WARNING ABOUT PURCHASING SECONDHAND HD TIVO's

[Brucep]

Hi All,

Just thought I would post a warning about buying secondhand Australian HD TiVo's.

Last week I purchased a unit from the Cash Converters Webshop for $415, which I thought was a reasonable price for a secondhand unit.
Here's the link:

http://webshop.cashconverters.com.au/item/638712

Item arrived Wed 26th August, and I plugged it all in, and attempted to activate / transfer the unit to my TiVo account. After doing updates I noticed that the service status had changed from "5:Lifetime...., to 9:Closed...." a quick google search revealed service code 9 indicates "Stolen".

Once I picked myself off the floor, and stopped feeling like I was going to be sick, I sent a message to TiVo in regard to the unit......sure enough they replied within an hour or so with the following:

Hi Bruce,

We are currently investigating your issue and are seeking to resolve this as quickly as possible, and will notify you when this has been resolved.

We hope this response has been of assistance and as a valued customer we appreciate your feedback.

For any future enquires related to this issue please reply to this message leaving the reference number in the subject.

Remember you can always find out about TiVo's latest features and find help for a number of common queries at: www.tivo.com.au

Regards

TiVo Support

Hoping it was just a database glitch, or a wrong TSN somewhere I was fully expecting to hear something back from TiVo about sorting this out.

Monday, 31st August, I recieved the following email from the SA Police:

Bruce,

I have received information that you have recently purchased a TiVo from the Cash Converters Webshop. I have also been advised that the TiVo that you have was stolen from a house break in which occurred in Adelaide in November 2008.

I am conducting enquiries in relation to this matter and would appreciate it if you could please forward me all the information you have in relation to the TiVo that you purchased, where you got it from and when. Also details of your transaction from when you purchased it.

Your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

{NAME REMOVED}
Crime Management Unit, XXXXXXXXX Police Station
South Australia Police
ETC.....

So TiVo must have forwarded my account details on to the SA Police as a suspected criminal.

I rang and spoke with the officer concerned, and then sent all details, photo's etc to the SA Police, and also spoke to the manager at the Cash Converters store.

From his (Cash Converters Manager's) reaction, it would seem to be a problem which does occur from time to time.......... Police have told me to hang on to the unit until I hear back from them........Cash Converters will give me a refund when they recieve the unit back....as I paid with Paypal funded from a Visa Card I've got about as best chances of a forced refund as possible......so I'm not too worried about the money at this stage.

Hopefully in time, this whole mess will run it's course, and be sorted out........but if I can spare someone else having a similar drama, with all the stress, and sleepless nights it is worth posting here.

If TiVo had some type of online TSN verify system these sort of issues would be totally, and completely avoided.

Secondhand Tivo's will be increasing as time goes on, so be very cautious of any, even from seemingly "legit" sources

Regards,

Brucep