SIRIUSLY - When Sirius Radio & Travel Link 6 Months Expire

[SLB8SNK]

If I had one complaint to Ford, this would be it. Sirius is a joke, along with the automatic beetle stuck to the roof of every single Ford sold. It should be an OPTION, not something forced on the buyer of a vehicle, then having them get brow beat by Sirius. I have NEVER kept the service beyond the 6 months free as the first time I tried to re-up the service I felt like I was talking to a used car salesmen from the 70's. They are a-holes to deal with, very rude, and the pricing was all over the place. Bottom line I do not drive long enough distances, often enough, that I can't listen to free radio. I have a CD player on the off chance I need music, and for gosh sakes the truck comes with a jukebox. The ONLY cool thing is the weather and travel link, which by the way is like a $6 options HOWEVER you can't have that without being rapped into a package of some sort.

Ford, you need to listen up and ONLY provide this annoying product as an OPTION to those who want it. Stop forcing it down our throat. Also, if you are going to provide a nav system that utilizes cool functions that YOU do not provide, then those functions should be INCLUDED in the nav price or optioned out alone. not in conjunction with a rip off like Sirius.

Ok, rant off, but I will NEVER buy this product as I see NO value in it when radio is free and there are TWO other free options with our trucks. Oh yea, and Sirius is probably the ONLY thing FORD did wrong to its customers!

 

[bstoner59]

They put it on all cars for the resale so Sirius has access to the next person that buys the car without any additional money to setup the radio. I love Sirius and its in all the cars and boat. I do drive more than the average person so I guess that helps.

Most the luxury car companies put Sirius in for 12 months...at least they did nor sure now.

 

[Phil Howell]

I've had Sirius in many vehicles - most of them Jeep JK Wranglers. As they were sold, I cancelled the Sirius subscriptions. No matter - they were still charging my credit card for vehicles I no longer owned. As I like Sirius when I'm in the backcountry (except for all the BS talk on the '60s channel), I called them. After being cut off three times when things got a bit heated, I finally found a customer service rep who was helpful. She credited the charges to my card, then deleted my credit card information. I then signed up my latest Wrangler but wouldn't give them a CC number. I told them to bill me and I would pay by check. She said fine and the bill arrived a week later. I promptly paid. Now, if I cancel, they no longer have a CC number to charge for no reason.

Sirius customer service is truly the most terrible on this, or any other, planet. When they call to ask me to renew one of the vehicles I no longer own, I tell them I'm going to report them for bothering me because I'm on the national Do Not Call List. Sometimes they go away, sometimes not.

I plan on downloading lots of satellite radio tunes to the hard drive. When it's full, goodbye Sirius forever.

 

[Madcowranch]

"I plan on downloading lots of satellite radio tunes to the hard drive. When it's full, goodbye Sirius forever"


We can do that?

 

[way2evil]

"I plan on downloading lots of satellite radio tunes to the hard drive. When it's full, goodbye Sirius forever"


We can do that?

Nope

 

[NoCaDiver]

That would seem like a huge driving hazard unless there is a voice prompt for it. Honestly I have never heard of doing this, I think it may be a DRM thing.

 

[JohntheDrummer]

I used to have XM on another vehicle and had the SAME problems. After I canceled, they billed me anyway, had to jump through hoops to get any kind of service at all and all it did was make me vow to never let a company like that get their fingers into my account at all, ever again. Seeing as the two are affiliated at the corporate level, it's starting to look to me like I'll be dismissing their services as well. I'll give them a shot if they do it on MY terms, by billing me, but my credit card number will definitely not be given to them. If they want my business, they'll cooperate. If not, SEE YA!! If more people would take a strong stance against these types of companies, we'd all get better customer service. Just my 2 cents!!

 

[MagicMtnDan]

There's another issue in play here - corporate greed. Both Sirius and XM were in a bitter battle to beat the other one and they spent money like drunken sailors in port in their fight. The end result: they had to merge and the consumers get stuck with one "service" provider with one pricing plan and no other choices other than AM/FM and hard drive playback.

 

[MagicMtnDan]

More Sirius info (and lousy service):

In regards to the Sirius lifetime subscription...I have been a Sirius lifetime subscriber since Sirius began. The tuner I have had all this time recently broke and needed to be replaced. I purchased a replacement from BestBuy and called Sirius to have the account transferred to the new radio. Surprisingly, I was told that to transfer the lifetime subscription, I would be charged $75.00. I was also advised that I am only allowed three transfers on a lifetime plan. After 3 transfers, you are no longer allowed to make another transfer even if the radio stops working...you are just stuck with a broken radio.

When asked how this could be...I was told "Read your terms and conditions and write to corporate if you don't like it." Quite the friendly response for a customer who paid for a lifetime subscription when Sirius began. Needless to say, I did go and read the terms and conditions. Apparently you are not charged the $75 if your radio is stolen. Therefore, it appears that Sirius penalizes the customers for being honest when they transfer service on a broken radio and rewards those for being a "victim" of a theft. In the end, I called Sirius and told them the radio was stolen...they credited my account for the $75.

I hate having to do it this way, but I am not willing to pay $75.00 for a transfer of service. If I ever use all of my transfers...you can bet that I will cancel my subscription. Thanks for the wonderful service, Sirius.



Another post:

I just renewed both of my radios for one year, $77 for the F250 and $52 for the Edge. I really hope there's another choice by this time next year.



And another:

Just called Sirius for the third time in 2 months, as I now have about 10 days on my 6 month new Ford freebie left . I was told the $77.00 a year program was only offered to accounts that had been discontinued as an incentive to renew and it was discontinued about 6 weeks ago. Best I could get was a years renewal with the Ford discount : $149.00 + fees and would get 2 months free or a monthly pay as I go setup. They can keep the damn satellite radio, my trucks cd player works great!

From F150online.com

 

[MagicMtnDan]

More Google results...found a forum discussion with a link to FatWallet.com where I found these recent posts:

Thanks to the forums here I got Sirius to knock $95 off my brand-new activation, ending up with one year for $84.22 (including Royalty Fee).

First I called 1-888-539-7474 yesteday to activate a home radio. Guy on the line refused to budge off of full retail price of $179.24 (with tax, fees), even after I said nevermind, no deal, then.

So, later, I activated online, which of course gives no option than full price.

Then today, I called, said "cancel" and got a rep. Told him we could not afford a "luxury item" like Sirius at that price. He said OK, I can work with you. After a couple of misteps where he offered to take only $75 off, then said the half-off deal would be $88, he settled at $84.22 (includ. taxes, fees) for a 12-month Sirius Everything subscription. Not as good a deal as many have reported here, I know, but I wanted a longer term than 5 months, and felt I got a reasonable deal overall.



I called to renew the free year I got when I got my wife a new Dodge. The person I talked to wasn't trying to give me this deal. I did get 3 months for the price of one. That came out to like 5 a month which is not bad. In 3 months I will call back and try again which is the problem.



After having no luck with a very unpleasant CSR at 866-635-4075, I called 1-888-539-7474, selected cancel, and got the half price deal almost immediately. No add-on fees.



On the phone with the CSR after calling the 1-888-539-7474 number right now. I said I wanted to cancel because someone near me got the $77 deal compared to my $164. She originally offered $77 + taxes and fees = $88.78. I balked at that and said it still seemed high compared to my friend's $77. She said she'd do it for $77 total then. Moral of the story, stick to your guns guys! Good luck and thanks FW!