Careful on Roku Activation; Check to See it's ROKU, not HERN

Although Roku asks for a card as protection against future purchases, they do not charge $100 to activate an account.

In this case, the number came up following an ACTIVATION ERROR.

When the heavily accented operator explained, he added what appeared like a warranty extension and said call us , not ROKU customer service.

Due to a windows never ending update, I could not fully access second source.

I told the operator that I thought this was fraud or a scam. I offered them a chance to hang up.  They stressed it was not, and the stick could not be activated unless paid.

After warning them I would contact the Attorney General for consumer protection, I gave the card # and on the small phone scrawled an agreement. They told me to call an 855 # if I was dissatisfied in seven days.

A chat with ROKU confirmed it was a scam.

I called bank, disputed, cancelled card, and then cancelled service.

"Why are you dissatisfied," an operator known as Roger (allegedly) told me. I said take it off as Roku informed me of a scam and I was ready to notify the A.G.'s office.

Supposedly , it will be taken off. But I'm not believing anything.

I received a call  back from 855-302-7111 who tried to dispute "dissatisfaction."  He  complained that I was a journalist. Now it will take 3-4 days for the refund to appear.

Be warned: No fee to activate. And there are MORE THAN ONE type of scam. Check what comes up in GOOGLE , if you receive error or an automatic phone number.

The issues with "cancelling" and "reporting" are numerous, such as waiting for a new card, not knowing if they will make other charges, waiting for it to actually "appear" beyond pending, and other sorts of endless toll free number variations.

http://cordcuttersnews.com/new-scam-going-around-targeting-roku-users

Word is the same scam now occurs on Hulu and Netflix:

 
Hulu Official Customer Service Phone number is: 1 (888) 265-6650

Netflix Official Customer Service Phone Number is: 1 (866) 579-7172