Is it now safe to assume...

General Discussions
1

Hi team Plex.

I’ve asked this question multiple times now in the Plex pass forums, with barely a peep from the team at Plex, Barkley didn’t even bark…

Is it now safe to assume by the absolute silence that Plex had absolutely no intention of bringing their fully operational US Echo Plex skill to Canada?

Thanks for that, when the echo was strictly stateside the skill worked great. So great, I had no less than 5 quads buy an echo. I was told originally that oh it’s been submitted to Amazon for approval. Really? Funny how all the other skills were migrated within 2 weeks.

I guess many see the skill as a silly ‘perk’. When you’re disabled to certain degrees though, it’s not a question of being too lazy to use the mouse or keyboard to control Plex. It then becomes ‘Can I control Plex’?

I’m mostly sorry I had them buy Echos, telling them you’ll like this, now you can control your entertainment a lot easier. Plex has been solid since I got my lifetime pass. I guess that makes us both liars.

Thanks? I guess…

Ray.

2

@estranged2000 said:
Hi team Plex.

I’ve asked this question multiple times now in the Plex pass forums, with barely a peep from the team at Plex, Barkley didn’t even bark…

Is it now safe to assume by the absolute silence that Plex had absolutely no intention of bringing their fully operational US Echo Plex skill to Canada?

Alexa support is free and has nothing to do with Plex Pass. There is a voice control forum. https://forums.plex.tv/categories/voice-control

It has been answered if you search. We are not going to answer the same question a million times.

here is one of them https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/296179/when-is-the-plex-skill-coming-to-canada

Thanks for that, when the echo was strictly stateside the skill worked great. So great, I had no less than 5 quads buy an echo. I was told originally that oh it’s been submitted to Amazon for approval. Really? Funny how all the other skills were migrated within 2 weeks.
I’m mostly sorry I had them buy Echos, telling them you’ll like this, now you can control your entertainment a lot easier. Plex has been solid since I got my lifetime pass. I guess that makes us both liars.

Thanks? I guess…

Ray.

It is only avail in US and UK as mentioned in support article created for first release. https://support.plex.tv/articles/115000320808-getting-started-with-alexa-voice-control/

No one told you to go out and buy yourself an echo before the skill was available to you.

There are things that need to be done for approval in different regions. Things are not as “easy” or black & white as you appear to believe they are. Things can get submitted for approval and get rejected.

It will be ready when it is, and not a second before.

3

Well at least my question was finally answered. Awesome support. I mean that really. I guess one would have reasoned it was plex pass related because I originally learned about it through the newsletter. I guess I made the massive mistake of posting to the wrong subforum, how absolutely horrible. Awesome service though, maybe i’ll read ALL the forums, I don’t have any apple products but i’ll be sure to know as much about plex as the super smart helpful employees that work for them. Splendid. I guess I chose this group because it was general type knowledge for pass holders, and plex would have cared about the community that at least supported them. Most places tend to do that. My carnal sin was asking until it was answered. Gotcha. I guess I did that, because well I’ve been fielding the same question from people I help since one other awesome employee said back in December it was submitted to Amazon for approval. With all your fantastic help though I can call them in the morning and let them know I’ll come up with a different hardware/software combo. Only i’ll likely not be as nice as you were to me. I can be a real p*ick when people ask me questions about solutions I support. :slight_smile:

Awesome job though, bang on support.

Keep up the great work.

Really, Thanks!

4

@estranged2000 said:
Well at least my question was finally answered. Awesome support. I mean that really. I guess one would have reasoned it was plex pass related because I originally learned about it through the newsletter. I guess I made the massive mistake of posting to the wrong subforum, how absolutely horrible. Awesome service though, maybe i’ll read ALL the forums, I don’t have any apple products but i’ll be sure to know as much about plex as the super smart helpful employees that work for them. Splendid. I guess I chose this group because it was general type knowledge for pass holders, and plex would have cared about the community that at least supported them. Most places tend to do that. My carnal sin was asking until it was answered. Gotcha. I guess I did that, because well I’ve been fielding the same question from people I help since one other awesome employee said back in December it was submitted to Amazon for approval. With all your fantastic help though I can call them in the morning and let them know I’ll come up with a different hardware/software combo. Only i’ll likely not be as nice as you were to me. I can be a real p*ick when people ask me questions about solutions I support. :slight_smile:

Awesome job though, bang on support.

Keep up the great work.

Really, Thanks!

Why the saltiness? They answered that question many times before, expect them to be annoyed to have to answer again.

They don’t expect you to read the whole forums, just use search.

