Roku has reportedly been rolling out a new update to its terms and conditions this week, but not everyone is on board with the controversial changes. The update refers to its dispute resolution terms, which went into effect on February 20, and now require that not only all legal complaints you may have about your Roku products be handled through arbitration with the company instead of resorting to the courts, but now your complaints must first be handled in person or over a call with a Roku attorney before you can even obtain arbitration.
According to comments posted on the Roku community support page, owners 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, have started receiving notifications (in the photo below) about the legal clause updated already last Friday (March 1).
That means the first reported incident in which someone was notified about the updated terms was 10 days after the change went into effect. Unsurprisingly, many are upset about the delay in notification, but to make things even more frustrating, Roku has disabled use of its devices until the new terms are accepted.
Is it time to get rid of Roku?
I'm probably not the only one who randomly accepts long terms and conditions from various software, devices, and websites, but that doesn't mean it's not important to pay attention to them. The extreme end result of agreeing to a clause that could be detrimental to you later is best seen in the first episode of season six of black mirror, where a fictitious streaming service takes the identity of a user who unassumingly accepted the company's terms and conditions.
While this may seem extravagant, it's still a good reminder that you should be careful what you agree to before joining a new service. For example, there are useful tools freely available online that can summarize texts such as terms and conditions, but it is still important that you also review them yourself. If, on the other hand, you prefer not to accept Roku's new conditions, you can challenge them before a… Roku legal representative.
What's especially annoying here is that the deal has changed in the middle of your use of the product, and if you don't accept these terms that have just been dropped on you, your product is no good.
And from the looks of it on online forums, there are some who are considering ditching their Roku devices because of the changes. Several Roku owners have responded with outright frustration online to the newly implemented 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 may be the final straw. If you're considering switching to one of the other best streaming devices, check out our top picks.
