[kcobra]

Damn, ReplayTV. Like someone else reported here, my new 4532 from them goes straight to saying I must activate it before it will work. So I start looking through the box and fiind a piece of paper saying the unit would work for a 30 day trial period before requiring activation. I call ReplayTV up and the guy wants to give me the standard 10 day trial but I press the issue that the documentation says I get 30 days so he says he will escalate the issue and I should get the full 30 days.


Ofcourse it has been 4 hours since going through this and the unit still says I need service even after doing the Net Connect option. Damn, ReplayTV. Why am I not surprised. Anyways, just a heads for anyone getting a new ReplayTV to look for the 30 day trial documentation.

 

[Lee Thompson]

I don't remember ANYTHING about a 30 day trial. There's a 30 day money back guarantee which is not the same thing.

 

[mlc0903]

***** ***** *****

 

[kcobra]

Quote:

Originally posted by Lee Thompson I don't remember ANYTHING about a 30 day trial. There's a 30 day money back guarantee which is not the same thing.

Yep, I realize that. My point in posting, besides venting a little frustration because I left work early just to play with this thing, was to alert anyone getting a new unit from ReplayTV that they might be able to get a 30 day trial instead of the 10 day or even the 0 day which I was configured out of the box. I know I almost looked over the one page 30 day notice.

 

[heathriel]

There is NO 30 day trial. If you purchase Lifetime Activation, there is a 30 day money back guarantee. There is a 10 day trial when you first get it, so if it immediately locks you out you will only get 10 days free.


I would seriously like to see a scan of the thing you say says you have a 30 day free trial.

 

[kcobra]

I had also never heard of the 30 day trial but there was the paper saying the unit came with one. At first the CSR said he never heard of that being included in the box, but then he ask a supervisor and was told other's had called in with the same piece of paper in hand. He said he put a note on my account and the 10 day would get bumped up to 30 day.


Ofcourse, I don't even have the 10 day at this point, so I'll be calling when I get off work to see why my grace period still hasn't kicked in. I'll definately persist in getting the 30 day trial also.


As for a scan, sorry no scanner currently.

 

[sfhub]

Quote:

Originally posted by heathriel There is NO 30 day trial. If you purchase Lifetime Activation, there is a 30 day money back guarantee. There is a 10 day trial when you first get it, so if it immediately locks you out you will only get 10 days free. I would seriously like to see a scan of the thing you say says you have a 30 day free trial.

Not having purchased a new unit recently, I have no idea whether SB

changed their policies from 10 days to 30 days or not, however, there

was no 5060 before either


Have we become so jaded that we can't believe SB would try to make our

lives better?

 

[dave2297]

I don't think I would depend on a company in bankruptcy to be able to make any refunds, especially 30 days down the road...


Dave W.

 

[sfhub]

Luckily if it is within 30 days you'll have a good chance a disputing with

your CC company and winning.

 

[heathriel]

The 4500 series has been discontinued for months now. They haven't produced any new ones. The 5000 series only has a 3 day trial period. It doesn't make any sense at all that a discontinued unit would have a 10 times as long trial period as the new one, and a 3 times as long trial period as its own model.

 

[mlc0903]

A little birdy told me that some 4532's went out with a misprint on the sheet of paper in question. Kcobra is one of the lucky one's.

 

[sfhub]

Quote:

Originally posted by heathriel The 4500 series has been discontinued for months now. They haven't produced any new ones. The 5000 series only has a 3 day trial period. It doesn't make any sense at all that a discontinued unit would have a 10 times as long trial period as the new one, and a 3 times as long trial period as its own model.

I'd agree if the 4500 was sitting on the shelf for a while but I recall SB

just had a clearance on a bunch of units. It doesn't require at lot of

work for them to slip a paper into the box saying 30 days.


I'm open to the possibility the trial period hasn't changed, but equally

open to the possibility it might have changed. I can believe that SB felt

the 3 day trial period resulted in way to many support calls sapping up

much needed cash so they decided 30 days would actually benefit

them from cash burn and implemented this across the board for anything

shipped after the changeover date. Given the right hand doesn't always

know what the left hand is doing I can believe the support organization

wasn't fully informed of this. Then again, this is all idle conjecture and

maybe nothing has changed.

 

[Jeff D]

I seem to remember hearing about a 30 day trial, the 4504 I tried had 10 days and the 5040 3 days.


Three days sucks!!! unless you are planning on recording something in the next day it's pointless.


Makes no sense to me to try and HOOK a user in 3 days. If you are like most people it will take more than 3 days to get "comfortable" with this new hardware.


I'm a AV geek and it took me at least a week to get use to the 3020 years ago. That's 2x the time they would have given me for a trial, lucky for me the subscription was built in then!

 

[ReplayLyndon]

There's no new 30 trial period. It's still 3 days for the 5000s and 10 days on the 4500s.


Is it possible that when the 4500s first shipped that a few boxes slipped out with a flyer that incorrectly quoted 30 days? Yes.


Lyndon

 

[kcobra]

Yep, I never meant to imply that the official trial period had been bumped up from 10 to 30 days. Just giving a heads up for anyone furtunate like me that they can use the 30 day piece of paper to their benefit.


As for wanting the 30 days to checkout the product and return it, that is not the reason at all. I know I'll be lucky if my unit works 7 days from now, much less 30. What the 30 day trial does do is save me a $10 monthly subscription charge. By the end of the 30 days I will either go lifetime or the ReplayTV service will be no more.


Also, I do have a trial period now. When I came home and did the Net Connect the unit authorized.

 

[kcobra]

I wanted to give SB props on how they have handled this matter. While it took a day to get my free trial working, since then it had worked fine. Also, today I got an email from a SB tech cupport guy confirming my 30 day free trial and even explained how they are going to do it. That is definately a good way to keep a customer happy.