Unfortunately, your experience is not at all unique. As someone who formerly worked customer service calls (for a different company), I understand your feelings. “Call Surfing” is a common practice, in my experience, but seldom one approved by company management. Some customer service reps just take off their headsets and let the calls go with the customer on mute. A deplorable practice, and one worth your job if caught. But a practice that is still not uncommon. I have been on both sides of the issue (as management lectures the representatives, and as a customer that was “surfed”). In both cases, it is extremely frustrating.
However, there are already serious limitations on their phone support hours (until only 5:30 PM, eastern time and no weekends is very limited and unrealistic in the real world)!
Not sure what about a TV recording device makes you think they need 24/7 support, what a waste that would be. There was 3 callers ahead of you in line means finishing all waiting callers could easily take another hour and that’s a conservative 15 mins per caller. It’s possible each call is 30+ mins, and now it’s several hours extra. I’m sure if that was a daily occurrence they would consider extended hours or adding another rep but I totally understand cutting it off, it sucks but that’s how it goes.
Again it’s just a TV recording device, there’s no way your call could be urgent enough that they should tell their reps to work 2+ hours overtime every day to handle all connected callers. There are ISP’s in Canada that don’t have support lines on weekends or nights, Internet goes down on Friday night to bad they will get back to you on Monday (voice of experience), that seems more like something to complain about and even then I never once saw a message like this on their boards.
As others have said, email them and they get back to you within a day (or ask the questions here) and provide a number and times to be reached if you need a personal chat.
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I’m not sure what the Canadian labor rules are like, but when I worked in the EU this was quite common. A number of countries, primarily France, have rules about how many hours an employee can work in a day, and when it’s end of business it’s end of business. First time I ran into this was in a teleconference with our site in France, when the end of day hit they disconnected from the meeting, we all sat there staring at ourselves. Perhaps there is something similar in Canada.
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Maybe but when 'Muricans feel “mistreated” we trow a fit!
We interpet free speech as we can say what we want when we want, then drink [lots] of beer and proclaim our 2nd amendments rights!!
'MERICA
“heck” ya!
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I’m trying to avoid belaboring this issue…
…but I never stated that I expected 24/7 phone support (it appears as if things may easily become exaggerated here). There appear to be several defender’s of their (inappropriate) actions, so perhaps this requires some clarification (again).
Perhaps not having the actual experience lessens the empathy (which is understandable to some extent) but the bottom line is that relatively speaking, their hours for phone support are much too limited!! I’m sorry, M-F until 5:30 PM (eastern time) is ridiculous! Many customers need to call after work or over the weekend. Is that really too demanding?? Issues occur primarily when you’re either setting up the unit initially (my situation) or actually using it (which is either in the evening or over the weekend).
It’s actually uncommon for a technology company to have (what I consider) such limited phone support!..but what makes it so much worse is that you don’t play this game of abandoning the remaining customers (that you know have been stuck on hold for quite some time)!! I’m sorry, if you’re going to limit your phone hours drastically, then you should at least (truly) finish the day by not exhibiting such rudeness and lack of humanity by just “pulling the plug” on your customers like that!!
It would seem as if I can’t change (certain defender’s) minds about this but I can tell you that I’ve experienced long hold times (at even later times and on weekends) with other phone support (after their cut-off times) and yet they picked up the call and were even patient with me!
Regardless of other’s (innapropriately defensive) opinions here, this was inexcusable!!
Their products are quite successful and they’re not exactly giving then away! In addition, they’re charging a subscription fee for a mediocre, flawed commercial skip function (aka, “nickel and diming” their customers)!
Uh, oh…here come the defender’s again!..LOL🙄
By mistreating existing customers (or potential customers) like this, it only serves to hurt their reputation!
…and it should be avoided moving forward!
Either extend the hours to a (far more) reasonable time (especially if you’re closed completely on weekends)…or else answer the remaining calls that have been remaining on hold! Their approach with this is just plain wrong!
There’s nothing at all unreasonable about my taking issue to this!
Let’s please try to worry more about the way customers are being treated and worry a little less about their “bottom line”!!
…and yes, there are many situations that are far better (and more efficiently) resolved via a phone conversation than (delayed) email exchanges!
In fact, I sent several emails (prior to making my purchase) and waited 2-3 days repeatedly for responses! Why wait 2-3 days for an answer to a question(s), when it can literally take just a few minutes??
Perhaps they would like to eliminate phone support altogether??
There may even be some here that might not take issue to that either!..but that’s what makes the world go around, I suppose.
Wouldn’t you be experiencing much less psychological trauma if you just moved on.
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I tried…but there were several contributors here that seemed to insist that Nuvyyo is completely justified in their actions (basically hanging up on their customers)!
