The #1 reason to not buy a Roku player
I’m a big believer in red flags. I’ve ignored some in the past only to be burnt in the end, so I seek them out now. When I go into a retail establishment for the first time, as soon as I walk in the door, my eyes immediately go to the ceiling. If I see more than 1 or 2 burned out light bulbs, I know there’s an 85% chance this will be my only visit to the store. Similar to the “broken windows” theory, I’ve found that if a retail location doesn’t pay any attention to changing their burned out light bulbs, they’re probably not paying much attention to other details as well.
There’s a legendary story about the band Van Halen asking for M&Ms with the brown ones removed in their contract rider. As detailed in their column in the March issue of Fast Company, Chip and Dan Heath (also authors of the best-selling books, Made To Stick and Switch), detail how Van Halen didn’t put that clause in the contract to show what big self-absorbed rock stars they were (they accomplished that in other ways), but they put it in their rider as a control clause.
When the band hit the dressing room, the first thing singer David Lee Roth would do was look at the M&M bowl. If there were brown M&M’s, he would order a complete line check, knowing that if they missed that detail, there were invariably details on the technical side of the rider that were also missed, possibly risking the band’s ability to deliver their show.
My wife and I decided to switch off our DirecTV this March. I still wanted to be able to watch the Red Sox though so we purchased two Roku players a few weeks ago, as they provided the MLB package in 720 HD. Not the 1080 I would have received with DirecTV, but good enough. I could have sworn, that at that time they were promising a few spring training games as well, but I can’t find written evidence of that anywhere, so I may be incorrect on that, but they absolutely stated that the games would be available beginning with opening day.
I started watching the Roku forums and they were asking for volunteers to help them beta test the MLB package before the season launched. I signed up in mid-March and received an email from Roku on March 18th confirming my acceptance as a beta-tester and asking for my MLB.com account info which I sent back to them on March 19th. This is the last time I have heard from Roku.
In the middle of last week (the week before opening day), the promotional message on Roku’s site and in the Roku player itself changed – with no explanation or communication whatsoever from Roku – from “Tune in on opening day” to the non-specific “tune in in mid-April.”
Could I wait a few more weeks to start watching baseball on my Roku? Though I am highly annoyed, the answer is, “of course.” However, the way Roku handled the entire situation – no communication to the beta group or the customer base (no emails, no letters in the mail, nothing on the site, not so much as formal acknowledgment in their forums as of the writing of this blog post) is a troubling sign of a much deeper issue. Namely, a lack of respect for the customers that make their business possible.
Aside from the MLB package, our family used the Roku extensively for Netflix streaming and Pandora. One of the things that made the decision to return my Roku players for the full money back guarantee was the fact that Netflix and Pandora are available on every kind of video component these days. So I’ll be shopping for a new Blu-Ray player to replace one of the Roku units and we already had something that streamed Netflix and Pandora that will replace the other.
Some might think I’m making too much of a two week delay, but I’m here to tell you – half of the light bulbs are burned out at the Roku headquarters and there are brown M&Ms everywhere.
A swing and a miss for Roku on baseball's opening day (photo by Bill Greene/Boston Globe)
Yep…I was sadly disappointed to see that MLB.tv would be delayed on my Roku player and am pretty fed up with this entire experience. I have had the Roku player for a couple of years now and couldn’t wait to see some Braves baseball, especially since the only team around here is the Rangers and we don’t have cable tv anyhow. I only wish that I could return my player this late in the game as we recently bought a new Blu-Ray player with Netflix, et al. It seems that Roku has pulled the wool over our eyes yet again and left us to wonder why we even bought the player. Oh well…I could always use it as a paperweight at work.
I knew this sounded like a bad idea when didn’t know how to pronounce it. ROKU – Row Qu? Rock You?
However you pronounce it… I think you should re-title the blog post… FOKU ROKU
Michael, I don’t know if you live in Boston, which would not allow you to watch the Sox on MLB.tv or via Roku.
I was also quite disappointed in the lack of explanation from ROKU. And it’s also a slap in the face to goto mlb.com/roku and see the ‘watch all 2430 games live…on ROKU’ This is completely false, starting with Game 1 (BOS v. NYY), which was blacked out by MLB/ESPN nationwide, not to mention a slew of other games.
I now understand it will be later than mid April Try May
Just in time for CFL Football sheeesh
I still have not figured out who is to blame for the MLB/ROKU fiasco. Did MLB drop the ball and wait till the last minute to start working on it? Or has ROKU continued its long history of dropping the ball after the sale?
I am new to MLB but not to ROKU having ’suffered’ with their shoddy soundbridge problem handling. Simple things like cheap, lousy power supplies and internal unit circuitry. Poor or non existent response from the company to problems with its products and services. Extensive downtime of its station databases……..I could go on and on. In fact the soundbridge problem only got worse when the video box was introduced as evidently ROKU decided to switch resources to that product and only minimally support its legacy products.
