xm radio

[zumbo]

Wife got a new car. Came with free xm for three months. Checked on extending the service. Are these people out of their ****ing minds? There is no way in *ell I would drop $350-$450 for three years of this.

We listen to a total of four or five stations. They all play a select FEW songs from each artist of a select group of music. I can in no way see the value of this service.

Do any of you pay for this? Is there any way to justify dropping this kind of coin on this?

Not looking to be swayed towards continuing my service, just wanting to see what others think. It's a 100% no for me.

 

[Warpdrv]

Just let the service lapse after the 3 month trial period, they will send you a invitation - generally if you don't sign up with them they don't want to lose a potential customer. Usually they will send you a deal like $77 for a year, otherwise it will be a 3 month trial for a certain dollar amount or something like that, usually reasonable. Wait for the $77 offer.

Be careful

Part 1 - they will ask for a credit card - don't give them one, tell them to send you a bill in the mail....

Part 2 - and this is very important, If you choose to sign up for this 1 year service, you need to cancel your service at least 1 month before it ends or they will auto renew it for a big dollar fee as they will cite you were on a $77 'special offer plan' which is 1 year only. Generally they will try to keep you when you are cancelling, tell them you can't afford it anymore, they will most likely try to keep you as a customer, stand firm for the $77 offer again.

I can't tell you how much a pain in the @$$ it can be if you don't call to cancel ahead of time.
I set up a calendar event on my phone and Gmail calendar to email/txt me to remind me to cancel.

Keep in mind that the $77 is before a few fees, so it ends up being something like $90 something after taxes and fees.....

Hope this helps...

 

[zumbo]

I appreciate the tip. Sounds like the Comcast way of doing business. AT&T also comes to mind. I have to watch both of those bills like a hawk.

$77 sounds fair enough. Can't believe they didn't offer that to me. Glad they didn't, seeing as how they try to trick you. Thanks again for the tip, but ultimately gonna opt-out.

 

[Warpdrv]

I agree, its a pain in the butt, I really enjoy my XM radio but honestly I'm not sure I can justify the price for it even at less then $100 a year.

I have an Aux jack on my car and have loaded up my iphone with music, which I should have done long ago, but there is the fiddling with the phone while I drive that bothers me. Where with the XM it comes up easily on the Nav screen of my accord coupe and I have a good deal of presets that I really enjoy.

I have Dish network at home so most if not all the stations are the same, which I also like.... I haven't called but it seems that there is a one time fee now with dish network to stream home stuff right to my phone, so I could ultimately eliminate that XM radio charge by streaming to my device.....

 

[Alex2507]

... they try to trick you.

After ignoring the XM deal for 2 years now on a new vehicle that had it free for 6 months, they sent us a thing saying $20 for five months. I just know there's a catch and don't even want to bother trying to figure out how it is that they want to pork me. I got enough to do without trying to become an expert on contract law. Besides, that's the girl's car. She don't need it if I can't hear it.

 

[zumbo]

I have the Music Choice with Comcast. Never use it. I guess I am just a funny individual, but I don't care to listen to what someone else wants to play. I spend enough of my life doing what other people want. When I am in charge of the wheel, I want to hear what I choose.

And then they want me to pay for them to play the music they choose. I don't think so.

 

[Warpdrv]

And it keeps getting worse with commercials, I thought there was a time that they had declared that its commercial free - which was the big seller of this type of product to get people away from FM radio...

that IMO is BS.... but it was either that or they go belly up

 

[zumbo]

I have a local radio station that has NO DJs. And, no stupid talk/morning shows.

 

[Alex2507]

I have a local radio station that has NO DJs. And, no stupid talk/morning shows.

In the car the car that I drive I just installed this device called a CD Player.
It also has no DJs and it never plays Xmas music ... I think it's going to catch on.

 

[zumbo]

In the car the car that I drive I just installed this device called a CD Player.
It also has no DJs and it never plays Xmas music ... I think it's going to catch on.

It's my personal preference. I kept my 8-tracks well into the cassette era. I also stuck it out with cassettes for a long time. Vinyl was mixed-in at home. I have a high-end stand-alone 8-track player somewhere.

 

[Stereodude]

XM and Sirius have horrible sound quality... How anyone can stomach listening to them is beyond me.

 

[Alex2507]

XM and Sirius have horrible sound quality... How anyone can stomach listening to them is beyond me.

