Your Roku TV and streaming stick won’t work anymore unless you agree to controversial new terms
Roku reportedly rolled out a new terms and conditions update this week, but not everyone agrees with the controversial changes. The update concerns his terms and conditions for dispute resolutionwhich came into effect on February 20.
Not only does it require that any legal complaints you have about your Roku products be resolved through arbitration with the company rather than through court (which was already part of Roku’s terms), but that your complaints now be resolved personally or via a one phone call with a Roku lawyer before you can even get arbitration.
According to comments posted on the Roku Community Support PageOwners of Roku devices – whether it’s a Roku TV like the Roku Plus series or a Roku streaming box like the Roku Streaming Stick 4K – started receiving notifications (pictured below) about the updated legal clause as early as last Friday (1 March).
This means that the first reported incident of someone being notified of the updated terms occurred 10 days after the change went into effect. Unsurprisingly, many are annoyed about the delayed notification, but to make matters even more frustrating, Roku has disabled the use of its devices until the new terms are accepted.
Is it time to ditch Roku?
I’m probably not the only one who haphazardly accepts long terms from different software, devices and websites, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to pay attention to it. The extreme end result of agreeing to a clause that could be harmful to you later is best warned in the first episode of season six of Black mirror, where a fictional streaming service assumes the identity of a user who has modestly agreed to it in the company’s terms and conditions.
While this may sound bizarre, it still serves as a good reminder to be careful what you agree to before joining a new service. For example, there are now useful tools available for free online that can summarize texts such as general terms and conditions for you, but it is still important to read them. On the other hand, if you would rather not agree to Roku’s new terms, you can dispute them with a Roku legal representative.
The big deal here is that the deal has changed while you’re using the product, and if you don’t accept these terms that have just been imposed on you, your product is no good.
And from the looks of the online forums, there are some who are considering ditching their Roku devices due to the changes. Several Roku owners have reacted with great frustration online to the newly imposed clause, posting comments threatening to stop using their devices altogether. The backlash comes at a time when Roku is adding even more ads, so it looks like this could be the final straw. If you’re considering switching to one of the other best streaming devices, check out our top picks.