (among other things) in the next update.

So irrelevant of people noticing it - as it affects all TiVo boxes - it is being fixed, after that I guess some people will notice an improvement and some wont.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

There's also the 28 day money back guarantee which applies to any new services you take up with VM, and this DOES apply to TiVo (contrary to some reports on this forum) as the email I got from my online order of the TiVo installation says so.

So you could wait it out for 28 days, with full money back guarantee (except any movies or PPV stuff of course).

We were going to send ours back, but the beta trial and a very helpful and informative conversation with NickO of the VM support forum changed our minds.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I reckon I was one of the first to cancel and send back my TiVo mainly because of the poor picture quality. VM reinstated my account where it was before TiVo - in the end I decided to go with Freeview HD and bought a dual tuner 3View box. I haven't looked back.

I had a series 1 TiVo some 10 years ago and quite honestly I was shocked at how little it had improved. The UI is a mess and the picture quality worse than the V+ box I had before. What was interesting for me is how many people told me to adjust my TV, that picture quality was subjective, that it was my HDMI switchbox etc. etc.. It is interesting that now the picture quality issue has been documented and acknowledged by VM these people are not posting the same message or have changed their tune. I think I should not take anything else they say seriously . . .

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

You do realise that VM found and acknowledged the problem because of people from here and the VM community forums?

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

l am afraid you are overeacting to this as 99 per cent of people will be extremely happy with their tivo,s, come over Muppetman and join the club and get away from your master,s.;);)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

Of course. I don't understand your point. It was the TiVo evangelists burying their heads in sand pretending all was well. Those of us who complained were denigrated. Nothing to do with VM, other than that they should have spotted the problem before release.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I guess there wasn't a large enough sample size during testing for anyone to detect the issue with PQ. I myself haven't noticed any difference between the V+ and the TiVo but hey, that's just me. Hopefully once the new firmware is out VM will have lots of happy TiVo customers :)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I think that when it went out to staff in December was 500?

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

This is the first Tivo I have ever had but I suspected the software was outdated and that just reinforced my suspicions

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

So even 10years ago if the software has not been updated, It must be well above the rest of :confused: I have not had a original TiVo so did not know to expect? So after having it a while it is better than the V+ and also the SKY+hd Boxes as well:confused:

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

You've stated on here you left Sky 13 years ago , as far as I'm aware the Sky+HD box wasn't available then :confused:

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

:confused:

He doesn't actually say he has owned one. He could actually just be saying that the tivo box has features that the Sky HD box doesn't.
ie Wishlists, mine is recording a film today because there is an actress in it that my wife likes.
Recording recommendations which is a great add on to the catch up service.
Three tuners. Really needed because the box is recording a lot more than my V+ did. Other features like youtube linked to the epg etc.
Obviously Sky is still better for you Muppetman but I wouldn't take offence just because not everybody thinks so.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

No he actually says better , how can you work that out when you haven't used something , it's like me saying my Sky+HD box is much better than TIVO when I haven't used TIVO at length :confused:. To make it clear I haven't took offence nor do I care I'm just asking how he can possibly know when he hasn't used one at length. Sky as a service is better for me however I'm not making bold claims about the STB. I personally think it will be a superior advanced box when little things are ironed out such as Remote record , something Sky does with no problems , better EPG data , PQ fault fixed , Sky sports and BBC red button services , slow menus , all menus in HD , global padding.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

So devilincarnate shouldn't post abot a box he doesn't own when you are the second highest poster in the tivo thread. :D

I can find plenty of recent posts about bugs in Sky software in Sky forums. If I look back a bit I can find problems where Sky Hd boxes have been rendered virtually unusable not too mention that more people seemed to hate Sky's latest epg software than liked it. :)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I love the fact you always feel the need to quote me :D Quote me on a post were I've stated Sky+HD box doesn't have bugs ? ;) If you knew anything, the STB your talking about which has been rendered unusable is the very first Thomson Sky+HD box which Sky are ringing around and swapping out for a new one as its not compatible with Anytime+. You seem to be under an impression as I have some problem with TIVO which is the funniest thing I've heard , just look at how many STB I've had over the last three years BT Vision , V+ both SA and Samsung and Sky+ HD if you wish to paint me as a Sky fanboy knock yourself out. :D

It seems to me more you who feels the need to defend VM and TIVO for some unknown reason :erm:

Care to provide proof that more people preferred Skys old EPG to the new one or is it just something you've read in a few forum threads.

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

I actually own the box and just post my observations. Denphone owns the box and loves it. Is he a VM shill? I don't think so. :D

I didn't know about the Thompson because I rarely go in forums for products I don't own the one I was mainly referring to was Sky's new 1Tb box which had serious problems several months ago.
You are right though every box has it's problems especially when first released. My objection though was you highlighting problems some people have had with a box you don't own and then suggesting people couldn't possibly post about a box they don't own. :)

Yes it is something I read in a lengthy thread. I haven't seen any customer surveys. Perhaps there is a lesson there for all of us.:)

Re: upgraded to tivo-7 day cooling off option? help.
 

People are free to say what they want when they want about any STB , I merely stated that Devil hadn't used the box so couldn't know everything about it , I don't claim to know everything about TIVO , that's why I don't make bold claims about my box being better than it ;)

Let's get this point clear , I'm currently contracted to Sky for another 10 months , I will then read the forums and assess TIVO and VM channel lineup and wouldn't rule out a switch back (hardly the actions of a loyal Sky fan ;) ). I resent the fact you seem to think I know nothing about TIVo I've used it in VM store and have used a TIVO premiere while on a 3 week holiday to the US , granted my knowledge is nowhere near as vast as yours and many others as I haven't used the VM TIVO for any length of time in the home environment. To be perfectly honest none of the TIVO bugs particularly frighten me , it's main omission for me at the moment is BBC red button and Sky Red button being a sports fan , however in 10 months these will probably have arrived.