Paramont+
Review of the Google Play app

I became eligible for a Paramont+ paid subscription when I started paying a yearly subscription of Walmart+ (for free deliveries after losing ride support I had to do grocery runs; I will point out that expedited deliveries are not free, but you can usually still get them in the same day if ordered early enough & depending on the day), which also gave me access to a few other perks that I wouldn't have access to otherwise.  I downloaded the app immediately to my Shield TV devices, as well as my phone & new tablet (an older model, but this was my first tablet, mainly purchased for watching media in rooms where a TV wasn't available).

I didn't really try to run anything on the app for a few months after I activated this benefit, however after I stopped watching a number of channels (for news) that were previously on my favorites list (as well as another app I used to watch regularly, removed/disabled/hidden due to mudslinging election campaign ads), I decided to attempt to watch the news offered on Paramont+.  I managed to watch the news without problems for 2 or 3 days, then I couldn't get anything other than 6000 errors, so I wrote a review to the Google Play page I downloaded it from (note that while you normally download the app through the devices interface, this is the page that reviews go when reviewed over the device, which is still a fairly new function & only semi-functional on nVidia Shield TV devices):

Screenshot has been resized, click on image for full size

As you will see from the Google Play app page for the TV version (using the link above, TV button to switch to the version that is displaying this problem on Shield TV devices), the app is garnering primarily 1-star reviews, not only repeating the same problem I have stated, but also detailing problems with being unable to cancel their subscription or being billed before their trial even ended.

While I STILL have been unable to get past this issue on my Shield TV devices (even after doing an update to the app later released on these devices), I will point out that the phone version of the app does appear to be working correctly on my phone (for how long is still questionable, it's likely to run into the same problems sooner or later, as many of the reviews of the app have indicated).  I haven't tried playing anything through the tablet yet, this is something that will be added to the review (and in it's own review on Google Play) later.

After roughly 2 months (give or take) I got tired of fighting this issue & decided to join the others who have written negative reviews about Paramont+ on the Better Business Bureau.  It took about a week for the review to actually show on the site (tracking changes to the page on my phone), of course I wasn't surprised when the review ended up being heavily censored (as has happened in the past, one of the reasons I wrote my own review about the Better Business Bureau regarding heavy censorship in comparative reviews; the difference here is that the review for P+ did not include the names of competitor services & was only comparative in different devices the app could run on)...  Of course the response to the censorship (which was to be expected based on past experiences in submitting reviews to them) is to follow up with a republication of the uncensored review on another site (being here on WonderGamer.net for the time being):

The app for Shield TV devices is absolutely horrible... It's been upwards of a month now where I can't get anything other than error 6000 on anything I try to play on either of my Shield devices (an older Pro model & a newer "tube"/"pipe" model). I have access to it through Walmart+ & was considering paying the discounted price for additional Showtime programming, but seeing as this is a continuing issue (which has quite frankly destroyed my trust in them; even if I did start paying into the Showtime plan while the app is working, I have no trust that it would continue working after this long of not being able to use it on my primary streaming devices), I don't think that will ever be happening... I will point out that it works on my phone however, that's not saying I intend on watching a movie over my phone & screencasting it to my streaming device from my phone isn't really an acceptable workaround to elevate a consideration of paying more into it... It seems that the recorded content may also be working through the app on my VIZIO TV, but not the Live TV content.  I've considered closing my account so that they won't be gaining any more funds through my Walmart+ subscription (still might if it's not fixed soon).

Note a few corrections were made in this republication, as well as a hard return/new paragraph that didn't carry through on the version that the BBB published.  You'll also notice that in this review, I mentioned the version of the app on VIZIO TVs (which is interesting because the Shield streaming devices got censored twice); this was only something I found out shortly before submitting the review to the BBB (which was directly after adding that detail to the Google Play review of the Shield app, keeping it updated with new details as I have more to add; due to funky review submitting on these devices however, I have to delete & re-submit due to it not scrolling correctly, which is a copy & paste from my phone using the Shield TV app).  The other interesting censor here was the statement of Live TV which you will see in the next screenshot is a part of the programming for the Paramont+ app (ironically, mentioned of Showtime were not censored):

Screenshot has been resized, click on image for full size

I also have a Roku TV that is the screen for an arcade system I own, however I haven't tested the app on this device yet to see if it will work (at least partially) as it did on the VIZIO TV.

Ironically, I will point out that when I went to get the last screenshot for this review (directly above), I found that the app appeared to be working again; Live TV & recorded Shows/Movies appeared to be playing again.  Of course one thing I noticed is that I was getting ads before recorded Shows & Movies, so I will need to (attempt to) watch a movie to see if what other people were reporting in their own reviews on the Google Play app page for TV devices regarding ad interruptions for paid memberships is something that's still broken.  I decided to take another look at the Paramont+ app on my VIZIO TV & found that Live TV now appears to be working there also. 

The most ironic thing here is that despite how many negative reviews were being submitted to Google Play on the TV app, the Paramont+ app was not fixed on TVs until AFTER a negative BBB review was submitted (which is interesting they could understand it at all with all the censoring, however it's possible that they may have been able to read the uncensored version before the censored version went public on the BBB).  What this indicates is that negative reviews on Google Play isn't the way to go if you want something fixed, you need to file a negative review on the BBB the developers of the Paramont+ app to even take notice of it...

I was intending on going into further detail on this after noticing the heavily-censored version of the review published to the BBB, but considering it appears to be working now, I decided for the time being there won't be any further details being published on this particular matter.  I am however going to dig into what other people have been reporting in their Google Play reviews about the app ignoring subscription tiers & still hitting users with intrusive ads, at which point I may come back to this review (or start a new one, given this particular one was to clear up details hidden in the BBB version of the review), to further amplify their statements as truth & hopefully get this matter fixed in the future (although I personally can't say I expect anything in the near-future).

A final note for now is that I still don't trust that the app will continue working on my Shield TV devices, so I may wait a few months on upgrading to the discounted rate offered through Walmart+ to see if it's going to continue running, then only pay per month until I have enough of a track record of it working (maybe a few years) before I pay for a full year in advance.