Any danger in giving out serial number?

other then wipe out your shows through myreplay, which isn't an issue here since you are selling it anyway, nothing that I can think of... anyone else?

I was in a similar situation. I sold a couple lifetime RTVs on eBay without any problems at all. On another lifetime unit auction, a potential bidder emailed and asked for the serial in order to verify the unit's activation. We exchanged emails and I got his phone number and address and then gave him the serial number. He called and verified the activation and then never actually bid on the auction. I shipped the RTV to the winning bidder and when he hooked it up it did not show lifetime activation and Replay Tech support told him that it was because the lifetime activation had been refunded.


It took several phone calls and a fax of the full price reciept sent to Replay to get the mess straightened out and the buyer was ready to strangle me for a couple of days thinking he had been swindled. I don't believe that the person I gave the serial number to actually said or did anything malicious to cause the trouble, but it seems to have been an inadvertant cause of the problem.

corgi1, that sucks! Did ReplayTV ever tell you what happened and why the problem came up? I'm very curious on this...


I'm currenly auctioning off a lifetime activated 5040 on ebay. I haven't had any requests, but I do know what can/can't be done with the SN so I'll be careful with that information. You can't read the SN on the picture of the back of the unit either.


I'll put my ebay feedback rating and even tell anyone how to find me here if they have any problems. But.... I don't think I'd be giving out the SN to any random stranger.

No, I never could get a definitive answer out of Replay's tech support about why they deactivated the unit. I could not get anywhere with the first line tech support but after several calls and getting to an upper level person in Texas, I got the mess straightened out by faxing in my reciept. It all worked out in the end, but was very unpleasant for about a week while trying to sort it all out.

Receipt? Geez... that's long lost. Sure hope that never comes up for me.

Quote:
That's what I'm thinking... I don't even know if there ever was a receipt.

When I sold my extra units, I refused to give out the serial number. I didn't feel comfortable doing that, particularly in light of the fact that they were fiasco RTVs.


Still got bids and still made sucessful sales.

This was one thing I thought about ahead of time... the receipt for both of my Replays was an email, which I have printed and stored. I also printed and stored the emails from the activations...

Quote:

Old thread back to life


I'm selling a unit and another potential buyer with Zero posts an just Registered this month also PM me an ask for the serial number to verify Lifetime Activation . I said I would but after reading this thread it placed e-nuff doubts in my mind that now I feel......... Better safe then sorry.

How do you Guys feel about giving out serial numbers to unknown persons ?


Thx

I wouldn't do it. There are enough other bidders out there that it shouldn't be an issue.

I agree, this could be a phishing attempt since now DNNA apparently will transfer lifetime service between units.

Thank guys


I have a good Gut. And my Gut was giving me a bad feeling about this. So much so I did a search looking for a thread about giving out Lifetime Activation S/N. I just PM'ed the potential buyer here an told him that I don't feel right about it. Not that I'm saying this was on his mind.........But


And now that you say DNNA is transfering lifetime service between units with just a phone call............ahhhhh


thanks BaysideBas and GooberedUp for backing my gut up

I hope your gut does not get too backed up - that could be messy

Yes Jonesy, your gut is legendary

I'd also suspect that DNNA doesn't really track how the activation happened so once it is transferred they most likely wouldn't even be able to know which box received the transfered activation. In other words they may not ever be able to "fix" the damage done.


If it wasn't for that one issue I'd say its safe.

Even if they (DNNA) did know, and they can turn that "receiving" unit into a brick, the unfortunate time lag between getting all of this accomplished can work for the criminal element. I won't document the process I figured out lest it work as a guideline for some unsavory type, but it would be sooooooo easy. So, whatever you do, don't supply your lifetime unit's serial number to anybody.

I never really gave the serial number much thought until this thread popped up. Now it's got me thinking...


If it really is that easy to 'steal' a lifetime serial number and have DNNA transfer it to another unit, this could become a real problem. I hope Archie (poopli guy) takes great care in securing his servers, since they now contain a database of serial numbers for users that have opted to use the poopli updater.


Lyndon, if you read this thread, can you comment on this issue?

Ah, I wondered how he was doing this: http://home1.gte.net/res04oqz/poopli_spoof.jpg