Unlike earlier Tivos, the Premiere requires a multistream cablecard called an M-Card.
My first chat asked if I could pick up an M-Card self-install kit and the operator said yes. I went to the Pompano office, stood in line an hour and the counter person said that was not true. She wrote up the initial order to send out the installer.
My second chat was to make sure the order had instructions to bring M-Cards and not charge me for the installation. The chat person said she added the info to the order.
The installer came last Wednesday with no M-Cards and nothing on the order that said M-Cards were required for the Tivo Premiere.
I heard nothing for days so called and the operator set up the 2nd appointment for today – it had to wait for M-Cards to be available.
As I said, the installer came today with no M-Cards and nothing on the order that they were requested.
If things continue as they have, I will not hear again from the Comcast installer (contractor) that went to get an M-Card.
We shall see.
[Later that day…]
Well we have success. An M-Card was located and installed without incident. Contacting local Comcast supervisors may have helped – once they got on board with the issue, they kept me in the loop with several emails up through completion of the install.
Cablecard installation into Tivos (Series 3, HD Tivo and the new Tivo Premiere) have had frequent problems, generally due to bad cards, installers not familiar with Tivos and communications between the installer and the service department that has to provision the cards. See this long forum thread for more info: Official Comcast CableCard Thread.
This is an email that Comcast makes available to help in cases like this: we_can_help@cable.comcast.com.
This is a link to a direct online support forum through Broadband Reports: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/comcastdirect. This is a useful forum to join for other reasons.