Rio ReplayTV 5508 (80 GB) 80-Hours DVR
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- Type: Video Recorder (DVR)
- Broadcast Type: Cable
- Compatible Service: ReplayTV
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ReplayTV nothing but problems - inferior to Tivo
Pros
sleek look
Cons
Inadequate searching/categories, Poor CustomerService, Problems that lock-you-out-of-tv-completely, a general "we-don't-care-about-our-customers" attitude.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Don't buy this piece of garbage - it's a ripoff from an equally terrible company.
My experience with ReplayTV has been absolutely terrible. I bought the ReplayTV as opposed to the Tivo because it looked sleeker, so I assumed that the technology behind it was more advanced than Tivo - big mistake.
The first problem you will encounter will be the search for a show or actor. You have to manually type in each letter for the show or actor exactly the way it is listed - spaces, commas, etc. all have to be exact. There is no show list that you can search by just typing in a few letters. By typing I mean a little onscreen keyboard pops up and you have to scroll through the letters and pick each one. If you click done and start the search, if you made a mistake you have to start all over again. It's archaic.
Secondly, the "Zones" that they have are ridiculous. Instead of having Comedy, Drama, Movies, etc. They have headings that you really need to have seen a show before to be able to figure out under which heading it should be categorized in. AND most importantly, they don't have a regular comedy zone. It's really ridiculous. The only way we find shows is going through the guide and find the shows we know we want to record. Other than that, it's useless.
Third - for some reason, whenever our unit does it's maintenance it always asks us to reactivate the unit as though we have never paid for the service. This actually locks you out completely from watching anything - tv, recorded shows - it doesn't matter, you're locked out. We haven't been able to watch tv for three days now because the code it gives you on the screen is coming up with an error when we tried to activate it online.... which leads me to my fourth complaint.
Customer Service - they don't have an 800 customer service line, so when they lock you out, it's your dime to have them fix their problem. They're not open on weekends, so when ours went out on Friday morning and we saw it when we arrived home Friday evening, we were stuck all weekend with nothing. We emailed customer service thinking perhaps that would generate a quicker response - three days now and not even an automatically generated courtesy response. By the way, this is not the first time the lockout has happened. This is the third time in two months. This was a Valentine's day present for my husband and I wound up feeling like an idiot. It's Monday afternoon and still nothing from ReplayTV
Rebates - I know we were a contributing factor in this problem because my son threw out the boxes, but when I called to let them know what happened and if there was something else that I could send instead of the UPC from the box, they said sorry - you're out of luck. I don't know why they require the UPC from the box when we had the receipts, the credit card statements, the manuals, everything - but they didn't care.
I'm so frustrated and feeling ripped off with this whole experience that I promised ReplayTV in my email that this would be the last time that I would reactivate the unit and rather than giving them the satisfaction and monthly income by my reselling the unit to someone else that I would dismantle it and throw it away.
My advice - stay away from ReplayTV - get a Tivo instead. You'll probably have better luck than the nightmare I'm experiencing.
The first problem you will encounter will be the search for a show or actor. You have to manually type in each letter for the show or actor exactly the way it is listed - spaces, commas, etc. all have to be exact. There is no show list that you can search by just typing in a few letters. By typing I mean a little onscreen keyboard pops up and you have to scroll through the letters and pick each one. If you click done and start the search, if you made a mistake you have to start all over again. It's archaic.
Secondly, the "Zones" that they have are ridiculous. Instead of having Comedy, Drama, Movies, etc. They have headings that you really need to have seen a show before to be able to figure out under which heading it should be categorized in. AND most importantly, they don't have a regular comedy zone. It's really ridiculous. The only way we find shows is going through the guide and find the shows we know we want to record. Other than that, it's useless.
Third - for some reason, whenever our unit does it's maintenance it always asks us to reactivate the unit as though we have never paid for the service. This actually locks you out completely from watching anything - tv, recorded shows - it doesn't matter, you're locked out. We haven't been able to watch tv for three days now because the code it gives you on the screen is coming up with an error when we tried to activate it online.... which leads me to my fourth complaint.
Customer Service - they don't have an 800 customer service line, so when they lock you out, it's your dime to have them fix their problem. They're not open on weekends, so when ours went out on Friday morning and we saw it when we arrived home Friday evening, we were stuck all weekend with nothing. We emailed customer service thinking perhaps that would generate a quicker response - three days now and not even an automatically generated courtesy response. By the way, this is not the first time the lockout has happened. This is the third time in two months. This was a Valentine's day present for my husband and I wound up feeling like an idiot. It's Monday afternoon and still nothing from ReplayTV
Rebates - I know we were a contributing factor in this problem because my son threw out the boxes, but when I called to let them know what happened and if there was something else that I could send instead of the UPC from the box, they said sorry - you're out of luck. I don't know why they require the UPC from the box when we had the receipts, the credit card statements, the manuals, everything - but they didn't care.
I'm so frustrated and feeling ripped off with this whole experience that I promised ReplayTV in my email that this would be the last time that I would reactivate the unit and rather than giving them the satisfaction and monthly income by my reselling the unit to someone else that I would dismantle it and throw it away.
My advice - stay away from ReplayTV - get a Tivo instead. You'll probably have better luck than the nightmare I'm experiencing.
