{"id":2744,"date":"2016-10-29T21:04:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T12:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2016-10-29\/2744"},"modified":"2016-10-29T21:04:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T12:04:50","slug":"bad-experience-with-amazon-fire-tv-and-unhelpful-amazon-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2016-10-29\/2744","title":{"rendered":"Bad Experience with Amazon Fire TV, and Unhelpful Amazon Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\nAmazon Fire TV Failure<\/span>\nnobody has any idea what this screen really means\n( until now... this post tells you, like Amazon should have in the first place )<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We wanted to be able to watch YouTube on the living-room TV, so I bought<\/span> an Amazon Fire TV<\/a>.\nLiving in Kyoto, I bought<\/span> the Japan-market version that they warn can be used only within Japan. Fair enough.<\/p>\n\n

However, in the process<\/span> of trying to get it set up, I discovered<\/span> some\nimportant restrictions that they fail<\/i> to disclose:<\/p>\n\n

    \n

  1. An Amazon account is required for most things to work. Not a problem<\/span> for us, obviously,\nbut would be if we were gifting it to someone.<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Then, to install the YouTube app on the device, so you can watch YouTube videos on the TV via the device\nas they so-prominently advertise...<\/p>\n\n

      \n

    1. You must have a credit card.<\/p><\/li>\n

    2. You must have it registered in your Amazon account.<\/p><\/li>\n

    3. It must be a Japan-based<\/i> credit card.<\/p><\/li>\n

    4. You must configure it for use with “<\/span>1-click purchases”<\/span>, even if you explicitly don't want that dangerous feature active.<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

      None of these are disclosed, nor make any sense for a free<\/span> app showing free content available freely,\nto be used on a device<\/span> that you own outright. I was able<\/span> to install other apps without problem.<\/p>\n\n

      If your situation doesn't fulfill all these requirements, you're not told an up-front “<\/span>you need\na Japan<\/span>-based credit card configured for the 1-click feature”<\/span>. Instead,\nyou're presented the dialog shown at the top of this post and left to figure it out for yourself.<\/p>\n\n

      First off, it starts out with “<\/span>Purchase Failure”<\/span>, which is\nconfusing because you're not trying to purchase anything. The app is<\/span> free. The button<\/span> to install it says\n“<\/span>Get”<\/span>. This dialog is the first hint of “<\/span>Purchase”<\/span> to be encountered. It makes<\/span> no sense.<\/p>\n\n

      Then it talks about “<\/span>billing address”<\/span> and “<\/span>payment method”<\/span>, but makes no mention of where it's looking\nfor these. It doesn't even indicate who<\/i> is complaining.<\/p>\n\n

      Well, this error dialog pops up when merely trying to install the YouTube app, so I figure<\/span> that the dialog must be from the\nAmazon Fire TV. YouTube is free, after all.<\/p>\n\n

      So, I dig through<\/span> the settings in the Amazon Fire TV, and find\nnothing whatsoever about this. They do provide a way<\/span> to purchase “<\/span>Amazon\nCoins”<\/span>, which are apparently required when wanting non-free apps, but it seems not to be relevant\nhere.<\/p>\n\n

      Could it be related to the Amazon account registered to the device? I have a<\/span> credit card in my account with a US<\/span> billing\naddress... is the United States not a “<\/span>supported country”<\/span> as far as Amazon is concerned? (I used<\/span> that card to purchase\nthis very device the previous day... did something change since then?)<\/p>\n\n

      I wonder whether they require a Japan-based<\/i> credit card in your Amazon account. I\ndon't<\/span> have a Japan<\/span>-based credit card, but Fumie does, so I re<\/span>-register\nthe Amazon Fire TV to her Amazon account.<\/p>\n\n

      It doesn't work.... I get the same “<\/span>Purchase Failure”<\/span> dialog as before.<\/p>\n\n

      Grasping at straws and digging around in her account settings at Amazon, I see that<\/span> the billing\naddress for her Japan-based credit card has an optional part of the address empty, so I try<\/span> filling that\nin. It shouldn't matter, but I'm grasping at straws.<\/p>\n\n

      It doesn't work.... I get the same “<\/span>Purchase Failure”<\/span> dialog as before.<\/p>\n\n

      Searching all over creation (that is, The Internet), there's nothing about this until I read<\/span>\nsomething related to Amazon from four years ago, suggesting that something would work if you register a\ncredit<\/span> card with their “<\/span>1-click purchases”<\/span> feature, in which\nyou immediately buy something by accidentally clicking on a single<\/span> link.<\/p>\n\n

      I try to do this in Fumie's account, but since I had<\/span> made a tiny<\/span> change to\nthe billing address of her credit card, Amazon wouldn't let me use that credit card for anything new until I\ncould<\/span> prove that I actually<\/span> had the card by re-entering all its details. This is a great<\/span> security\nfeature that stops people who break into your account from using your card to ship stuff to their new address, but it's really\nbiting me now because I want<\/span> to get this set up for Fumie before she gets home, but she has the\ncard.<\/p>\n\n

      Along the way I submitted a help request to Amazon, and they responded promptly and politely and were completely unhelpful.\nFirst they suggested that I set<\/span> the 1-click purchase method to “<\/span>COD”<\/span>, but that option is simply not available.\nThen they apologized and said that a Japan<\/span>-based card is required to install any app, which I pointed<\/span> out\nwas demonstrably false since prior to trying the YouTube app I had<\/span> successfully installed and used two other apps.\nThen they said essentially shrugged and said sorry.<\/p>\n\n

      In the end I got it working with Fumie's card in her account, but it was a decidedly<\/span> unpleasant user\nexperience, especially in relief of the normally delightful<\/i> experience we have with Amazon. The\nlatter<\/span> is why I am<\/span> a shareholder,<\/span> though the former gives me pause that\nthey will follow Apple (of which I'm also a shareholder<\/span>) down the “<\/span>We just\ndon't care anymore”<\/span> sinkhole. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n\n

      Anyway, hopefully this will help others searching for a solution<\/span> to the same problem.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      We wanted to be able to watch YouTube on the living-room TV, so I bought an Amazon Fire TV. Living in Kyoto, I bought the Japan-market version that they warn can be used only within Japan. Fair enough.<\/p>

      However, in the process of trying to get it set up, I discovered some important restrictions that they fail to disclose:<\/p>

      An Amazon account is required for most things to work. Not a problem for us, obviously, but would be if we were gifting it to someone.<\/p>

      Then, to install the YouTube app on the device, so you can watch YouTube videos [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}