More updates on TiVo’s pricing

Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 by MegaZone

The FAQ at TiVoCommunity.com has been updated.

There have been some important clarifications and additions. The service-only prepaid plans have been announced:
* For one-year of service, you can prepay $155.
* For two years of service, you prepay $299.
* For three years of service, you can prepay $399.

So they’re about $70 less than the bundle pricing plans. Which makes sense, the 80-hour box has been selling for $70 after rebate.

The remaining availability of lifetime has also been clarified.

Details behind the cut…

Here are the details about Product Lifetime going away: Once it goes away sometime shortly after Wednesday 3/15, you will not be able to choose Product Lifetime when you activate or re-activate service via www.tivo.com/activate/ or Manage My Account.

This means that if you don’t have Product Lifetime already, you won’t be able to get it. New customers cannot purchase it. Existing customers cannot purchase it. Existing customers cannot convert their existing monthly contracts into Product Lifetime. It is no longer available as an option.

Are there any exceptions? Yes. We’d like to clarify a few points regarding Product Lifetime going away:

* To clarify for everyone — if you purchased your non-bundled TiVo DVR prior to 3/16/06, you’ll have until 4/15/06 to call and activate lifetime service on the box. This is provided there is no conflict with any other terms of your purchase (such as the requirement to activate service by 3/31 for the current 80 hour offer on tivo.com). Activating Product Lifetime Service will not be available online, you must call TiVo Customer Support in order to activate Product Lifetime Service. Boxes purchased on or after 3/16/06 will not be eligible to activate Product Lifetime service.
* Due to the terms of our relationship with Humax, however, new Humax DVD Recorder products not previously activated for service (that is, they have no activation history) will continue to be eligible for Product Lifetime Service activation. They are not affected by the 3/15/06 purchase cutoff or the 4/15/06 Product Lifetime activation cutoff. Again, you must call TiVo Customer Support in order to activate Product Lifetime Service. Humax DVD Recorder products which have already been activated for service have until 4/15/06 to upgrade to Product Lifetime Service. After 4/15/06, Humax DVD Recorder products with an activation history will no longer have Product Lifetime Service as an activation option.

If you have a special situation not covered in the above, please call TiVo Customer Support (1-877-367-8486), explain your situation, and they will do their best to help you.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • buran

    Ouch, they want the same price for two years that I paid last week for never getting a bill again! (I shall have to watch closely to see that they do stop billing. Is there a particular date on which they normally bill?)

  • tmesser

    They bill me automatically every 30 days from the day I activated. You can see your billing date under “View billing history” in Manage My Account.

  • buran

    Good point. I’ll check there.

  • megazone

    Since I’ve had lifetime on all of my units, I don’t know how monthly billing is handled.

  • stile99

    I had no plans to purchase lifetime. Obviously, it would have been a good buy on my Series 1. I got the Series 2 about a year ago, so it probably would have been a good buy for this as well. However, I enjoy the freedom monthly gives me…I can swap boxes whenever I feel like it.

    Then I did a bit of math. I currently pay $12.95/month.

    If I prepaid 12 months at $155, that would be $12.92. If I prepaid 24 months at $299, that would be $12.46. And if I went with the 36 month prepaid option, we finally see some savings…that would be $11.08 a month.

    While I’m sure I would be able to transfer the three-year plan to another box, I went ahead and jumped onto lifetime at the last minute just to hedge my bets. While $12.95/month isn’t going anywhere right now, I imagine it better be shopping for suitcases soon, cause it’s taking a trip.

    I just hope the bloody box doesn’t croak tomorrow…it would be at LEAST two weeks before I even had a chance to take a look at it.