Serius/XM Radio

[AWCHIEF]

Serius/XM radio subscribers, Just an annual reminder that you do not have to pay their high automatically charged renewal fees. I call every year at my renewal time (today) and tell them I want to cancel. Amazingly the renewal price drops by more than half. 11 year customer and this works every time.

[nsbcpa]

I do this annually also. Sometimes have to ask for a "supervisor" to get the deal done.

[LBOskiBear]

I just did this today and have been doing it for years.

BTW - I don't have Sirius in the trailer. Even though the radio is ready, I just stream from my phone using the Sirius app. Streaming is included with some plans and I find it actually a bit more user-friendly of an interface than my radio. My cellular data is unlimited so no worries on that front.

[KJRitchie]

My free one year subscription ended from when I purchased my Ram and I got gobs of mail from them to renew. I decided to get 6 months subscription and paid by check via mail so they can't renew automatically at high rates. I'm hoping they will just mail me the same type of fliers at reduced rates when the 6 months is about to expire. I'll send another check.

Kelvin

[dbj216]

Thank you for the tip. I like the satellite radio but don't like the fee. We have a basic plan. What is the annual fee that I should expect to pay?

David

[AWCHIEF]

Originally Posted by dbj216

Thank you for the tip. I like the satellite radio but don't like the fee. We have a basic plan. What is the annual fee that I should expect to pay?

David

It seems to be different for everyone. Depends on your negotiation skills. My goal is to end up as much under $100 that I can get. When I call I just keep rejecting their "best" offer. This year it started at $233, then $120, then $99 and ended at $65 for one year. It is sort of like buying a used car. The Phone reps seem to have a lot of latitude in pricing. It is just another game that I have come to expect to have to play every year. I keep a note on my calendar to remind me that the renewal date is approaching.

[Caffeinated]

You got it for $65.00? I thought I was doing good getting it for about a hundred bucks a year. Next time I re up I'm going to have to sharpen my negotiating skills.

Mike

[AWCHIEF]

Originally Posted by Caffeinated

You got it for $65.00? I thought I was doing good getting it for about a hundred bucks a year. Next time I re up I'm going to have to sharpen my negotiating skills.

Mike

It is all about the "art of the deal". Just keep saying "no" until the bottom line is reached. I have spent over half my life living in countries where bargaining for the best price is considered normal everyday business practice.

[heitkergm]

I tried this today, and indeed it worked. Cut my annual renewal bill in half.

I guess that's what I do for now on...

Thanks for the tip!

[Jim & Susan]

Interesting thread. We cancelled in January because our bill had crept up to over $200. We had had XM for at least a decade at that point. They never offered us any kind of deal. Sad, for several reasons. If they don't get their prices down across the board, they will do go the way of Dodo bird. We had one of the portable radios that we moved around from the car, truck and Airstream depending on where we wanted to listen. I even wired in a new antenna on the Airstream when I had the walls out. I mounted it up on the roof forward of the air conditioner and ran the wire up front to tie it all in into the sound system.

Around the time we cancelled, I was doing some reading on 'net about the company. The gist of it was that they were cutting services (read: killing channels) in order to get overhead down and profits up.......and they were succeeding at both. Problem was, the "feeling" of the corporate announcements was more along the lines of a group of senior managers that didn't really understand the business (read: they had no idea what their CUSTOMER WANTED to hear on the radio). Another way to say it say that is senior management was clueless.

Just to be clear, I LOVED my XM, but their pricing was simply out of control. I was genuinely concerned that they were on the ropes and about to go Tango Uniform. So why continue to listen to the dance band on the Titanic?

I hope they turn it around so that maybe one day we may be able may re-up (ever listen to Siriously Sinatra? By my far, my favorite). I don't see that happening as long as senior management stays on this "less service for more money" nonsense.

And just so you know, I'm a dyed in the wool capitalist. This company is just headed in the wrong direction.

YMMV.

Jim

[AWCHIEF]

Reading this thread you have discovered sure fire ways to reduce your bill. There is no reason to roll over and pay the full price. If anything they have been adding channels. Seems they add several new each month.

