Channels & viewing

[CB85]

Beware Roku admittedly does NOT honor purchases!

I have been a customer of Roku for many years.  In December of this year, I attempted to watch a show from BritBox, a paid service to which I had purchased a yearly subscription in May.  When I clicked on the video, I was informed that I have to purchase a subscription.  As I had purchased a yearly subscription in May, I checked my account.  My account says I have the subscription until May of next year.  So I called Roku.  Roku informed me that since I had cancelled the renewal (which I did) they were not obligated to provide the service I paid for.  In fact, they informed me that paying for a service does not guarantee that I will be granted access to that service.  I kindly explained that that is not how a subscription works, to no avail.  They refused to honor the service I paid for and will not offer even a partial refund.  Generously, this is horrible customer service, at worse it’s theft.  Be warned, they have no problems taking your money and NOT providing the service - at least according to their own customer service.  I will be subscribing directly to BritBox.

A former Roku customer

[atc98092]

When you subscribe to services through Roku, you generally only have access to that content through The Roku Channel. Your Roku based subscription does not work with any apps that connect directly to the service, in this case the BritBox app. If you desire access to a service on different device platforms (such as a Roku, Android based player, Smart TV, etc.) you need to subscribe directly with the provider. This is not something new, and it's the way it's always worked on Roku devices. It also works the same way if you subscribe to something through Amazon. Those services would only be available when using the Amazon Prime app, not any directly connecting apps. 

[CB85]

@atc98092  I did go through the Roku Channel app to access my BritBox account/subscription NOT The Main BritBox App. Roku BritBox still asked me to subscribe even though I already had a subscription and there was no way to cancel that screen and go straight to login.

[atc98092]

Thank you, just needed to clarify that information.

[Strega2]

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@CB85 wrote:

In fact, they informed me that paying for a service does not guarantee that I will be granted access to that service. 

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I think they meant that they don’t guarantee that you can access it.  For example, if you subscribe to a streaming service and then: you cancel your internet, your internet is clobbered by a storm, you move out of an area that that service supports,… etc. That doesn’t qualify you for a refund.  Companies get called all the time for refunds going back months or years for all kinds of reasons so they build some very general “we don’t guarantee anything” kind of language into their agreements.

As for Britbox in general you might want to search for some threads about it.  I don’t have it myself but some people do seem to have confusing issues with it.  Here’s one example.

[atc98092]

 My sister-in-law uses BritBox on a Roku Premiere without a problem. She subscribes directly with BB, not through Roku.

[CB85]

@atc98092 

Thank you for the information. I have no problems with BritBox as a company and will continue to use them but only through the direct BritBox service app. Not though Roku. My experience was shared to voice caution to others Roku customers. Thanks again for your insight.

[atc98092]

Yeah, most of us here don't recommend subscribing through 3rd parties (Roku, Amazon, et all) because of the access limitations and problems dealing with billing at times. It's better to always go directly with the provider, so you have a single point of contact if you have a problem, and so you can use the same login credentials on different platforms. It's not a Roku-specific problem, as it can happen with any subscription through a 3rd party.

[renojim · Accepted solution]

@CB85, did you try going through the main Britbox app?

It's ridiculous that Roku won't honor a prepaid subscription.  Most of us here recommend never subscribing to anything through a 3rd party like Roku, but this really hammers that point home.  You might want to contact billing support at https://support.roku.com/contactus again.  Maybe you'll get someone different that can actually help.

One other thing to try is to attempt to log into the Britbox site with your Roku account email address (visible under Settings->System->About).  Use the "Forgot password" option (assuming they have one).  They may send you a password that you can use to log into Britbox on any device including the main Britbox app on Roku devices.

Finally, to cover all bases, do you have multiple Roku devices?  If so, you may have multiple Roku accounts.  Check the email address under Settings->System->About on each one.  A subscription through Roku on one account won't work on a device linked to a different account.

[CB85]

@renojim  Thank you for the information this issue has now been resolved.