Bad Experience with Amazon Fire TV, and Unhelpful Amazon Response

Amazon Fire TV Failure

nobody has any idea what this screen really means

( until now... this post tells you, like Amazon should have in the first place )

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.

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

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.

Then, to install the YouTube app on the device, so you can watch YouTube videos on the TV via the device
as they so-prominently advertise...

You must have a credit card.

You must have it registered in your Amazon account.

It must be a Japan-based credit card.

You must configure it for use with “1-click purchases”, even if you explicitly don't want that dangerous feature active.

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

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

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

Then it talks about “billing address” and “payment method”, but makes no mention of where it's looking
for these. It doesn't even indicate who is complaining.

Well, this error dialog pops up when merely trying to install the YouTube app, so I figure that the dialog must be from the
Amazon Fire TV. YouTube is free, after all.

So, I dig through the settings in the Amazon Fire TV, and find
nothing whatsoever about this. They do provide a way to purchase “Amazon
Coins”, which are apparently required when wanting non-free apps, but it seems not to be relevant
here.

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

I wonder whether they require a Japan-based credit card in your Amazon account. I
don't have a Japan-based credit card, but Fumie does, so I re-register
the Amazon Fire TV to her Amazon account.

It doesn't work.... I get the same “Purchase Failure” dialog as before.

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

It doesn't work.... I get the same “Purchase Failure” dialog as before.

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

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

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

In the end I got it working with Fumie's card in her account, but it was a decidedly unpleasant user
experience, especially in relief of the normally delightful experience we have with Amazon. The
latter is why I am a shareholder, though the former gives me pause that
they will follow Apple (of which I'm also a shareholder) down the “We just
don't care anymore” sinkhole.