TiVo

[fixerman]

Originally Posted by savvychels

How does that work. I got my V+ boxes before there was a charge for them. I pay for them monthly (one included in my VIP and the other as an upgrade from the second V box so pay a bit extra per month). I saw later that customers paid a fee for the box, but never paid much attention. For those customers that 'bought' the box, is it still under service contract (ie they fix/replace etc) or is it like buying a Sky box?

Just wondering how it worked with the V+ so I know what to expect with the TiVo when the time comes.

All Virgin boxes remain the property of Virginmedia and are repaired or replaced free of charge. The TiVo will be no different. Virgin do not consider the up front payment to be a purchase price.

[Cozzy]

While Im not saying £149 with the possible addition of £40 for activation (only reported as waved for previous S1 tivo owners so far) is not a resonable charge for the investment VM are making ... the outdated system of only being able to order if paying by card over the phone in advance is the thing i will not compromise on ...

having been a victim of identity theif there is no way i will ever give card details to some stranger over the phone .. just never gonna happen so VM get your act together and let us pay via our monthly bill.

then as a VIP50 customer wheres my sweetner will be the next question i ask as apparently it looks like bills are going by £10 or so according to the VIP thread (not checked this personally though) ... and then it will be why are VIP20 getting free upgrade to VIP30 and VIP50 get no upgrades on BB speed.....

that should be interesting conversation with lots of negative replys i bet

Cozzy

[savvychels]

Originally Posted by fixerman

All Virgin boxes remain the property of Virginmedia and are repaired or replaced free of charge. The TiVo will be no different. Virgin do not consider the up front payment to be a purchase price.

Thanks - that's what I thought, but I never understood why some had to pay a one off price for the box and others pay a monthly charge.

So theoretically if I go for a TiVo I pay the charge and activation/installation, then £3 a month, if I return one of my V+ boxes would that 'extra' charge come off my bill? I realise all of this is still speculation and dependent on my package (currently VIP20 with a V+ instead of Vbox) but in essence it sounds like my monthly bill might actually go down?

[ShadowTD]

Another one who'll have problems if they ring before the 15th (pay day). It's just after Christmas and everyone's skint. You should have the option of putting it on your bill.

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by ShadowTD

Another one who'll have problems if they ring before the 15th (pay day). It's just after Christmas and everyone's skint. You should have the option of putting it on your bill.

Completely agree. Probably the worst time to be asking people to fork out £150-200 when all the Christmas credit card bills have just landed on the door mat/e-mail inbox.

Putting it on the bill should be the only option as Cozzy says. Who in their right mind would give CC details to someone who phoned them

[HDFootyMan]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

I'm really glad everyone is starting to get called now

Apart from me.

Pouts and starting showing TiVo Tension Symptoms.

[howardmicks]

Originally Posted by pauldavies83

Can't the price be added to your bill over a few months.

Tough to expect people to find £200 just like that

Agree, with vat going up petrol and people struggling after xmas.Would hope vm could have sorting something like that

[Joedm45]

Originally Posted by savvychels

Thanks - that's what I thought, but I never understood why some had to pay a one off price for the box and others pay a monthly charge.

I'm sure I once saw something on the VM website that if you pay a lump sum, £200 rings a bell, then they will remove the monthly V+ charge of £10. However this may have been before it was free on TV XL. I've had a quick look but there's a high chance that web page no longer exists.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by Masque

The V+ used to cost this much so it makes this box look a bargain.

Disagree.

Originally Posted by muppetman11

Yes I agree seems value to me let's not forget Sky+HD was £299 when it launched and the Sky+HD 1TB box is still over 200 pounds now.

But you own that box.

Ok, rant time.

Over the last few years, many people believe that the monthly fees they pay VM are just like what you pay Sky, in that they are subscription fees. They're not!

The monthly fee we pay VM is made up of three parts:

a. Subscription fees for tv, broadband and/or telephone services.
b. Rental fees for equipment.
c. A fee to connect to VM's network - VM call it telephone line rental.

Because we pay rental fees for equipment, we can get the equipment fixed/replaced if it breaks. It's not free to fix/replace equipment as many people believe, we pay for it every month.

I won't go into V+ as that's old news, but with Tivo, VM propose and I repeat propose, as we don't know all the charges yet, to charge us the following:

1. Our usual monthly fees as outlined above.
2. An additionally monthly charge of £3 to use the service.
3. An upfront charge of one kind or another.

All well and good?? Hell no!!

Lets break this down...

VM propose to charge an upfront fee (item 3) for a box that VM still owns. I'm already paying monthly rental equipment fees (item 1) as outlined above, so what is the upfront fee for? Then to add insult to injury, VM propose to charge an additional £3 per month (item 2) to use the service even though I am already paying them to use their cable tv service (item 1). I'm already paying monthly service charges (item 1), so what the hell is the £3 for. What do VM do to earn that £3? Absolutely nothing, of course!!

But hey I'm sure many will say that's fair, ok. But what if you leave VM? You've paid them a non-refundable upfront fee to purchase a box which you do not own on top of normal monthly rental charges and an additional £3 per month surcharge.

Is that fair? Hell, no!

It's called a triple whammy.

