Amazon has just put the new 2nd-Gen Fire TV on sale for $79.99. Perhaps they’re regretting not offering any type of pre-order deal like they did with the Fire TV Stick and other Amazon devices. If you already purchased one, it should be relatively easy to contact customer service and be refunded $20. Unfortunately, the gaming edition is not on sale and is still listed for $139.99. At this time, the sale appears to be exclusive to the US and Amazon. The new Fire TV is not on sale in the UK, Germany, or Japan, and nor is it on sale at Best Buy, Staples, or B&H. If you’re an Amazon Student member, you’ll receive an additional $20 off today only, which brings the price down to $59.99.
UpdateRefunds are very quick and easy. I was issued a refund within a couple minutes through Amazon’s chat.
10:30 am Looks like the sale is over, but people are still reporting success getting a $20 refund on their previous 2nd-gen Fire TV orders.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Luckily Japan had a pre-order sale for 2 days when it was announced. It was 9980 yen instead of 12980
Nice… just got done with Amazon customer service chat. No questions asked $20 refund. Would’ve been happy with a $20 credit, but I’ll take a refund too.
That is so weird. I see a lot of bad reviews on amazon from verified purchasers. Some bugs that will probably get fixed. Some people loving their 1st gen and hating their 2nd gen.
The common complaint seems to be the lack of 5.1 from anything but Amazon. I happened to notice it last night too, but I didn’t knock them for it. I’m sure they’ll get it fixed. Love my Gen 1’s, I’m sure I’ll feel the same about the Gen 2 once they get everything ironed out.
Agreed. FireTV not ready for “Prime” time should be the headline.
You open the box up and then puttin the batteries in is like cracking a safe. Once the batteries are it won’t pair. Eventually I left cover off to get batteries in just right so it paired. Then the back button didn’t work. Eventually back button losens up.
For my purposes performance with HD Homerun TV tuner MPEG 2 stream is worse and Kodi runs worse too.
Finally, I have to trough the Ethernet at start up every time.
Makes me wonder if it’s actually a HW issue and now they are trying to clear the 1st batch stock?
Just got mine. Holy crap the remote is appalling. Laggy, dropping out, clicketyclacking, hard work.
Some advice, when setting up: plug into ethernet, go away come back in 15 minutes, before deciding it’s not working.
The remote, though, needs smashing against a wall. Amazon needs to recall it and swap it back with the Bluetooth.
Let’s hope that Amazon doesn’t pass all these bugs to the 1st gen devices in their next update. I am really surprised considering the 1st gen worked so great and right out of the box. It is more than just audio issues.
Agreed!!!
last year the stick had a remote that i had to get on you tube to figure out. i don’t get why it would be so difficult. never had a problem like that before. anyway i wanted to get the gaming one for the family for christmas but so far it looks like this is a mess. the new tablets are coming in different languages. i think amazon needs some quality control at the factory.
I got refunded a gift card to the value of $20.
I’m happy with that though, it’s likely due to how I paid in the first place to order from Australia.
Thanks for the heads up on the refund. I was able to get mine with no problems.
I haven’t noticed any issues with my box yet. The remote doesn’t seem to be particularly sluggish, but maybe I haven’t used it enough. I didn’t notice the audio issues – but that is because my current system is pretty much constrained to stereo because of how I distribute video.
I like the clean back surface of the remote (not that the previous one is bad) and didn’t find it difficult to put the batteries in. I paired a spare bluetooth one easily to use in another room (“stolen” from my original FireTV box).
Another thank you. I just got my $20 refund too. I had paid in part with Amazon credit and the rest was my personal credit card. I had the option of how I wanted my refund.
As for the box itself, I’m having an issue where the remote stops working after leaving the box alone for a long time. I have to reset the box to get it to pair again. Other than that, it seems to work pretty good.
The $20 off seems to be a way to deal with the negative reviews and issues reported.
I’m sure issues will get fixed. The first fire tv got a lot better over time.
Refund processed via email in about 30 minutes.
I just spoke with Amazon Customer Service and they credited me as well for $20 / okay maybe I’ll sit with next gen Fire TV and see if it improves
Thx for the heads up about the $20 credit.
I got my box yesterday. Setup was a bit painful (took a few tries to pair the remote) but it eventually started to work.
My biggest complaint is that the box doesn’t play nice with my Harmony Smart remote control setup. The OK button on the Harmony remote doesn’t work in most 3rd party apps (like youtube). I’m not aware of any workarounds. This has been reported to Harmony and I’m sure will eventually get fixed.
https://forums.logitech.com/t5/Harmony-Hub-Based-Remotes/Amazon-Fire-TV/m-p/1445365
Other than that, the box has been working great. Love the extra speed and responsiveness. Few bugs here and there but not bad overall.
This is really disappointing to hear all the negative reviews. I need second box. It’s between this and Nvidia. I’m thinking the extra money for Nvidia may be worth it. :(
Price now showing 99.99 again!?! So my preorder is botched and the box will arrive tomorrow. The user and online reviews are horrible. The pricing is botched. So, it won’t make it out of the box tomorrow before it goes back. Roku4 is looking attractive now.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Amazon! I forwarded this to a friend and he told me he isn’t seeing a discount. I checked and it’s showing 99 dollars now :(
I was still able to get a refund even though the listed price had gone back up to $99.99. Still worth giving it a shot.