Also, you bought a device that wasn’t intended to be sold or used here, why do you expect it to work flawlessly? By that token, use a VPN that connects in the US at your router level and it should work again…

5

That’s just it, the US skill worked flawlessly here. You do realize we speak the same English right? The skill works flawlessly other than an artificial geofence. I don’t feel I was salty whatsoever, better to not to get angry, there’s so many angry people in forums of all kinds, just don’t need anymore. I got an answer, rude, but the answer nonetheless, it’s shining a new light on the team here at plex. Great software, Gentoo Linux grade snobbery. lol. Most of those posts were mine just looking for a reply. If that’s an employee, it’s like dealing with a mod in an Arch Linux forum (know the answer before asking). He offered nothing but attitude. Not your typical plex experience. I wasn’t looking to be spoonfed, I was asking for a simple ETA in an echo chamber. I guess Plex places it’s Canadian clients on a much different tier than others. Nothing wrong with the game, just needed to understand the playbook :wink: I still have no definitive answer, as the guy in Dec said it was already submitted to Amazon for approval, and Mr. friendly here said and I quote ‘It will be ready when it is, and not a second before.’ which would have been a fine answer, projecting excellence, if he wasn’t such so abrasive before. Great employee.

Thanks for posting your tip re the VPN, I have one, still have a dns unblocker too, Both are useless to me at the router level, as others in the family rely on Canadian DNS, and Netflix is hit and miss these days with a VPN or a dns changer… so they are used at the comp level instead. I thought about it, just not a good strategy. Thank you though for the constructive input. It might work in the cases i’m helping with, but they are in the same sort of setup I am. I’m looking at an aftermarket setup called Phlex, that will be tonight’s project. Reminds me, need the latest ver of Fedora.

Thanks for the reply Karldog. Cheers!

Ray,

6

@estranged2000 said:
That’s just it, the US skill worked flawlessly here. You do realize we speak the same English right? The skill works flawlessly other than an artificial geofence. I don’t feel I was salty whatsoever, better to not to get angry, there’s so many angry people in forums of all kinds, just don’t need anymore. I got an answer, rude, but the answer nonetheless, it’s shining a new light on the team here at plex. Great software, Gentoo Linux grade snobbery. lol. Most of those posts were mine just looking for a reply. If that’s an employee, it’s like dealing with a mod in an Arch Linux forum (know the answer before asking). He offered nothing but attitude. Not your typical plex experience. I wasn’t looking to be spoonfed, I was asking for a simple ETA in an echo chamber. I guess Plex places it’s Canadian clients on a much different tier than others. Nothing wrong with the game, just needed to understand the playbook :wink: I still have no definitive answer, as the guy in Dec said it was already submitted to Amazon for approval, and Mr. friendly here said and I quote ‘It will be ready when it is, and not a second before.’ which would have been a fine answer, projecting excellence, if he wasn’t such so abrasive before. Great employee.

Thanks for posting your tip re the VPN, I have one, still have a dns unblocker too, Both are useless to me at the router level, as others in the family rely on Canadian DNS, and Netflix is hit and miss these days with a VPN or a dns changer… so they are used at the comp level instead. I thought about it, just not a good strategy. Thank you though for the constructive input. It might work in the cases i’m helping with, but they are in the same sort of setup I am. I’m looking at an aftermarket setup called Phlex, that will be tonight’s project. Reminds me, need the latest ver of Fedora.

Thanks for the reply Karldog. Cheers!

Ray,

I know oh too well about the Canadian situation… "#googlehatesCanada, amirite? Still waiting on Youtube Music and Youtube Red… And yes, Plex tends to have poor customer support and a lot of unanswered questions on the forums.

That said, just because it worked before doesn’t mean it works now, because AMAZON decided to block the US skills when they made the device available here. Go bark at Amazon. While you talk to them, could you complain about the lack of content on Amazon Prime Video here in Canada for me? Or the fact that they sell previous gen devices (FireTV) to us?Thanks.

7

Hi…

Yeah I suppose they do, I don’t follow the hashtag, afterall I’m one of those ‘sh1tty white’ people that aren’t really welcomed at Twitter.

As for the skill, that was exactly what I was asking about. I wasn’t accusing Plex of ‘taking away’ anything. I happen to think its quality software, why I bought a pass. I also sincerely didn’t come here to start a flame war. They are non productive and pointless. Coming from a BBS background in the days before consumer internet. I always gave the flame wars their own message group, and had zero tolerance in the others.

