ReplayTV fraud allegation

« Dish DVR-921 Review | Main | Gateway Connected DVD hacking »

ReplayTV fraud allegation

Slashdot links to a discussion on FatWallet, AVS Forum, and InfoWorld about a new discount on ReplayTV units that was rescinded by the company on December 17th. It seems as if many retailers and many customers were led to believe that the units were to be dropped to $150 and that 3 years of service was to be free. In fact, documentation concerning the 3 years of free service was even in the boxes with the hardware.

Whether this was an honest mistake or not, the corporate reaction by DNNA is a lesson in how NOT to treat your customers when one is a struggling manufacturer in a very competitive marketplace.

by Gen Kanai December 25, 2003 in ReplayTV

Comments

Oh yeah, DNNA has really screwed the pooch on this one. It is like they deliberately designed this change to piss off customers.

First of all, what kind of twink changes their pricing and subscription policy ONE WEEK BEFORE XMAS?! I suppose sales must've been terrible and they got desperate, that's the only possible reason for making such a stupid move. But they had tons of product in the pipeline, and retailers are going crazy at that time.

Plus you have everyone who purchased the units before the 17th but had them waiting to be given as gifts on Xmas. Then DNNA goes and says that units activated after the 23rd will have to pay - no matter the purchase price!

And there was the confusing red and green sticker fiasco. Units with green stickers supposedly still included 3 years, and red sticker units didn't. But merchant's were confused, not surprisingly, and red sticker units were being sold for the old price, and green sticker units for the new price.

And after creating this mess DNNA could've just sucked it up and given the 3 years to everyone, or at least any disputed units, but they don't seem to be willing to do that.

You'd think the people in charge at DNNA/RTV own a lot of TiVo stock.

Posted by: MegaZone at Dec 25, 2003 10:14:46 PM

Just read this over at gizmodo and figured I'd come over here to see the reaction... Interesting stuff, I must say. Talk about trouble....

Posted by: djspicerack at Dec 26, 2003 10:05:04 AM

So, what do I do?
I bought a Replay 5504 first week of December from Amazon (because they gave me until the end of January to return it). I paid $479 plus tax, for the box which was to include 3 years service. I haven't yet registered the unit. Do I get lifetime service or not?

With all the PVR's coming out at CES with 80 GB hard drives and built in DVD recorders (and free program guides), should I just return it and forget about ReplayTV?

Posted by: Jon Noble at Jan 9, 2004 3:59:43 PM

from the replaytv.com ...

"The company is aware that after a December 16, 2003 price change on the ReplayTV 5500 Series DVRs, some retail outlets sold products that were mistakenly labeled on the outside of the box to indicate that 3 years of service was included in the price of the product. In addition, in a few cases, the company's call center inadvertently told some customers that the new price did include 3 years of service. For those customers who were confused by these mistakes, the company will provide three years of free service. ReplayTV will work with customers to verify mistakenly labeled product by retailer and date of purchase through product serial numbers and receipts. ReplayTV will use its call center records to identify those customers who contacted the call center and received incorrect information.

ReplayTV regrets any pricing confusion that resulted from labeling inconsistencies during the holiday season. "

Posted by: don at Jan 11, 2004 7:46:08 PM

To go along with all the unhappy Replaytv $150.00 purchasers,
add me - and I paid over $500.00 for a unit with 3 year
subscription status built in, only to find that it had been
deactivated along with ALL OTHER UNITS in response to what
the company called "confusion". I paid teh full price with
the 3 year subscription as a part of the bargain. No
fuzzy lines there, fellows.

Posted by: rhona at Jan 18, 2004 8:12:35 PM

I got mine with the green sticker on the 20th of january and they deactivated it today 1 day after I contacted there customer support and was told to fax over a copy of the recept. If every one that bought one of the green stickered units after the 23rd of january sent off a complaint of false advertising to the Better Bussiness Berrau they might be forced to change there tune on this matter.

Posted by: Mike at Jan 24, 2004 12:50:23 AM

I do love going back and reading these old controversies (old--well--fraud stories on the web 3 years ago are old).

Posted by: Todd Lokken at Apr 10, 2008 8:33:32 AM

ReplayTV fraud allegation

Comments

Post a Comment

On this site

Recent Comments

Advertising