A couple of months ago I made the tough decision to give up my DirecTV (satellite TV) and Vonage (IP phone) services so that I could move to a bundled package from Comcast.  Generally, I had been happy with both DirecTV and Vonage, but in an effort to cut costs (almost $100/mo), I made the respective phone calls.

The Vonage service was “expendable” as the actual use of my household land-line has continued to twindle.  It was losing my DirecTV that I really dreaded. I had been a customer for over eleven years.  My family doesn’t watch a lot of television, but most of what we watch is time-shifted, ala DVR.  I had heard horror stories about the Comcast DVR.

Once the Comcast DVR was installed, I tried to make myself “like” it.  I really tried for two whole weeks – but I just couldn’t come to love, much less like, the it.  And, to be fair, the odds were certainly stacked against it.  My very first DVR experience back in 2004 had been with the TiVo-powered unit that DirecTV offered at the time – they were still partnered with TiVo for their standard definition DVR.   When HD television came along, I was forced to give up my TiVo.  DirecTV had severed their tie with TiVo and “thought” they could produce a better DVR.

It was painful to make this downshift, but I learned to live with the DirecTV DVR.  My dissatisfaction was tempered with the much improved image quality that came with the flat screen that was mounted on my living room wall.

Today, though, the only trade-off that came with my third “generation” of DVR was a reduced monthly bill.  But it felt like I was heading the wrong direction along the DVR evolutionary path.  The Comcast  user interface was attrocious, horrible…shameful.  The cheap-feeling remote control made me cringe everytime I picked it up.  There had to be another way.  Why couldn’t I have my old DVR back?  In fact, why couldn’t I have a TiVo again.  Then I remembered, having cable television service again opened up the opportunity to move back to TiVo.

How did I overlook that!

So I jumped on eBay and found several active auctions.  A winning bid was quickly locked in and I was the proud owner of a TiVo HD DVR.  I was even more excited because the seller had purchased the TiVo new just two months prior and was now selling it so that he could upgrade to TiVo’s newest DVR, the Premier.

In a couple of days, the HD TiVo arrived and I quickly plugged it in and waited, and waited…and waited.  Uh, oh…Houston, we have a problem.  The unit was stuck displaying the message “Almost there. Just a few minutes more…”.  I contacted the seller and he was more than helpful in making our trade right.  He called TiVo to ensure that the unit was still under warranty even with the recent change in ownership.  TiVo honored the warranty, no questions asked.  All I had to do was make a brief phone call to their tech support line where it was quickly confirmed that the unit was faulty.  There was no hassle.  No attempt to draw into question the care taken in handling of the unit during its shipment to me.  No issue with the change in ownership.  Just, where can we ship the replacement unit?

In forty-eight hours, I had a “like-new” replacement DVR.  Quickly plugging it in and after several minutes, I was reunited with TiVo.  It felt like a long, lost friend had been found.

Being several years removed from TiVo, first in using the DirecTV DVR and then the Comcast unit, the re-introduction made it crystal clear – TiVo just “gets it.”  Their DVR system is second to none.  Their menus are intuitive, the remote is easy to use, and the system is just so much more “polished”.

And, now after working with through my faulty unit, I can only say that their customer service is best in class. Just as their DVR is the bar that every other DVR is compared against, their customer support should be used as the standard for how to serve your customers and, ultimately, your fans.  Because, that is exactly what I am now.  A fan, for life!

Thank you, TiVo, for your excellent product and your awesome customer service!