Channels & viewing

[alex2020]

I bought a monthly sub last night. Turns out the app was a useless scam. I have lost track of the number of times I have bought a sub or an app only for it to have no content, or not even load at all. In the past, Roku has been good with refunds, so I knew that if I was scammed that at least I would get my money back. However, things have changed. They refused to give me a refund, so basically if customers are scammed in the future they just need to cut their losses? This in an insane and anti-consumer policy. Ebay has buyer protection. Pretty sure PayPal does as well. Don't most reputable companies provide refunds in the event that their customers are defrauded?

What makes this even more unacceptable is that Roku does not vet their developers. Literally anyone can upload an app on Roku and steal a person's money and apparently not even face any consequences. Virtually all of the apps that screwed me in the past on Roku are still active on the platform. Some have been up for over 3 years!!!! Why does Roku not have a Quality Assurance team that screens every app that is uploaded on the platform to ensure that it is legal, functional, and that it provides the content that it promises its customers?

If that isn't bad enough, the agent that I spoke to changed the PIN on my account without my authorization and without even consulting me after we spoke. When I tried to install an app afterwards I wasn't able to, and had to log into my computer and account to add a new PIN manually. Terrible and unethical customer service. When I bought my Roku TV in 2019 Roku was pretty awesome but it is a shell of its former self.

[Dfresh567]

@alex2020 

Sounds like this would be very frustrating if this were to have happened to me. I've been on the community forum for some time now and have owned a Roku for a long long time. Obviously over the years more channels have been added and The Roku Channel didn't even exist until a few years ago.

With that said I've seen many posts of individuals having issues with anything you can think of but this is the first time I've heard someone say they have subscribed to a streaming channel. A channel that isn't free and cost a monthly fee countless times to then have that channel in the end have zero content and not even load.

I've download so many channels over the years, over 100 easily, some paid and some unpaid and have only experienced what you are describing only to a degree on free, small, and I mean small, and clearly not made to make money, only a couple times ever.

Roku's OS and how as a company it handles channels it allows on its OS compare to the other well known OS/companies like Google or Amazon Fire Stick are well documented and Roku is known as being a lot stricter around what channels it allows on its OS and this isn't really a subjective opinion either.

So I'm genuinely curious what might be happening. So you mentioned you bought a monthly Sub. You didn't mention the name of the channel. It would be hard for another member of this community to discuss this unless you were to provide some of the names of the channels you experienced this.

I'm also curious what channel that in the past that when you have contacted Roku and asked for a refund and were granted one, which one those were, and then compare those channels to the channel you said this happen with most recently. This is a very interesting. If you don't mind sharing about this in greater detail it would be awesome.

[Strega2]

For as long as I can recall (much longer than 2019 I believe), Roku has said that Roku subs are prepaid non-refundable, so I think some caveat emptor is warranted. I have heard some implications that you might be able to sometimes get a refund anyway, probably with some "as a one-time courtesy" style language, but if you've lost track of the number of times this has happened, your courtesies might be used up! 😀

If you've lost track of how many apps you've had problems with, then I think you may have some sort of internet, firewall, VPN, location issue rather than an issue with some large? number of apps.

I agree with @Dfresh567  that listing apps might be helpful. An App Status, or Apps that Don't Work thread might be a useful feature of this forum.

The only app I know of right now that isn't working is "Beta Max TV". Their last status is: "Unfortunately, our computer system is now having trouble communicating with Roku's system so we can't insert anything until we can remedy that problem (new computer? voodoo? miracle?) So, we're not done yet!" This has been going on for all of 2024 I think. However, I don't think they have any subscription, so this one's not really anything to complain about. Seems to be some guys - with no business model that I'm aware of - putting out some strange videos on Roku.