What would you pay for lifetime?

[zonereyrie]

Since TiVo just dropped lifetime because, at $299, it was too good of a deal to be economical for them, I'm curious how much people would be willing to spend on lifetime if TiVo were to re-introduce it at a higher price. Note, this is 'service-only' - the price of lifetime without a bundled unit, to make it apples to apples with the current (and

Comments

[smashedagainst]

Greedy bastards.

[pabell]

Tivo told me that they will keep the life time subscription, until March 12. I saw a few companies that will take your box (if broken) and transfer the lifetime subscription you currently have to it. and I agree Greedy bastards

[zonereyrie]

If you have a unit with lifetime and you have it repaired by an authorized service center, if they replace it (they usually do), then the lifetime is transfered. Same thing if you purchased it at Best Buy, etc, with an extended warranty and they replace it under warranty.

But if you go to a random 3rd party, or just buy a new one yourself, then the policy is not to transfer the lifetime.

And I strongly disagree on them being greedy. I've said, for quite a while now, that the lifetime was a *very* good deal, and I expected it to go away. If you look at the financials, lifetime was just not worth it for TiVo, and potentially an overall loss. They were lucky to see $100 on just an operational basis, and in reality less than that, and that's before the corporare overheard. Lifetime hadn't changed since 2002. They aren't being greedy at all, they're trying to be profitable and remain in business.

Wont kick a dead horse but

[pabell]

Tivo Unit $200 didnt send in the rebate
Life time $299 - expect my box not to die until year 5 I have had it for 3 months.

If my box dies thats $499 down the drain. Heck keep the life time and raise it to $399 Id still pay that.

Re: Wont kick a dead horse but

[zonereyrie]

If something happens to a box with lifetime you can have it repaired by an authorized service center and the lifetime is preserved even if they replace it. And most failures are drives, which aren't hard to replace yourself to fix the unit.

[thatdog]

Even the current $299 doesn't seem like a great deal to me as long as it is binding to a specific piece of hardware. That's money down the drain when I upgrade to a Series 3!

[velvetfrogg]

Don't buy a series 3 then when it comes out?

I mean, I only bought a new one b/c my series 1 hadn't ever worked properly with the sat. dish reciever. Of course I didn't know I could probably have covered the entire front with black cloth or whatever it was the series 2 book suggested and now I'm left wondering if I had done that, would it have worked.

Oh well.

[rogueonion_8]

I have two Series 2 and I don't want to buy a lifetime because I am upgrading to a Series 3 as well. The reason why I will be upgrating and probably the previous guys reason for the HDTV compatibility.

[zonereyrie]

Not really. I've owned 5 TiVos, and still own 2, I've resold the other 3. All have lifetime.

Lifetime is equity in the box - it is the rent vs buy argument. I liked lifetime because, when I felt it was time for something new, I could see the old box and it was worth that much more.

A used 40 hour TiVo without lifetime is just about *worthless*. You could get new units for $50, and refurbs for free. It makes it hard to sell a generic used box for anything. But lifetime adds intrinsic value to the box. Last fall I sold a used 40 hour box for $250 - because it had lifetime - and I'd used it for 3 years or so. Not only was I ahead because lifetime is the cost of *2* years of monthly, so I got 1 year 'free', but I then recouped a lot of the cost when I resold the box.

That's why I'm sad to see it go. And why if they'd raised the price to $499, even $599, I would've still bought lifetime - because that would just make the resale value that much higher anyway.

[pasketti]

What's the current monthly fee?

[rogueonion_8]

$12.95 for one. $6.95 for each additional.

[tskirvin]

I paid $199 for my lifetime service, and it seemed about right.

[zonereyrie]

Well, that was a while ago. My first lifetime, in February 2002, was $199. I remember just a few months later it was $249 for my second and thiurd

Hmm, let me check... March 3, 2002 then March 24, 2002 and finally December 14, 2002. So I guess sometime in March the price went up. My next was February 5, 2004 - and that was $299.