SiriusXM

I have been an uninterrupted subscriber for almost 5 years with subscriptions for three vehicles and internet. I wanted to add music and NavWeather on my Zumo 665 for my upcoming SW-FOG trip. I called Sirius and they wanted to charge me more for a year on the Zumo than I was paying for any single vehicle. I went back and forth with them for 54 mins and told them that I would agree to pay $50 (after they asked what I would be willing to pay) , then the call was dropped. I called back after a few minutes and, of course, got a different rep in a different country. After another 45 minutes on the phone I accomplished nothing. Hell of a way to treat a loyal customer. I was courteous and professional for both calls even though I had reason to be upset for having to waste 2 hours for nothing. That did it for me. I told them to cancel all my subscriptions and refund me the balance on my terms.

There. I got it off my chest.

Had spent plenty of time messing around with them in the past, gave up with the hassle.... Just not worth it...

Converted all my library to FLAC or MP3 and loaded them on my phone..... ended up with large Gig folder of tunes..... fire up the Sena - automatically pairs with phone, phone music player is set to random, hit play..... don't like the song, push and turn the knob on helmet and skip it...

Battery on the Sena will wear out before I ever hear the same song again....

I did almost the same thing. they are pricing them self out of business (for me)

I called my cell phone provider talked to them about data streaming, they gave me more data for no more charge and so now I just stream it all to my 590Lm from my phone and say bye bye to Sirus XM

so with the app I get music I like, sometimes I use Pandora and sometimes I use iheart radio, traffic, weather, life is good.

sure there are times I am in a no coverage area. so I switch over to mp3 for a while and listen to my songs and then in a half hour or so I am back in a coverage area and have the data I want again

n7myr said:

I did almost the same thing. they are pricing them self out of business (for me)I called my cell phone provider talked to them about data streaming, they gave me more data for no more charge and so now I just stream it all to my 590Lm from my phone and say bye bye to Sirus XM

Click to expand...

I'll have to look into that. For what I am saving by cancelling I could buy a shitload more music for my Ipod and still be ahead.

I can understand your frustration... I bought 3 radios and paid for lifetime subscriptions up front for all of them. Back then, you could listen on the computer for free, just sign in to your account. One day, I get to work, sign in as usual and it's asking for credit card info - it's no longer free. You can't pay a once-and-done-for-the-lifetime-of-the-unit anymore either. I hope my radios hang in for a long time because if they break, I don't see me paying their rates now.

Since I'm all set for music, etc with the AutoCom, they aren't offering anything I don't already have or need.

As long as you can get a cell signal, I stream music from my phone using a couple of free and mostly commercial free streaming sites (Slacker, Pandora, Amazon Prime) into my Sena. Music uses very little data so you can stream for hours if your data plan is at least 2gb/month.

LCB said:

I can understand your frustration... I bought 3 radios and paid for lifetime subscriptions up front for all of them. Back then, you could listen on the computer for free, just sign in to your account. One day, I get to work, sign in as usual and it's asking for credit card info - it's no longer free. You can't pay a once-and-done-for-the-lifetime-of-the-unit anymore either. I hope my radios hang in for a long time because if they break, I don't see me paying their rates now.
Since I'm all set for music, etc with the AutoCom, they aren't offering anything I don't already have or need.

Click to expand...

IIRC is was Sirius that offered the lifetime subscription; not XM. Which may explain why Sirius was later able to buy XM.

Lifetime is more than the life of one radio. I too have a lifetime. It transfers to a new receiver 5 times (6 receivers). This excludes any swap due to a warranty replacement. You send them the documentation about the warranty replacement and pay a small xfer fee and they activate the new receiver without dinging your 5 xfer balance. I've done 1 xfer when I moved from a portable receiver to the one in my car. I did a previous xfer when the portable one died and was replaced under warranty which didn't affect my "transfer balance". That's a balance of 5 more receivers after 12 years.

Meanwhile, the portable unit went off line and into storage for about 2 years. I pulled it out and cleaned it up; getting ready to sell it. I turned it on to test it (they get a "hey, welcome" loop channel when not activated) only to find that it's still active. Apparently they send the kill "bullet" out a few times and then it drops off their list. My guess is that it's too much bandwidth to send an ever-increase list of cancellations for radios that age and get replaced to do it for all radios ever made forever.

All of the above to point out that YMMV. I only had to call them about the warranty replacement and associated follow ups in all this time. As such, my experience is different than those listed.