Bottom line if the MLB problem is a ROKU situation problem then it is just business as usual for ROKU. But who knows as neither ROKU or MLB is willing to clear the air and point the finger.
The ROKU forums are a joke as far as many of the responses to the situation. It is very clear (and maybe understandable) that many purchasers of the combo so badly want their ROKU/MLB that they are willing to be thrown under the bus just to have the promise of it happening sometime in the future. And that is their prerogative. But it is not the way that things are supposed to work. Most of us expect better out of both MLB and ROKU. They make an offer of product and service, the customer accepts and pays the cost then the provider does not deliver on its original offer. Arm twisted refunds aside……this is not good business.
One thing is for sure, more offerings in the hardware market will eventually force ROKU to get its act in gear or else lose out to its competition. MLB on the other hand has the baseball market pretty much locked up as a monopoly. But it is not exempt from competition from other sources of entertainment and its delivery.
I think that MLB will solve its issues but I do not hold out much hope for ROKU as I think their corporate decisions will do them in eventually. And lets be honest here. If it were not for being the price leader in the marketplace hardly anyone would give ROKU a second chance. Competitor pricing is dropping and when it and ROKU are on near level ground……….good by ROKU. It has happened in the Internet Radio field and I assume the same will happen with the video streaming devices too.
That said, hopefully the mid April date for MLB/ROKU will not be pushed back further.
JMHO………your mileage may vary.
PLAY BALL !
Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article
[...] changed to say it would be ready to launch on opening day. But when opening day rolled around, the MLB.tv message on the Roku home screen changed again to “Tune in in [...]
[...] changed to say it would be ready to launch on opening day. But when opening day rolled around, the MLB.tv message on the Roku home screen changed again to “Tune in in [...]
Apple pressure on MLB.tv and ROKU
http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/campaign-0-504
Who cares. MLB sux anyway. Netflix rox on Roku.
I’m happy with my roku (clear picture), and basic cable. roku shows somes of the shows i was recording with my overpriced concast dvr rental.
The baseball games i like to watch (even if the braves are losers right now), are shown on basic cable. concast was charging me $35 a month. So call me a satisfied roku owner
I can not thank you adequately for the articles on your site. I know you add a lot of time and effort into these and truly hope you know how much I enjoy it. I hope I am able to do something identical person at some point.
I love the Roku and watching the MLB on it, would like CFL and soccer but….I have nothing but good things to say about my experience.
Your real commitment to getting the message across had been incredibly productive and has without exception helped others much like me to arrive at their aims.
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MLB and Roku have been good for us – not perfect, but way better value combination than anything else I know of.
As for the burnt out lightbulb school of retail (and now brown M&Ms) – I guess if you are looking for perfection, then that’s as a good a way as any to check for it. I’m generally looking for good value, not perfection.
Folks, the article above is what happens when anyone can host a blog and post their opinion. It might be tempting to dam_ everyone at roku for flubbing up, but when you consider what their product (and others like it) are on the cusp of doing for our entire meaning of home entertainment, it’s an amazing accomplishment. As a product designer and a follower of trends, I am impressed by roku and the other products like it.
Like many others, I was tired of the Satan named Comcast and decided to give roku a try. My family, while understanding that we are early adopters and will no doubt experience roku’s growing pains, are thrilled to reduce our cable bill from $110 a month (Satan, er, comcast) to $18 a month (hulu and Netflix). If the author thought roku was a direct replacement for Satan, I mean comcast, then he did not do much research. Roku, and others like it, are babies in the world of streaming content and will grow up to be amazing services…much better than the grumpy old man in the corner named comcast.
I agree with both the blogger and Scott. I signed up for mlb.Tv’s postseason TBS coverage (just the division series and NLCS) and it turned out it had 10 camera angles but NOT the actual TV stream. So you couldn’t see replays or stats or anything the commentators were talking about, just the raw camera footage. I was so bait-and-switched but since it only cost 4 bucks i didn’t waste my time complaining knowing that mlb wouldn’t care (since they team up with Comcast and the likes). I’m wondering if that same bait-and-switch was done for Roku, or did Roku get the postseason?
By the way I also tried a free early season thing – and it never worked. They made it sound like I could watch my team but then they told me it was actually only one game of their choice – and to make it worse they never told me what their chosen game was or how to watch it.
Weird.
You bought a Roku for a feature that it didn’t have yet and were disappointed when it was late?
I’m a software developer (not for Roku), and let me just tell you… do not believe anything we say with regard to deadlines or availability dates. Unless you know for sure the feature exists, it doesn’t.
This article was a bore! BLAH BLAH BLAH, WAAAH WAAH WAAH!
ROKU ROCKS!
“roh koo”
(NOT VERY HARD TO FIGURE OUT.) May I suggest trying “Hooked On Phonics”?? Sound-out-your-words….
Hey Michael, English is a difficult language, huh?
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