I had asked in the past if the US could be submitted for Canada market approval. I didn’t see that as a huge thing, people have asked about adding far more fantastical features than one that already worked flawlessly. I was told by another employee that it was submitted back in December. I was simply following up, I didn’t realize support was so rude, I guess because the product was so solid. It’s hard blaming Amazon for the slow response as all my other home automation gear had their skills working here within a week or two of official launch.

Anyways that’s neither here nor there, facts are it is what it is, and I still got some people I need to get a solution for, as well as myself.

I was checking out Emby again, I look at them about every 18 months, they’ve stepped up their game… their supported version has Alexa support. It was late when I was on however, so I just set up a couple directories and hit scan before bed. I’m going to read the fine print, might dare ask them in the forum’s if the Alexa support is working here, and if so try premiere for a month. If it goes smooth, I’ll gladly pay them for a lifetime sub. So will at least 5 quads I know.

As for what we were talking about with services lacking in Canada, I guess I never really felt it. I’ve been jumping the ol geofence since my first Western digital steaming box. Damn that was a great box, zero frills, but played anything I thru at it. It’s still hooked up to a CRT in an out building. But yeah with DNS changers and VPNS I never really felt that ■■■■ feeling when you buy electronics and half the services don’t work. I’ve used Pandora for years, had Spotify before it was even stateside let alone here, if I didn’t need some of my clients to retain their Canadian DNS I’d have the VPN sitting in New York along with my fake mailing address.

If I’m ever talking to Google I’ll raise those concerns on your behalf. Outside of YouTube and Gmail, I’m not a huge Google consumer. I’m with Gmail because I stayed too long in the early days and too big a pain in the ass to announce a move, and while YouTube isn’t a natural monopoly it’s pretty close, comparing it to places like Vimeo. Great content, just not enough .

Thanks for the civil discussion, it was an improvement on the experience. Have yourself a great evening. I’m off to test Emby again

Cheers

Ray

8

My mistake Bigwheel,

It was November, when I first asked about support for Canadian users, here’s the response given by a different ‘Plex Employee’, looks like a whole lot of passing the buck. Why not just be transparent, tell us there were issues, or explain a little of the red tape if it exists? Your team totally blew with support. I totally realize this is a community based support, but when your badging claims ‘Plex Employee’ I guess we the users expect a little help, without the hostile tone.

Following up on something that was being worked on allegedly by Amazon in November, isn’t a crime. Your reply however was both condescending. and this

"
No one told you to go out and buy yourself an echo before the skill was available to you.

There are things that need to be done for approval in different regions. Things are not as “easy” or black & white as you appear to believe they are. Things can get submitted for approval and get rejected.

It will be ready when it is, and not a second before."

Is just you being an absolute p r i c k. I don’t think that is the image the rest of Plex aims to put forward. I asked my question more than once, simply because your ‘support’ team was either dismissive or ignored it altogether. If you don’t want the Canadian market, or it’s people asking questions, please place it at the top of the forum as a pinned post.

It would appear a Big Wheel is exactly the ride you should be sporting, you are as arrogant as Zuckerburg.

9

@estranged2000

Nothing in @BigWheel’s post was being rude or a personal attack to you. You asked a question which could easily be found with a search on the forums and even supplied a post with an answer to one of the questions. He even went to say the product will be ready when its ready. Please be respectful to others on the forums.

10

@Kraevin

Hi!

I never stated it was personal at all. EVER. If you read my interaction with people other than Bigwheel, you’d see I’m not such a bad guy lol. I called out someone claiming to be ‘Employee’ yet being a condescending tool, to ANY user should raise a red flag with Plex. It’s more concerning in my opinion that it wasn’t personal, and that this individual is exactly what I stated him to be. That was a personal opinion, based solely on my interactions with the individual. As I’ve stated many times, I think the product is solid, that level of support is not. You call businesses out on sh*tty reps. It makes everyone look bad.

Look, I’m not out to offend you either, if there is an issue, feel more than happy to send this thread to the CEO, or any of the other decision makers. I’m totally cool with it.

Thanks for the reply, it’s a shame it took so many posts to get a nothingburger of an answer from an Employee… whether volunteer or not, the attitude was uncalled for.

Have a good evening, hope you live somewhere warm this time of year!

Ray.

11

@Kraevin said:

Nothing in @BigWheel’s post was being rude or a personal @estranged2000

I dunno, I read the response and it pissed me off. I’m not sure if it was lack of tact, or passive aggressiveness, but the question could have been answered a lot better. Especially without including the line:

No one told you to go out and buy yourself an echo before the skill was available to you.

My 2 cents.