…and no, I’m not experiencing any “psychological trauma” whatsoever over this!
…and I am moving on…to a TiVo!
…where the phone support is available until 9:00 PM (eastern time) M-F and 8:00 PM (eastern time) over the weekend (which may even be considered unnecessary and excessive).
I know, I know!..here come the excuses!
They’re a larger, more profitable company and their products cost more (with the subscription fee included), etc., etc… but they’ve been this successful (for a ton of years) because they truly care about their customer’s satisfaction!
I happen to know this from previous experience.
…lessons learned!
This is Trolling at its best!
Move on nothing to see here.
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His points are valid, and I have experienced similar poor support from them. The one that irritated me the most is when I fully explained my situation (via email support) and what I had already tried, then they suggested my trying what I told them I had already tried. And, as he said, it took from Tues until Friday to receive the reply and then, of course, they are closed for the weekend.
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What do any of your statements have to do with not wanting a user to put themselves under such mental stress that they crack?
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Relax!.. there’s no “trolling” whatsoever!
…and you need to refrain from telling people to “move on”, OK??
Thank you “tecumsa”!!
I was beginning to feel alienated here as well!
Life is far too short to be “upset” over a “thing” perhaps you should return your TabloTV and get something like a Homerun, Fire TV Recast, or a Tivo Roamio … maybe one of those and their support centers would be a better fit for you and your lifestyle …
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Just sharing our perspective of realistic expectations. Given the live tech support hour are a joke, throw a fit…
because you were mistreated?
didn’t get you’re “moneys worth”?
were unable to enjoy your new device?
couldn’t ask your question?
felt mistreated?
Not everyone shares your reaction, not that Nunyyo should mistreat people. Users were offering real-life explanations so if/when you encounter it again somewhere, you my not hit so hard.
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You’re welcome.
I’m guessing the people who post here are tickled pink with Tablo and have never experience issues outside of normal business hours, especially when a weekend or Canadian holiday is involved.
When I first installed the device I spend five (business) days working with them over the problem, just to find out that the installation booklet didn’t match the install procedure. I even sent them a video of what was happening and they didn’t catch on. It took asking how I return the device before they send me to upper-level support, he watched the video then told me the process was complete, it was just different on Apple TV than what the book showed.
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It is telling that thru this thread, that Tablo Support has not chimed in…even if just to say sorry!
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I’m not sure if you are including me in the “defenders” group but the only thing I’ve tried to say is it would be helpful to know the details of all of this from the Tablo side of things because maybe this isn’t their approach (and I sure hope it isn’t!) and there is something specific that happened during the time you called that resulted in this unfortunate outcome.
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Tablo’s solution for extended hours support should be easy and inexpensive for a small company - outsourcing and offshoring tech support. India, the Philippines, Taiwan - many options for a second shift of support and weekends too 
If its good enough for Dell…
They don’t need to go that far, just stagger the hours. Half works 9-5ET, half works 9-5PT, or something thereabouts.
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First, I think it’s a very small support group, not even sure any are full time on support. So staggered hours might not work.
Second, I agree good practice would have been for Tablo Support to pipe in here and just say, “sorry we disappointed you.” That might not be enough, but it would go a long way, especially with lurkers like me.
Third, you don’t have to be pro or anti Nuvyyo or entrepreneurship to agree there should be some kind of more gentle send-off. Ideally a human coming on saying, “So sorry that our support hours have now expired - here’s a way to get to the top of the queue tomorrow” … or even better, “is there a time during our normal work hours tomorrow/the day after when I can call you back?” Or, not ideally, a special recording which comes on at the end of the day for those on hold that says, “Sorry that our hours have now expired; please accept our apologies that we didn’t get to you; here is the best time to try us back.”
There are too many things going on here, for me: complaint about poor customer treatment (an automated hangup), complaint about poor customer service (too short hours), views about whether the poster should pursue his/her Tablo unit issues through this forum, concern about forum etiquette.
I’m personally not interested in the back-and-forth, just learning from the shared experience that there is a better way for Nuvyyo to handle end-of-day. That would be a decent quid pro quo for the inconvenience, the helpful posting/venting (your views may vary), and this back-and-forth too.
And here - it costs nothing but courtesy: I’m sorry as an observer that you, Displeased, had this inconvenience/abruptness and haven’t been greeted with a reply from Nuyvvo or much sympathy. Most of us love/admire our Tablos, but none of us would enjoy waiting for hours in a queue fruitlessly.
And for the others, yes, what comes across to some of us as pent-up rants aren’t fun either.
That’s my attempt from south of the border at Canadian courtesy…
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