About a week before my birthday last month, my mom asked me what I wanted as a gift from her. I told her that I’d finally decided to give in to the TiVo revolution, and she ordered a gift package of an 80-hour Series2 Dual-Tuner box + 12 months of service. On the same day, I ordered their wireless network adapter (I have no land-line service). I used my office as the delivery address for both orders, because it’s easier for me to get UPS packages there. Both orders were made on TiVo’s web site.
I got confirmation e-mails for both orders, and was a little concerned to see that the delivery address listed only the street address, city, state, and ZIP – no suite number or company name, though I know that information was provided at the time of order. Both confirmations also said that I’d receive another e-mail when the items shipped. When over a week went by without another e-mail, I called TiVo to see if they could give me estimated ship dates: there is no method for tracking an order via their web site, and there’s no option for that in the phone menu, either – I finally just pressed as many buttons as it took to be connected to an actual person, and went from there. I had to call yet one more number, and when I got off hold I was told they had no information about the status of either order. I confirmed that both orders were in their system, and asked them to confirm the shipping address they had – and for both orders, a suite number was present in the address. No longer worried that the packages would be undeliverable, I decided to just be patient.
Until Friday, when I still hadn’t received any ship notices. It’s now a month since the orders were placed, so once again I called TiVo. And guess what? The packages shipped two weeks ago, but UPS couldn’t deliver them because there was no suite number or company name on the address! Apparently they made three attempts to deliver, but I was never called or e-mailed about the delivery problem. Finally the packages were, in fact, marked “undeliverable,” and were returned to TiVo last week. Both credit cards will (eventually) have the charges refunded, and the only way to get the items is to start all over again with brand new orders.
So, that’s what Mom and I did. I offered to wait until her account had been credited, but she said “don’t worry about it” and placed the new order yesterday – likewise, I ordered another wireless network adapter. This time, I’m having both items sent to my home address: I just know I’m going to find a note from UPS on the door one day saying that I need to go to their distribution center to pick up the packages, which is what I was trying to avoid by having them sent to my office the first time, but oh well.
I’m really not pleased with TiVo’s customer service right now. They screwed up the shipping address (even after I called to check on it), never sent me a ship notice so that I’d know to keep an eye out for the packages, and didn’t bother to contact me when the items were returned. WTF? Did they assume that I’d changed my mind?
I’m still looking forward to finally getting TiVo, but now I’m just hoping that there’s still some of the fall season left by the time it arrives. 
