TiVo Removes Useful Support Tool, Charter Adds Channels

Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by MegaZone

One of the most useful self-support tools on TiVo’s website has gone missing. TiVo used to have an online form to correct problems with your channel lineup, which was at that link or conveniently at http://www.tivo.com/lineup. I’ve used that form a number of times, and I’ve referred users there too many times to recall. A Google search on TiVo lineup problems will find countless posts online referring people to that form, and I’ve found references from people reporting using it as recently as late October, possibly later. But I went to use it a week ago and it was gone, and it is still down.

Searching TiVo’s support site I can’t find any references to it anymore, and pages like this one just walk the user through checking their setup and don’t offer any help to reporting actual problems. I try to avoid calling technical support since I’m generally capable of being self-sufficient, and it saves time for both myself and the support reps. But this time I was stymied and ended up calling support as Charter added 14 new channels in my area and I wasn’t getting guide data. Working with the rep it sounds like the very same form that used to be public is still used internally, since he asked me for exactly the same info I used to enter myself.

I don’t know why TiVo pulled this form down, it was very useful. Now users with lineup issues will need to call in. Perhaps they were getting too many false lineup issue requests or something.

Oh – Charter added these channels in the Worcester/Central MA area:
175 OVATN Ovation
298 FBNWK Fox Business
346 MLBN MLB Network
725 WTRHD The Weather Channel HD
726 FNWHD Fox News HD
730 ANPHD Animal Planet HD
731 TLCHD The Learning Channel HD
732 FOODH Food Network HD
733 HGTHD HGTV HD
736 NGEHD National Geographic HD
767 VRSHD Versus HD
768 GLFHD Golf HD
776 DSCHD Discovery Channel HD
794 FXHD FX HD

Charter says their new policy is that if you get a channel in SD you’ll automatically get it in HD as they add them, no additional charge. If they can add HD versions of The CW, USA, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, and Sci-Fi I think I’d be about covered – on top of the HD channels they had and just added.

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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  • Joel

    Maybe they never actually used the data submitted?

    I know I’ve used the lineup tool. And, in a week or so, lineups were fixed on my TiVo. I assumed they acted on my report. But, perhaps, the data provider just updated with the correct information.

  • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

    Well, they still take the reports via the phone and seem to be filling in the same form.

  • Scott

    I used the lineup tool on 12-Dec, but I had to do some creative searching to find it, and when I submitted it, I went to an error page for the thank you page, though I did get a confirmation email. I tried going back to the links in my history and they are all dead now.

  • Brandon

    I similarly was looking for the page you mentioned when my local Charter mis-labeled our local NBC affiliate in the information sent to Tribune Media Services. I found out later that day that me and 2 of my friends independently spent several hours on the phone with TiVo and Charter trying to sort out the problem. Charter didn’t seem concerned because their boxes don’t use the Tribune data and TiVo wasn’t very helpful either because the rep. told me it would take 5+ days to fix the lineup issue if Charter had provided incorrect information. It’s crazy that something that seems so simple is a single point of failure in the whole TiVo model…