If VM propose to charge me a triple whammy of charges, I propose a triple whammy of complaints to the government, OFT and Consumer focus.

I have waited for something like tivo on cable for 10 years. V+ was poor and I never bothered with it. If it had been 10 years ago, perhaps I might have been more relaxed about the charges. But I watch my pennies now and they are pennies and I am not putting up with this nonsense. VM are saying bend over and take it, no I won't!

I used to say on Sky forums that if people start paying for pay-per-view sports and films, even though they're already paying for subscription sports/film channels, then SKy will charge those fees forever. And that's exactly what they did.

I say its time to stop this nonsense and stand up to this greed. Anyone agree? No, I didn't think so.

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by Horizon

Disagree.

But you own that box.

Ok, rant time.

Over the last few years, many people believe that the monthly fees they pay VM are just like what you pay Sky, in that they are subscription fees. They're not!

The monthly fee we pay VM is made up of three parts:

a. Subscription fees for tv, broadband and/or telephone services.
b. Rental fees for equipment.
c. A fee to connect to VM's network - VM call it telephone line rental.

Because we pay rental fees for equipment, we can get the equipment fixed/replaced if it breaks. It's not free to fix/replace equipment as many people believe, we pay for it every month.

I won't go into V+ as that's old news, but with Tivo, VM propose and I repeat propose, as we don't know all the charges yet, to charge us the following:

1. Our usual monthly fees as outlined above.
2. An additionally monthly charge of £3 to use the service.
3. An upfront charge of one kind or another.

All well and good?? Hell no!!

Lets break this down...

VM propose to charge an upfront fee (item 3) for a box that VM still owns. I'm already paying monthly rental equipment fees (item 1) as outlined above, so what is the upfront fee for? Then to add insult to injury, VM propose to charge an additional £3 per month (item 2) to use the service even though I am already paying them to use their cable tv service (item 1). I'm already paying monthly service charges (item 1), so what the hell is the £3 for. What do VM do to earn that £3? Absolutely nothing, of course!!

But hey I'm sure many will say that's fair, ok. But what if you leave VM? You've paid them a non-refundable upfront fee to purchase a box which you do not own on top of normal monthly rental charges and an additional £3 per month surcharge.

Is that fair? Hell, no!

It's called a triple whammy.

If VM propose to charge me a triple whammy of charges, I propose a triple whammy of complaints to the government, OFT and Consumer focus.

I have waited for something like tivo on cable for 10 years. V+ was poor and I never bothered with it. If it had been 10 years ago, perhaps I might have been more relaxed about the charges. But I watch my pennies now and they are pennies and I am not putting up with this nonsense. VM are saying bend over and take it, no I won't!

I used to say on Sky forums that if people start paying for pay-per-view sports and films, even though they're already paying for subscription sports/film channels, then SKy will charge those fees forever. And that's exactly what they did.

I say its time to stop this nonsense and stand up to this greed. Anyone agree? No, I didn't think so.

I agree all big companies are greedy.

I don't totally agree with the 'you own the box' argument anymore as once you stop subscribing all you really own is a HD receiver, it ceases to be a PVR. Non PVR freesat HD boxes can be picked up for much less than £100. Then again the standard Sky+ HD box can be free, what I said really only applies to their 1TB box.

However I do accept a unsubscribed Sky box does hold some intrinsic value though whereas a VM box dosen't.

Maybe wait until the 3rd tuner is active and perhaps the price will drop in time too but it's I guess that's unlikely for a while yet.

[Horizon]

Originally Posted by mersey70

I agree all big companies are greedy.

I don't totally agree with the 'you own the box' argument anymore as once you stop subscribing all you really own is a HD receiver, it ceases to be a PVR. Non PVR freesat HD boxes can be picked up for much less than £100. Then again the standard Sky+ HD box can be free, what I said really only applies to their the 1TB box.

However I do accept a unsubscribed Sky box does hold some intrinsic value though whereas a VM box dosen't.

But they take it back! So you don't own a HD receiver or anything else when you cancel, it's rental equipment, theirs!

Never thought of your point about the Sky box. Good point.

[No_Socks]

Install date booked: 16th Feb

£149 for box

free installation

£3 extra per month on XL TV package

[Andy C]

When did the slightly different form appear at http://tivo.virginmedia.com/tivoupgrade/interest

I only knew about this one https://tivo.virginmedia.com/public/interest ?

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Cozzy

then as a VIP50 customer wheres my sweetner will be the next question i ask as apparently it looks like bills are going by £10 or so according to the VIP thread (not checked this personally though) ... and then it will be why are VIP20 getting free upgrade to VIP30 and VIP50 get no upgrades on BB speed.....

that should be interesting conversation with lots of negative replys i bet

Cozzy

I'd check out the current prices being advertised prior to agreeing a new 18 month contract with Virgin at the moment.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/bundles/...e-package.html

I hope the prices on their site are wrong, if not I'll certainly not be taking TIVO and agreeing a new 18 contract.

[PLB]

Originally Posted by No_Socks

Install date booked: 16th Feb

£149 for box

free installation

£3 extra per month on XL TV package

Free installation?
Cool.
How did you manage that as I understood it to be £49.00?