Account, payments & subscriptions

[Bjornin]

As with how the setup process currently plays out, almost everyone who buys a Roku Ultra in Canada will accidentally setup a Roku USA account during the setup process. Upon doing so, you'll notice the device asking you for a 5-digit zip code, which Canadians don't have. Upon ignoring this, you will think you've setup your Roku device just fine until you try to watch the Roku Channel or Live TV, only to find that these won't stream due to geotargeting. I wonder how many Roku devices have been returned because of this?   On the other hand, Youtube or other accounts will still work because they are already registered in your country as they follow their own regional settings based on how you set them up with your email long ago.

I am requesting that Roku please implement an option for those who followed the on-screen directions and "accidentally" setup a Roku USA account to let it switch to a Roku Canada account. You can substitute Canada for any other country. Roku's current circumvention for this is archaic and unacceptable. In short: use a new e-mail address and manually create a Canada Roku account (this alone is easy to goof up), run a factory reset on all your Roku devices, and spend a few hours to set them up all over again with this new email. 

Roku admin: How about creating a regional setting (country) associated with a user's Roku account that can be switched online? This will clear up the mess you created with the account creation process and massively simplify the process for users who move across country lines.  Even PC CD-ROM and DVD-Players allow users to switch their regional settings (up to 5 times, I think).

[RokuReynan-L · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Bjornin.

Greetings from the Roku Community!

Thank you so much for sharing your suggestion about changing the country on your account! We truly value your input and will pass it along to our Roku support team for their consideration. Your feedback is essential in helping us enhance our services, and we’re excited to keep improving together! Keep the great ideas coming!

If there's anything else we can do to assist you, please let us know. We're always willing to help.

Thanks,
Reynan

[Bjornin]

Thanks for your reply.  How long could it take for this option to be implemented? 

[Bjornin]

Has there been any update from Roku developers on the fix I proposed?

[Bjornin]

Still no progress update on this!

I thought I will provide a little more context...  I started searching for a smaller 32" TV for my kid's bedroom and have narrowed it down to two options, one uses Roku TV OS, while the other uses Android TV. Both are priced identically. I started reading the Amazon reviews for the Roku TV model I'm looking at and people in Canada are complaining that none of the live television apps work due to wrong region. The customers ended up returning the Roku TV to Amazon. I suspect the issue is related to them setting up a Roku USA account and the TV set getting stuck into the wrong region.

When is Roku going to implement a region switch option to the Roku hardware and the Roku online account? You are loosing sales.

Back to my television purchase between Android TV and Roku TV, I will be opting for the Android TV due to this very issue: Roku's regional accounting goof up resulting in no live programming.

[RokuRhea-V]

Hey! @Bjornin 

Thank you for keeping active here in the Roku Community! 

I understand your eagerness to receive an update on this matter. No worries, you may visit Roku Blog to keep you posted on the latest updates and announcements.

Thanks,

The Roku Community Team

[ElleMemphis]

Not a helpful response at all. This is why roku loses market share. I am purchasing a Firestick this very day because I can't get Canada off of my account despite jumping through every hoop and trying all of the very time-consuming recommendations, such as a new email, disabling my vpn, and doing a factory reset. None of this has worked. How difficult would it be, really, to fix this very prevalent problem of country assignment? 

[Karma_]

I was wondering wether Roku could please consider offering customers a „No ads“ subscription for all their devices? I own a Roku Ultra (2024) myself and would love to get rid of ads, and am willing to pay for that.

For example Roku removes the ads entirely and „recommendations“ (which are ads aswell) and in return we pay them some sum for example $ 15-20.00 monthly. Sounds more than fair.

Than all the space at the right side of the TV screen and the bottom left could be used more effectively to offer us shortcuts to apps, and display useful tools, to easier enter certain parts of apps. 

Something for Roku to consider. Offer me a „No ads“ subscription for my Roku Ultra, and take my money.

[apolloinseattle]

@ElleMemphis 

I think that I have the same issue... new Roku device that is hard-wired set to Canada... so I can't see a lot of channels and apps that I want, but no way anywhere to change my country on the Web/account or on the Device itself. What the heck??!  this is not helpful at all and is an easy feature for them (I am a digital product manager creating these kinds of features for digital products... ) - they just have not prioritized this for some reason it seems (for years looking back through the community forum). 

😞   I was using an old Amazon Firestick and changed to Roku hoping that it would have access to more channels/apps and content, but these geofencing issues are really annoying. 

[Rokito]

Country Change is a significant issue that requires a fundamental and fast solution.
The problem is that ROKU has no option at all to change the country associated with my account, even in the account settings. This is a major limitation, especially in today's globalized world where people frequently move or stay in different countries for extended periods.

It's essential to have the flexibility to update one's country information to ensure seamless access to services and features. I urge you to consider adding this functionality to the account settings at least to accommodate the needs of a global user base. 
Confirmed by an email code it should be possible!!!
@RokuReynan-L @Bjornin @apolloinseattle @RokuRhea-V @ElleMemphis