[aprest]

Recently I bought an "open box" HR10-250 from Circuit City that was listed as a customer return or store display. Included were the remote, power cord and manual. There was no box or HDMI cable and there was a small scratch on the front of the unit. When I booted it up it went straight to a satellite broadcast and I was able to receive all the satellite channels including HBO HD. None of the other HD satellite broadcast channels were available. Based on the area code and local coverage area shown in the menu it appears that the receiver had been set up for the District of Columbia and not Maryland. In addition there was a list of programs in the Season Pass Manager. All recordings had been deleted. It appears that the receiver had been activated and returned by a customer. I just received my latest DirecTV bill and they list the receiver as "leased". Given the fact that this unit was "used" and I bought it used should this unit be considered "owned" and not "leased" and in addition there should be no 2 year committment? Note I was not appraised of these new lease and committment rules when I had it activated on my account that includes all HD programmming.

 

[captain_video]

You will need to contact DTV and let them know that you own the unit and it is not leased. This happens quite frequently with DTV CSRs as they assume all new activations are with leased equipment and not stuff you own. There is a 2-year commitment for advanced DTV receivers and DVRs regardless of whether you own or lease the unit.

 

[carl6]

It has been previously reported in these forums that you need to talk with the access card department in order to get a unit listed as owned. The regular CSR's don't even have the ability to make that entry.

Carl

 

[cybrsurfer]

Recently I bought an "open box" HR10-250 from Circuit City that was listed as a customer return or store display. Included were the remote, power cord and manual. There was no box or HDMI cable and there was a small scratch on the front of the unit. When I booted it up it went straight to a satellite broadcast and I was able to receive all the satellite channels including HBO HD. None of the other HD satellite broadcast channels were available. Based on the area code and local coverage area shown in the menu it appears that the receiver had been set up for the District of Columbia and not Maryland. In addition there was a list of programs in the Season Pass Manager. All recordings had been deleted. It appears that the receiver had been activated and returned by a customer. I just received my latest DirecTV bill and they list the receiver as "leased". Given the fact that this unit was "used" and I bought it used should this unit be considered "owned" and not "leased" and in addition there should be no 2 year committment? Note I was not appraised of these new lease and committment rules when I had it activated on my account that includes all HD programmming.

Anytime you get a receiver from a retail brick and mortar, they tend to be leased if aquired on or after March 1, 2006. Retail outlets like Best Buy, Circuitcity only lease equipment, even if it's returned and resold. You would only own it if you paid $749 or higher before March 1, 2006. It's possible that you may be able to have the access card department change it for you to owned, but if you ever want to update it in the future, you just might as well just lease it. That way you can trade up for an HR20.

 

[aprest]

Anytime you get a receiver from a retail brick and mortar, they tend to be leased if aquired on or after March 1, 2006. Retail outlets like Best Buy, Circuitcity only lease equipment, even if it's returned and resold. You would only own it if you paid $749 or higher before March 1, 2006. It's possible that you may be able to have the access card department change it for you to owned, but if you ever want to update it in the future, you just might as well just lease it. That way you can trade up for an HR20.

I paid $199 for it at Circuit City. I told the CSR that it was used and had obviously been activated by someone before I got it because I was receiving almost all satellite and OTA channels including 70 (HBO HD) except for the HD channels 71 through 79 and 88 (FOX East).

As for the HR20, the reviews have not been sterling. In addition to the need for a new dish (and DirecTV has screwed up the dish installation twice in the past - the last time the "tech" had to borrow my ladder) I would have to replace my 12 port $500 Spaun multiswitch and run an additional RG6 COAX cable to seven rooms to get OTA channels to my HD TVs. The new HR20 doesn't support OTA yet and I would lose some of the local HD channels because they are not yet up on the satellite.

I have had it with DirecTV because of the problems I was having with the 6.3a software upgrade that is causing audio dropouts for virtually all HR10-250 owners. The Customer Retention rep made me an offer to swap out my four HR10-250 HD Tivo units (two of which have dual hard drives) for $100 each for new HR20-700 units plus $20 off my bill for 6 months. I told him no.

FIOS is probably considered heresey on this forum but I have FIOS Internet service from Verizon and Verizon TV service should be available in January 2007. Couple FIOS service with the new Tivo Series 3 HD STB and I believe that you have a winner.

 

[captain_video]

Anytime you get a receiver from a retail brick and mortar, they tend to be leased if aquired on or after March 1, 2006. Retail outlets like Best Buy, Circuitcity only lease equipment, even if it's returned and resold. You would only own it if you paid $749 or higher before March 1, 2006. It's possible that you may be able to have the access card department change it for you to owned, but if you ever want to update it in the future, you just might as well just lease it. That way you can trade up for an HR20.

This is generally true but since it was an open box item it sort of falls into a grey area. The $749 price tag only applies to the HR20 and not the HR10-250. HDTivos leased via a retail outlet after March 1st were originally $399 in upfront cost IIRC, but that price has since dropped to $299. If it was purchased as a used DVR then I'd be surprised if it fell under the lease agreement, but that's really up for interpretation at this point. If it was originally purchased prior to March 1st then you could probably make the argument that it is owned vs. leased. The fact that it was purchased at a price less than the upfront leasing fee then I would say that the OP owns the unit and could make that claim to DTV by indicating it was purchased as a used HDTivo.

 

[JLucPicard]

If it showed up at CC as a used unit, how could it have been leased? If it had been a lease, wouldn't it have had to have been returned to D*? Possibly not if it was returned shortly after purchase, maybe.

 

[auburn]

I have a similar issue with an open box R15 from CUSA. I consider it to be owned, but D* tells me that it is leased because it had never been activated. I'm probably just going to return it.

 

[AnonomissX]

Find out from Circuit City how long ago it was originally purchased and then returned. If it was purchased BEFORE 03-01-06, then it was "owned" and you should be able to have it switched over to "owned" by Directv's access card department.

If it was AFTER 03-01-06, then it was "leased", and it will continue to show as "leased" on Directv's system. If this is not satisfactory to you, then:

1) Contact Directv, and have them deactivate it and remove the 2 year commitment, you may have to reach a supervisor to do this, and you will have to reason with them that you thought you were purchasing to OWN, not paying an upfront fee to LEASE, and the 2 year commitment is invalid.

2)Return it to Circuit City (should be the easy part).

3)....three is up to you.

Good luck!
~Melodie~