Remotes

[UpsetRemoteUser]

I have been thinking about buying Roku Voice Remote Pro, but one thing is stopping me. It is the warranty issue that I had about 2.5 year ago with a Roku Voice Remote.

Has Roku fixed these warranty issues that I seen from the past?

If you want a detailed info, I bought Roku Voice Remote from a Amazon itself about 3 years ago. A few months after buy it, the mute button broke on it. I know it was the mute button. The mute button does not have click to it. It feels like it is free floating without anything behind it.

Originally Roku told me that I had to go thru the TV manufacturer, but the TV manufacturer said they could not warranty it out since it was not the TV remote. I got the run around for a number of times.

Then I finally got someone from Roku that could understand this, but then I got into another run around.

Roku's support kept on telling me that there was no warranty because I bought it from Amazon aka 3rd party retailer even tho it was Amazon itself. They continued to say that I had to go thru Amazon for a replacement, but Amazon would not exchange it because it was past their exchange/return period. Amazon told me to go thru Roku.

So I still have this broke mute button Roku Voice Remote, but it is in a drawer for now.

I know it was the remote because I bought a 2nd Roku Voice Remote from Walmart, and it is does not have this issue. I am still using the Walmart bought Roku Voice Remote.

[Strega]

It sounds like there was some miscommunication early on on the remote.  That said, you do see complaints about Roku support/warranty stuff.  However, most product support forums, have complaints of that sort, so I have no idea how good/bad they are in general, or if they are better or worse than at any point in the past.

If you don’t need a Wi-Fi remote, then there are many IR universal remotes that include codes for Rokus. 

I'm not sure if you have Roku players or Roku TVs.  If you go with a non-Roku-branded remote, keep in mind while shopping, that those use different IR codes.  (In fact I think there are two or more different sets of Roku TV codes based on which TV manufacturer you have.)

[makaiguy]

@UpsetRemoteUser-

Remotes that come with Roku TVs are supplied by the TV manufacturers, not Roku.  They connect by infrared (IR) and are relatively inexpensive.  (Remotes for Roku DEVICES use a different IR command set than Roku TVs, so IR remotes for Roku devices won't control Roku TVs.)  

Roku TV remotes "just work" without being paired to the Roku TV.   You may be able to find them locally at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc, or of course at online sources like Amazon and eBay, but not from Roku.

Roku TV remotes from any Roku TV manufacturer or from third party suppliers largely use the same standard set of IR commands and are interchangeable for use on Roku TVs from other manufacturers*.

• * EXCEPTION: Remotes from HiSense and Sharp can only be used with HiSense and Sharp Roku TVs because they issue a different set of IR commands than the rest of the Roku TV manufacturers.  The Roku TVs from HiSense and Sharp themselves, though, support both sets of IR commands so they can be used with remotes from any Roku TV manufacturer.

Thanks to forum user @Tivoburkee for this info.

[UpsetRemoteUser]

@makaiguyThis is the remote that I bought and it had this mute button issue on: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WVFCKSS/

So I am not talking about remote that came with the TV.

Every time, I talked to Roku's support about getting this remote warrantied out or something when it happened, they kept on telling me that 3rd party bought devices HAD NO WARRANTY, and I had to go thru site or store that I bought it at to get it exchanged or returned even if it was past their period for exchange or return. Only Roku.com bought devices only have a warranty.

They continued to tell me that 3rd party is Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and any place that not Roku.com.

I know these remotes are inexpensive, but it is just the idea that Roku does not like to warranty things from 3rd party.

I wish I could get to my original post that I posted on here, but it says it is archived.

[makaiguy]

@UpsetRemoteUser-

I wasn't clear from your original post whether you were talking about a problem Voice Remote being used with a Roku TV, or on a separate Roku device connected to a non-Roku TV.

I really was responding to the suggestion from @Strega that you could get an inexpensive Roku TV remote, in case you decided to go that route.  I tried to give you enough information so you could be sure to get one that works with your Roku TV, if that's what you have.

I guess I've been lucky, none of my Rokus or their remotes have failed on me so I've never needed to test the warranty support waters.  I've been hanging around here for several years now, but I didn't realize Roku only warrants products purchased directly from Roku.  I'm surprised there aren't a lot more complaints about this.

If you do decide to get a Voice Remote Pro, most of the complaints we see here have to do with the remote losing its charging capacity.  I've had one for over a year now, without running into this problem.  I don't know if this is a contributing factor, but because many (most? all?) rechargeable batteries deteriorate if repeatedly allowed to overcharge, I've always made a point to disconnect my Voice Remote Pro from the charger when it reaches full charge, or slightly before. I especially try to avoid letting it charge unattended overnight. The charger I use outputs 2 amps and the remote charges fairly quickly. You can check the charge level via Settings > Remotes & devices > Remotes > Voice Remote Pro > About, or just by unplugging from the charger and observing the popup lasting just a few seconds on the upper right corner of the screen.

[UpsetRemoteUser]

@makaiguy 

The only other device that I had issues with was a Roku 4 after the warranty was up. It started to have app crashes. After doing research, I had one of the overheating issue units.

Beyond this remote and Roku 4, I have never had any other Roku issues.