[heathriel]

I encountered a very interesting problem today. Recently, I took another AVS member up on a trade; my a 5040 for his 4504. Well, all went well, we both have our units, and I expected it to take a few days for mine to pick up on its activation.


Except I couldn't activate it.


It kept giving me the "please check your account at blah blah blah" message, the one it gives when your monthly subscription is up and not paid for. The only thing it lets me do is 411 and 243 zones. Again, this was not unexpected. I was going to activate it and wait for a few days for it to take.


Except I couldn't activate it.


Some of you may have figured out why already, but for the rest of the class, I'll explain. You see, I couldn't activate it because IT WAS ALREADY ACTIVATED.


Not a big deal if its a lifetime activation, as the person who sold it probably took into account the lifetime sub in the selling price. But since this was a monthly sub, there was no way around it. The person who traded it with me, under no fault of his own, made it so that I couldn't do anything at all to it.


So I called SB (mind you, this is only about 5 minutes after I plugged it in. I act fast.) On hold for 12 minutes and explained my problem. They did the coolest thing:


They had to call the guy that I got the replay from to verify that he had indeed gotten rid of his unit so they could register it to me. They took my credit card info for my lifetime subscription and said they'd immediately run through the new 10 day grace period as I already had 4 units registered with them and I wasn't likely to be lying Within three hours the grace period kicked in again, and an hour later my lifetime sub was on the unit.


So the moral of this long tale is:


If you buy a unit, and get a monthly subscription on it, and decide to take it back, please call SB or drop them an email with your unit's info to let them know you're returning it so they can 1. turn the grace period back on for someone else and 2. remove the activation so the person who gets it next can turn it on. Just think what would have happened if the person who got this unit wasn't *me* or one of *us* and had no idea what the zones codes were or anything, went through quick setup and then found their unit wouldn't work unless they logged into their nonexistent replay account.


So please, let SB know if you're returning an activated unit, even just a monthly subbed one. It will keep the number of frustrated open box buyers down

 

[gweempose]

I completely agree, heathriel. The average joe will certainly be frustrated when confronted with the same dilemma. They may eventually call SB and resolve the problem like you did. On the other hand, they might just get so upset that they return the Replay and buy a Tivo. In order to avoid this scenario, SB should require that stores immediately contact them and give them the serial number of all returned units before they are put back out on the sales floor.

 

[Hankcampbell]

Two questions ... why did you trade a 5xxx for a 4xxx ... and do you really utilize 4 ( now 5? ) Replays? That's a lot of TV ... SB should send you a new tiara just for buying so many of these things!

Quote:

Originally posted by heathriel I encountered a very interesting problem today. Recently, I took another AVS member up on a trade; my a 5040 for his 4504. They had to call the guy that I got the replay from to verify that he had indeed gotten rid of his unit so they could register it to me. They took my credit card info for my lifetime subscription and said they'd immediately run through the new 10 day grace period as I already had 4 units registered with them and I wasn't likely to be lying Within three hours the grace period kicked in again, and an hour later my lifetime sub was on the unit.

 

[heathriel]

Well, replays stream. The more replays, the more simultaneous recording. Having multiple units is better than having a really high capacity on one to me; many times, shows i want to watch are all scheduled against each other. Having one unit with a 320gb drive doesn't do a darn thing when I can only record one of those shows. This way, I can get them all.


As for why I wanted a 4504 instead of a 5040, here's what happened. I got $300 in amazon gift certificates for my birthday. Amazon currently only sells 5040s, and I have 4xxx series units. The whole point of my system is to stream, and the 5xxx series doesn't stream yet. I'm not a videophile, and even on my 55 inch tv medium quality looks good to me (helps that I have crystal clear digital cable, as well). So the 5xxx's new tuner didn't interest me, and the slower CPU didn't interest me, and the lack of front buttons annoyed me, and the single drive only bothered me (as when each of the warranties expire I would like the ability to add more drives). So I had a $300 gc burning a hole in my account and sadly, no 4xxx to spend it on.


Then I noticed the post in here asking to trade. So I took the leap of faith, and ordered the 5040 sent directly to him, and then he shipped me his 4xxx back. All went very quickly, very seamlessly (excepting some trouble on his end with the mean people at Mailboxes etc), and I'm very pleased with the turnout.


So, why 4xxx? Because that's what I have and that's what I'm happy with