Around here the sound quality for XM was better than the FM radio stations we like to listen to so when we had it in the new car it was kinda cool. Just having radio cassette in the older car that I drive sucked until I got the CD of course. Obviously I'm still grooving on that.

EDIT: It just occurred to me that FM reception sucks in the cars and on relatively modern rec'rs but on this one old school Pioneer rec'r FM sounds okay. *shrug*

 

[Davemcc]

I haven't nor will I ever give XM/Sirius a nickel. I see no value in it. I've also heard many horror stories about shady dealings when you try to cancel the service. It's a company and business model best avoided. The $77 deal is just a hook to lure you in so they can bone you later.

 

[10010011]

I never could understand why anyone would pay $300 for a radio then pay a monthly fee to listen to it.

 

[TLS Guy]

Just let the service lapse after the 3 month trial period, they will send you a invitation - generally if you don't sign up with them they don't want to lose a potential customer. Usually they will send you a deal like $77 for a year, otherwise it will be a 3 month trial for a certain dollar amount or something like that, usually reasonable. Wait for the $77 offer.

Be careful

Part 1 - they will ask for a credit card - don't give them one, tell them to send you a bill in the mail....

Part 2 - and this is very important, If you choose to sign up for this 1 year service, you need to cancel your service at least 1 month before it ends or they will auto renew it for a big dollar fee as they will cite you were on a $77 'special offer plan' which is 1 year only. Generally they will try to keep you when you are cancelling, tell them you can't afford it anymore, they will most likely try to keep you as a customer, stand firm for the $77 offer again.

I can't tell you how much a pain in the @$$ it can be if you don't call to cancel ahead of time.
I set up a calendar event on my phone and Gmail calendar to email/txt me to remind me to cancel.

Keep in mind that the $77 is before a few fees, so it ends up being something like $90 something after taxes and fees.....

Hope this helps...

The car I'm picking up tomorrow has the same deal. I will not be renewing the subscription.

Fortunately I live in MN where you can get MPR thought the state, well into ND, SD and WI. So I'm set. I'm a sustaining Leadership Circle member and contribute $100 per month. I'm glad to do it, as I spend more hours on MPR than satellite TV, which costs nearly as much.

 

[Davemcc]

The car I'm picking up tomorrow has the same deal. I will not be renewing the subscription.

The car I'm picking up today also has the same deal. I will not pay them once the free period expires.

 

[MDS]

After ignoring the XM deal for 2 years now on a new vehicle that had it free for 6 months, they sent us a thing saying $20 for five months. I just know there's a catch and don't even want to bother trying to figure out how it is that they want to pork me.

The catch is that after five months it reverts to 'then current pricing' as the tiny fine print says. They now pay licensing fees for music and pass that along to you as well so it's really not $20.

I want a music only subscription for $5 per month. They still haven't offered anything like it and I still haven't renewed my subscription.

 

[MatthewB.]

I have XM in my car and LOVE IT. I have one of those portable units that came with a car kit. Got it as a X-Mas present from my GF with a years subscription five years ago. Well after the first year was almost up, i called to get rates and they told me thay had a "Lifetime program" so for 299.00 I got lifetime XM service, havent gotten a bill since.

Now here is something i did learn. For years I used the FM modulator in my car to an unused FM station and the sound was passable but would drop out from time to time as I moved around Phoenix as stations get weaker and stronger. So I bought and installed an XM antennea switcher, what it does is block FM radio signals from the cars antennea while XM is on and when XM is off the antennea is restored to the car radio. This was a great help in keeping my signal strong.

Then the greatest thing I bought for my jeep is an aftermarket radio with an Aux input jack, and a 3mm miniplug cable. By connecting directly from my XM base unit to the radio itself, and shutting off the FM modulator altogether, I now get CD quality sound out of my XM radio. No more static, dropped signals and scratchy sound out of XM. The sound is leaps and bounds better than using the wireless FM modulator and I highly recommend it for anyone. The other benefit is the aftermarket radio also came with HD radio built in, so I get about 12 commercial free CD quality radio stations and it also had a usb plug, so I just downloaded about 2,000 higher bitrate mp3 songs to a flash drive plug that in and I get my favorites. So my little wrangler has all the tunes I could ever need. But I still love about 15 XM radio stations that i am always listening to and the sound is now flawless and knowing i will never see a bill is nice too.

I do get two radio exchanges in the lifetime plan so if it gets stolen or damaged they will replace it at no cost, but my Roady has served me well for five years now with no issues.