No discount showing for me. Good thing too because I would have bought one without noticing the bad reviews and comments.
Showing as $99 for me… how to get it down to $79?
That’s annoying, why go through the trouble of making a sale for the fire tv that has launch problems and then make the sale so short?
I’m logged into Amazon here at 11:50am EST and the price is $99. The $79 deal must have been a glitch or so many people contacted them for a refund they withdrew the sale price.
Ditto on the remote. I almost busted it to get the batteries in the thing. Way too tight. The first gen one was way easier to get the cover off. Twice the remote has lost contact with the device and i have to keep re-pairing it.
So far I also don’t think Alexa is all that useful either. Hopefully that improves in future updates.
Amazon just needed a quick sale to make their opening week sales goal. This thing is a dud in the user communities. Top this with their banning other streaming devices, not giving Fire Phone users Prime as of Oct 1, etc, Amazon is getting some blemishes lately.
thanks for the heads up. just got a $20 credit on my account.
12:02Pm EST Chat log:
Me: the fire TV just went on sale for $20 less than when i ordered it a few weeks ago, may i be refunded the difference?
ORDER # (EDIT)
Eric: I’m sorry that the price of the item suddenly dropped. No worries, I’ll be glad to look into this and see what I can do to help.
Thank you for the order number.
Me: thank you
Eric: Please bare with me to check into this for you.
Thank you for waiting.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.
In general we do honor price match for eligible items sold and fulfilled by Amazon on Amazon website and if the price dropped within 7 days upon the delivery of the item. Upon checking on your item, I’m happy to say that your item is eligible for the price drop.
How is that sound?
Me: that is great.
Eric: Perfect.
Eric: However the refund will be credited back as a gift certificate on your account, would that be fine?
Me: yes. that would be fine.
Eric: Perfect.
Please give me a minute or two to work into your refund.
is the sale over already? All of the links take me to a $99.99 page. Am I missing something?
Wow, it appears so! Glad I did my price match first thing this morning.
Is this over? showing as $99.99 for me
No dice. Amazon would not give refund. I feel punished for preordering.
They can’t pull up the old price to do a refund. The guy said if I have an order number from someone who ordered it then he could see the deal. Otherwise he can’t see a deal even existed on his end.. Anyone wanna help me out
Anyone have a screenshot of the deal. With date and time? I can do a price protection inquiry with my credit card company instead. I just need a screenshot of the deal.
Good news. Wife chatted with them this time and got a refund. She has a much better way with words than myself.
Managed to get the refund this morning. Looks like it has gone back up. Thanks for sharing the news today!
Feel a bit stupid now for buying the gaming bundle. Left out in the cold.
I guess the sales reps were clued in, and are no longer honoring the discount.
Thanks for the tip, got the refund.
I just called 11:40a.m. Pacific time and I asked for the $20 credit for each of the 3 AFTV boxes I just bought and they put me on hold for about a minute and came back and asked me what was the price I saw and I said $79.99 and they said ok we will be crediting you $60 onto your Amazon card.
That was it…easy enough :)
Such BS. They botched this release.
Thanks for the heads up on the (short lived) price drop. I went with the Chat option for customer service and they issued a $20 credit to my account. Took about 5 minutes total. Between other credits and gift cards the new box will only cost me about $40.
Although I am very concerned about all the bad reviews of the new device (mine is supposed to arrive on Saturday). Looking for a new streaming box (other than my Xbox 360)I tried the Nexus Player, Roku 3, and Fire TV box this summer for 15 days (from Best Buy). I liked the Fire TV by far the best (I already have a Fire Stick for the bedroom) but I took it back since I knew something new was coming this fall. I’ve been very excited about the new Fire TV box, but now am a little nervous. I know that Amazon will eventually get all the bugs worked out, but am not looking forward to any grief in the meantime. Especially since the original Fire TV seems to run so silky smooth. It’s not like they are introducing an entirely new device, there is no excuse for so many bugs at this point. But at this point I have no reason to regret my purchase.
Thanks again for this excellent website, it’s the best place online to keep updated with Fire TV news, tips, and advice!
Yeah, missed that deal. Stupid work.
Amazon refused to pricematch Amazon! Incredible… I emailed while price was $79.99 and then chatted after the price went up BUT Harsha from Amazon Digital Support told me: “Amazon: I am really sorry but now it cost $99.99.
If you want then I will cancel your order.”. Threatening to cancel an order I already have because I prepaid? Guess Harsha did not followed her script!
I got someone on phone, they said since price drop was within 7 days of order they matched.
Thanks for the heads up. Got my refund today after seeing your post. Also, had same issue with box, one first boot it tried the update and would not pair with remote. Tech support already ordered up a new one and wants this one back at the lab.
Order one box and got 2 for some reason (very surprising from Amazon). On top of that got the refund. Ended up being quite a deal!
I saw this post this morning, but did not get a chance to contact Amazon until just now. I went from Optimistic to Very Disappointed to Mildly Disappointed.
Amazon chat refused to issue a refund or credit. When I asked for a supervisor I was called by someone, and he punted me to a third non-supervisory person. After getting a lecture that Flash Sales are not subject to price matches, I was issued a $20 promotional credit.
So Kudos to Amazon for doing the right thing. Wag of the finger for making me talk to 3 people for a $20 credit.
Now Amazon lied to me during a phone call at 9pm stating that no price drop ever happened today in the morning! Why refund some of their customers but deny and lie to others?