What happens after the XM trial period?

I called XM today to see if I get get the $77 yearly price. I expected I'd have to at least turn down their first offer before getting them to cave, if at all.

No, it was "yes sir, we can do that." No problemo. What's the catch here, they going out business tomorrow? Anyway, I renewed for the year. I've just got to get a reminder in my calender to call them before the auto-renewal kicks in a year from now.

 

Since I will never use XM radio, does anyone know how to "hide" the SAT channels so I don't have to flip through them on the radio? I don't have a Prius with NAV btw, so I have to click the "mode" button to switch between fm1, fm2, sat1, sat2, etc etc.

 

Those whose radios didn't get shut off at the end of their trial for a few weeks or days were lucky. Mine shut off the day that my trial ended. no gradual shut down or anything everything was gone, just channel 0 and 1. But I ended up calling and same thing as others did. She went through a couple of crappy packages and the cheapest that she gave me was 164 which is horrible. I said that I found out about a deal on my forums that I frequent that was 77. and she said yep we can do that. and it was done. of course I love the warning at the end fo the conversation that your subscrp will renew at regular prices blah blah, going to have to make myself a big note and alarm for next year to get this cancelled before I get charged those horrible prices. Thanks for the info all.

 

haha, good point. I haven't gotten used to reaching over to there yet, haven't even pressed the buttons a single time. Have been using the steering wheel buttons only.

 

A few days ago, we got the notice that our trial period ends 3/24. Called tonight and asked about the $77 and got the "I'd be happy to help you with that" response in about a half-millisecond. Added traffic, and I was off the phone in under 5 minutes. Now just need to set a reminder to call in a year and ask about next year's special. Thanks to the folks here who tipped me off to the $77 deal!

 

I got the $77 deal plus the $11 copyright fee. The charge to my credit card was in the $90's. Is there sales tax or something else being charged?

 

A copyright fee? What the heck is that for? Sales tax, yes, but a copyright fee sounds like an XM add-on.

 

It's a royalties fee they have to pay now so they've passed on the cost to us. I just got my third offer to renew xm and I saw that in some fine print. I was wondering if that was in addition to their monthly fee or if it was included. I guess it's additional. Like all those extra cell phone charges.
http://www.xmradio.com/about/musicroyalty.xmc

But I might take this 6 month offer they gave me... $4.99/mo. for 6 months, then you have to renew. I think I might go for the 6 months but I have to find the info I read about having it for home and car since I'm not in the car very long these days.

Anyway... looks like $77/yr is the best going rate? I'll ask for at least that if I want to renew.

 

Hey... those of you getting the $77/yr rate, which package is that? Everything?

Thx.

 

It is all the XM channels. The best of Sirius is $20 or $30 more per year. Maybe less, I forget.

 

I got the USmail $77 offer card a bit ago (expires April 2), and was going to call today. But a nice lady with a Southern accent called yesterday who could do the same deal. She had all my info from Toyota, including the radio ID. So I signed up. She erroneously told me that I did not need to have the radio on to be activated, and I erroneously believed her.

Today, no activation. I called the 866 number, and found out that the radio needs to be on and tuned to XM channel 1. They said they would try to activate for 3 hours. I moved the car to provide a totally wide view of the sky, put the car in ACC mode, tuned the XM to channel 1. Came back a couple of hours later, and all the regular channels were on. Extra $ for "Best of Sirius" and traffic stuff, I think, don't need it.

From the web site, had selected some presets and immediately programmed them (some classical music, BBC World, some NPR). The paper guide will come with the statement, may reprogram. All is well, so far.

I expect to put a tickler in my calendar to explicitly cancel before expiration, since I do not trust them to contact me before that--I think they will silently double the rate back to full price. Then, if they are still in business, there may be some other deal.

With the ongoing lack of a definitive solution to the weak FM tuner section, this should be a lifesaver on my Great Plains road trips.

 

You're not saying you used the website to program your car are you? Just that you figured out want presets you wanted from the website and then went to your car to program it, right? That would be slick if the website could do it.

I'm sure that if you don't cancel or renew prior to renewal, they will automatically renew at the standard, non-discounted rate. When I called XM they did say my account would auto-renew.

I too have put a reminder in my calendar to remind me.

 

Hello - I have dutifully scrolled through all 10 pages hoping to find an answer to the question - "how much is the re-activation fee?" Did I miss it? I talked to XM before our trial expired and was told I would have to pay that fee, but don't remember how much. It's now expired and we are thinking of getting it as we totally enjoyed the 40's, 50's, and Frank Sinatra music (FM is just way too much classical music for us.) Also the Broadway tunes are good. But....a re-activation fee? Anybody paid that?

 

OK no more satellite. But, I have been using Bluetooth to stream from my Iphone to my audio aux in my Gen III radio with NAV. I recently discovered that I can stream AOL Radio. There are many streams and many genres and the sound quality seems somewhere between CD and FM. By the way, I think that Howard Stern is on AOL but I'm not a fan so I haven't checked but I think he's there.

 

I read on XM radio's canadian website that the free trial period in Canada is 6 months. Can any canadians confirm this?

 

Been going over 5 months now. XM has made no attempt to contact me either (no phone calls, emails or snail mail.) Only listen to it on short trips when I don't feel like grabbing the MP3 player. It's nice, but not something I would pay for.

 

I simply want the XM Traffic portion once my trial expires. Howard is going to retire off of XM/Sirius in about a year as it is...and that is all I really kind of listen to. But hell if I can get a clear answer what the actual price of the À la carte Traffic/NAV feature.

 

The price advertised online is $3.99/mo added to another plan (aka radio only for $12.95, radio + NavTraffic for $16.94), or $9.94/mo for just the NavTraffic alone. There may be better deals available for a yearly contract, or if you call and beg, I have no idea.