[dbj216]

They did bring Escape back. It's just an easy listening channel we enjoy during long towing days.

I think it may be difficult for Sirius in the future due to music streaming and the like. The whole music industry is really in serious trouble due to lack of royalties with internet streaming. I don't mind paying for good service and no commercials when the choices are to our liking. I wish them good luck in these difficult times.

David

[tkb2041]

I missed my due date for our two cars. They automatically billed my credit card and it was around 225.00 a year. I called thinking I was stuck with the price, but was still able to negotiate a much lower price. At first they were reluctant to lower the price, but agreed when I threatened to cancel next year. I was happy to to get the lower price and they still have me as a customer. It's SO nice to listen to crystal clear radio in the middle of no where.

[dbj216]

It is nice to listen to commercial free radio while traveling. It is worth the "retail" price to me, but the wife has a fit about it. She is a "i-pod" user and can hear just the music she likes, not all the ones she doesn't like so much. I like the variety and I don't know how to use the i-pod.

David

[Dan and Liz]

Is it just me? I hate the frequent dead air while it reacquires satelites, so won't subscribe.

[ultrahuck]

I, too do the Sirius dance every six months to negotiate another six month deal for each of my accounts: two built in automobile accounts and one portable radio which I use in the Airstream and also on my motorcycle.

I despise their business model - it's like knowing you are going to get pickpocketed, slapping the thief and eventually agreeing to giving him a couple bucks instead of losing your whole wallet. If they'd just lower their rates to a reasonable rate, let's say $2/month per radio, and let me pay for a 5 year subscription, I'd do it in a flash AND they'd be able to get the millions of radios laying fallow to resubscribe.

Another thing we've done: Our 2010 sound system in the Flying Cloud did not have bluetooth, so I bought a bluetooth dongle that plugs into the AUX in port on the front of the head unit. It connects in a second or two to the bluetooth of my cellphone and I stream our Pandora account right to the radio via bluetooth. Pandora has 10 times as many stations as Sirius. You will use data if your phone is not connected to wifi but I'd rather pay a few extra bucks a month for phone data than give the Sirius thieves their ransom. I actually pay Pandora $4.99 a month for an upgraded subscription (no commercial) and I can use it to stream in all my bluetooth enabled places: both cars, the Airstream and on any computer I use . . . . . and that's NOT PER radio as with Sirius. It's ONE $4.99 bill per month.

I'm seriously considering saying good bye to Sirius for good when my current five month deal ends with them come spring 2017. They are thieves and I'm tired of being robbed.

[Rich W]

I have the portable head unit and docking stations in the AS and the TV. I also have the Sirius boom box which accepts the head unit. Best of all, my oldest son pays for my one subscription as my gift for Father's Day, birthday and whatever else. I wish my TV had the AUX port but I can use the cassette adapter to stream the music in.

[SeaLevel]

I've only used it when it was free with a new vehicle purchase, and there was really only a handful of channels that I liked. When they've contacted me about subscribing I've let them know that I would be interested if I could pay a small fee per channel, and if it would include the ability to access it on my Sonos system at home. Nope. They only wanted to charge for the large bundle of channels that I would never use. So I just use Pandora at home and shuffle through a large collection of my music that I copied to a USB drive in the truck and trailer.

[Rich W]

Originally Posted by Dan and Liz

Is it just me? I hate the frequent dead air while it reacquires satelites, so won't subscribe.

I know this is old but I just found it in the thread. Our portable head unit did this when it started to go out. It finally gave up the ghost. My son provided me with the unit as a gift and pays for the second subscription for me. I told him about it and he checked with Sirius. They wanted to sell him another one but he said it was too much and opted to cancel the second subscription. They sent him a new replacement, free.

Your mileage may vary, but give it a shot. Tell them the unit died but if they give you a replacement you'll subscribe again.

[Dan and Liz]

Got a free trial after a truck service. Siriusly annoying gaps when it loses satellite signal and music stops; siriusly annoying repeated emails and snail mail junk. Not for me.