We purchased a super snazzy new HD TV a couple weeks ago and the aftershocks of that purchase are making me want to forgo technology altogether. Since this was our first HD version of a TV, I had to call Verzion to upgrade our normal set top box to a HD set top box. Okay, sounds easy enough. The new box came and I followed the direction to wire it into place.
It took me about an hour to figure out that since our Tivo is not HD, we cannot see any recorded programs in HD. We could watch TV directly through the new HD set top box, but if we watched a show that Tivo had recorded, it looked like the same old TV we’ve always had.
Yeah, that’s not really going to work for me. We watch about 95% of our TV from the Tivo. I hate live TV and am addicted to fast forwarding through commercials and the boring parts of reality TV. The whole point of this snazzy new TV is so we can actually watch programs in HD. Oh, and so we can fix the problem of every show being shot in widescreen so we miss what’s happening on the edges of the screen. That’s super annoying.
So, back to the point: now I need to upgrade our Tivo box to the new Tivo Premiere box, which supports HD. A bit inconvenient, but not bad so far.
The new Tivo box arrived earlier this week and apparently it does NOT run through a set top box, you need to purchase a cable card instead. Why nobody told me this when ordering the system, I have no idea.
In order to make the new Tivo work, I need to send the Verizon set top box (that I just got) BACK to Verizon and purchase a cable card instead. However, Verizon is currently having issues with strikes so they can’t schedule any technicians at this time. They will not send me the card to install on my own either.
They CAN place an order for a Verizon DVR system though, which will come in two weeks. They will even give me a sweet deal of three months for free, which is pretty nice. Oh, and by the way, the Verizon DVR TAKES THE PLACE of the Verizon set top box. WHAT?! Once again, why on earth did nobody tell me this when I was on the phone with Verizon for my original order? I could have been done by now!
Okay. Deep breaths.*
So now I need to send the Tivo Premiere back and cancel the service. I placed an order for a Verizon DVR, which should arrive in two weeks. When the new DVR gets here, I need to cancel my existing old Tivo. I hook up the Verizon DVR and then I send the Verizon set top box back to Verizon.
Voila**, done! That sounds so easy and seamless.
NOT!***
Are you KIDDING me? This is ridiculous! Why are things so freaking hard? I know that I am not the first person who called Verizon to upgrade my system to HD. Their customer service people should be trained to ask the proper questions at the time of the upgrade. That way, if I ignore them that it’s my fault for being stupid, instead of just uninformed.
Some icing on the cupcake, when I called Tivo to cancel/return my new Premiere box (which I’m allowed to do anytime within 30 days) the rep on the end of the line kept fighting with me! He went on and on and on and ON about how Tivo offers so much more then Verizon does and I’m making a terrible mistake by giving up a great service. The only way I got him to shut up was to tell him that I was keeping my old Tivo. Little does he know, I’m cancelling that in 2 weeks when the new DVR gets here.
ARG! At this point, I wish I would have just kept my old TV. So what if on Glee when two people were singing to each other from each side of the screen there was actually nobody to be seen? I have a pretty good imagination. I know what the characters are supposed to look like, so I can just pretend!
No, I’m going to stick with it. And when our system is finally set up properly on August 25ish, it will be AWESOME. Of course, it will also be about a month after the purchase of our new TV. But who ever thought that dealing with technology upgrades would be easy?
*See I’m really working on this stress busting thing!
**Random thought, I totally saw “Voila” misspelled as “Walla” recently and it made me laugh.
***Note to self, must re-watch Wayne’s World next time it runs on Comedy Central…