I've got all of the un-interupted music that I need, on my phone. And that's all I need. Phuck Sirius Radio...dropped them after my free trail was over, on my new car.

Been a long-time fan of SiriusXM (have the huge stock loss to prove it) and have always liked their programming but you're right, their customer service absolutely sucks. Getting on the phone with them is horrible. With that said though, I have found that if I get nowhere with one rep, starting over with another sometimes gets completely different results.

Just recently I went to sign onto my internet subscription after not using it for awhile and found it no longer worked. An hour on the phone, like you said with more than one country, and got many "answers" including "It's no longer included in your lifetime subscription" and telling me to install another browser. Finally after holding my ground with all of them I got transferred to Advanced Technical Services (not Technical Services but Advanced Technical Services). Got The Dude who sounded like he had a large Caf-Pow in one hand. Within minutes he found the problem, letting me know they updated/changed the log-on programming last year and reset my sign-on and password. All is good again.

[bTW, through all that I had asked about their Android app, thinking I could use that via the Zumo like I do Pandora. Last I asked about that feature was awhile ago and it was a separate charge at that time. Now it's a free app and included with your streaming sub. Not what I was hoping for on the bike though as while I can control Pandora through the Zumo, I can't change channels or adjust the volume of the Sirius app through there, having to do so through my phone which is usually in my pocket.]

Oh, one last story. I'm originally an XM subscriber coming from GM vehicles. My wife has an Explorer which originally came with a Sirius radio. They merged how long ago? Inquired about adding the Explorer radio onto my account, multiple radios give discounted subscriptions, but was told they can't combine the two, that I would have to create another account and pay full-boat. Ridiculous.

Satellite radio blows.

ndivita said:

Satellite radio blows.

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't, not for me... I love having it and don't know what I'd do without it, especially in the car.

Bounce - Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind if I ever have problems with any of my units. Yes, it was Sirius when I bought them, not SiriusXM.

Obviously, we are talking about matters of taste here. In my experience, for the many scores of channels available on satellite radio, there are perhaps a handful worth listening to. And those are spotty at best. Then there's that great customer service and the inscrutable billing practices. And many channels have adversting-ads on a subscription station? There's no denying that you have coverage when you want it. But to me it's like the restaurant that serves large portions of lousy food. I much prefer to compile my own music and listen to it versus the crapola Sirius or XM serve up.

YMMV.

Spotify. Look into it. 2 versions. It takes cell coverage (Free), but if you pay for the service (13 bucks) You can "download" like 2000 songs to your phone. On my trip out west I was never without music. Either had cell coverage or it automatically switched over to downloaded songs.

I got a year free with the Beemer and hardly ever used it. They called me 20 times asking to renew it for this year... I said 'no thanks'.

More often than not if I want music, I'll just flip to my USB thumbdrive with 10K songs. No subscription!, cuz... the only thing cheap on my Beemer is the rider himself! 'NS!

I bought a Tacoma in Jan of this year that has a Sat radio.

Ever since then those feckin' assholes at Sirius won't leave me along. I've told them over and over to put me on their do not call/contact list and I still get called at least weekly. The most recent was yesterday.

The best was letter they sent me offering it for FREE! for the first 3 months. But if you read the fine print, doing so would find you paying more than the regular rate for the rest of your contract.

I *NEVER* listen to anything when I'm driving (or riding). I sure as hell am not gonna pay for that privelege.I am no longer polite. They all can kiss the fatest part of my ass.

Bungie said:

I bought a Tacoma in Jan of this year that has a Sat radio.
Ever since then those feckin' assholes at Sirius won't leave me along. I've told them over and over to put me on their do not call/contact list and I still get called at least weekly. The most recent was yesterday.

The best was letter they sent me offering it for FREE! for the first 3 months. But if you read the fine print, doing so would find you paying more than the regular rate for the rest of your contract.

I *NEVER* listen to anything when I'm driving (or riding). I sure as hell am not gonna pay for that privelege.I am no longer polite. They all can kiss the fatest part of my lily white ass.

Click to expand...

Fixed it for ya!

Remind me when I see you and you can have all my MP3's on my chip.

Most of them are just recordings of Wheaton plugging tires tho...

0Face said:

Remind me when I see you and you can have all my MP3's on my chip. Most of them are just recordings of Wheaton plugging tires tho...

Click to expand...

I can't wait!

Just switched to TMobile ... Unlimited music streaming that doesnt count against your data usage .... Works for me ..