Wi-Fi & connectivity

[mcd11]

Anyone having trouble connecting their device to wifi? Our Roku Express was working fine for the last six months. Last night, it said not connected to the internet. I restarted the roku and my modem and still not connecting. Says my wifi signal is excellent. Wifi works for everything else. So I contacted them by chat and spoke to a Danny who said: 

Danny (17:03:03) : It seems that the account you made is not made properly updated, we need to update your account to the current standards then after you will be able to watch something on your TV screen.

Danny (17:03:08) : We need to configure the settings for your device and update your account at the initial setup so that we will make sure it works without any inconvenience

Danny (17:03:16) : In order to update & configure it , there will be a one time service charge of $69.99 and after that you don’t need to pay any monthly or annual charges.Will also get free technical assistance for 6 months

Danny (17:03:21) : If you buy any more roku in future also you can add it to your account easily.

Wrong answer. When I balked, he offered to drop the price to $49.99. Anyone else smell a scam? Roku claims one thing and then turns around and starts trying to add on charges? 

Xfinity is our cable and wifi provider. We got the roku for a second tv upstairs. I’ve been telling everyone how great the product is. This is ridiculous and unacceptable, Roku. Maybe the Better Business Bureau needs to know about this shady business practice? 

anyone else experiencing this? See a lot of comments on here from people with connectivity issues.  Related??

[renojim]

Where did you find this chat?  I'd be willing to bet it had nothing to do with Roku.

Roku, more nonsense about short responses?  WTH?!  140 characters!

[mcd11]

I typed “Roku connectivity problems” in Google search and it came back with a  most searched page named go-Roku.com/go-Roku-wireless and it had an https:// in the url so seemed legit. Now that I’ve been on the community and looking at the website, I can see you’re right and that it’s most likely a bogus site. Glad I didn’t fall for it. Screenshots below. Hope Roku can shut this scam site down. 

[renojim · Accepted solution]

Yep, not affiliated with Roku whatsoever.  He's probably using "Danny" as his name since there's a Roku employee here named Danny.  "go-roku.com" is in no way the same thing as "go.roku.com".  Look at those website URLs carefully.  The hyphen vs. the period makes all the difference in the world.  Clearly a scammer that needs to be shutdown. 

Google is not a good way to look for support.  They make money off of these scammers so they are in no hurry to do anything about them.  If you're looking for Roku support start at https://www.roku.com  and skip Google.

[mcd11]

Yeah, he got me. Until I went all “Karen” and asked for his manager. The go-Roku didn’t even register with me, I was so annoyed with the device not working. Lesson learned. Thankfully I didn’t fall for no banana in the tailpipe. 

Thanks! 

[makaiguy]

@mcd11-

Meanwhile back to the original connectivity problem ...

Might your router be one supplied by your internet provider? If so, your problem may have been caused by a recent update to your router. This has been reported lately with equipment from Xfinity and Cox, but there may be others.

Affected users report the router configuration needs to be switched from g/n security back to b/g/n. If you don't have access to your router's control panel you may have to have your internet provider do it for you.

[Chubby_Kid]

This information was very helpful, but I have another serious concern: how is Roku's URL being hijacked and routed to the fraudulent site? I received the URL on-screen from Roku, and when I manually entered it into my web browser, I was sent to the fraudulent site. That is extremely concerning, because had I not been aware of the security update issue, I would have gone along with the agreement to charge me additional fees. Further, how are they accessing Roku's servers to get an additional charge on your account sent to them? I was told that simply by agreeing, the fee would be added to your account. That's what almost had me thinking it was official communication from the company.

[Chubby_Kid]

The fraudulent phone number they attempted to call me at after I refused the charge is: 813-642-7095 from the Tampa Bay Area of Florida.

[renojim]

@Chubby_Kid, they didn't hijack anything.  If you type "roku.com/link" into pretty much any web browser these days it will search for "roku.com/link", not take you to that website.  The search results that come back could be just about any website.  To be sure you're going to a website type "https://roku.com/link".  Roku could save a lot of people a lot of trouble if they included full URLs and didn't leave off the "https://" every time.

[Chubby_Kid]

@renojim It seemed weird that he wanted me to agree to the charge, but never asked for a credit card, which implied that it was, in fact, Roku, who could've simply added the charge to the card on file. He mentioned mailing me a bill, but never asked for payment over the phone.