SiriusXM complimentary Account

[Griff]

Hey folks. For those off you who have had your car for more than 6 months, did your audio account stop working. Mine did. I thought, perhaps, my subscription was over. I logged into my SiriusXM account and it shows a 5 year complimentary infotainment (Travel Link) account and a 5 year complimenary audio account . I contacted Sirus and they say it was a 6-month complimentary audio account. My account continues to show a 5 year audio account, however. What gives?

[Eric4539]

Hi Griff,

 

I purchased my Energi on 6/30 and I was told I had a 6 month free trial period.  I also received a letter from SiriusXM with my expiration date and the offer to renew for various lengths of time.  Even online it showed my expiration date after which my service would end.  I renewed my subscription so I did not have an interruption in service.  I don't know about the Travel Link though.  My account shows this too...

 

Infotainment:Complimentary 5-Year Trial – Sirius Travel Link^™   Trial Ends: 07/02/2018

[FordIVTteam]

Hey folks, 

 

I don't have access to SiriusXM account information on my end. I suggest giving them a call at: 1-888-539-7474. They'll have the most information about your trial offers. 

 

Kim

[mmmhmmmm]

it shows a 5 year complimentary infotainment (Travel Link) account and a 5 year complimenary audio account . I contacted Sirus and they say it was a 6-month complimentary audio account. 

 

Ditto! My service quit so I had to call. Dealing with Sirius sucked. I called 3 different times due to bad connections and hangups.

 

My advice is call Sirius, have some fun arguing with the tier 1 agent babbling on the other end, and then ask them to close your account. They will transfer you back to the states with someone who can help you; probably customer retention. These people have more power to try and make you happy. I ended up with a year's worth of Travel Link which is supposedly the maximum they can grant, but was definitely NOT happy to lose the 5 year "complimentary" accounts.

 

By the way - I'd like to replace all of that Sirius TravelLink crap with MirrorLink apps powered by your smart phone. Eventually Ford will get their act together and enable MirrorLink on MyFordTouch systems. Until then I'm sitting here patiently on my hands.

Edited January 22, 2014 at 02:49 AM by mmmhmmmm

[shaggy314]

Mine expired, but all of thier 'deals' didn't come with data; the only thing i really used... so back to HD radio and my 25 GB of music/podcasts on my phone...

 

Odd they didn't offer a deal comparable with the current service.

[Russael]

I got a lot of snail mail from Sirius asking me to come back and continue my account.  They offered waived activation fees, a monthly fee that was like 45% off regular, and so on.  Thing is, I didn't like Sirius at all.  I could never find a music channel that I enjoyed, the audio quality of it was pretty bad, and all around, I was dissatisfied with it.  I just care about the Sirius travel link and the traffic that I get through it.

[Bills_Fusion_Energi]

Mine expired last week also, when I called the "refresh number" listed on the MyFordTouch screen

is started working again in about 5 minutes. (I was a member with my previous vehicle so I had

subscription time left from it). Later I noticed that the "Travel Link" portion did not work so I called

their customer service number and they told me my account showed a CURRENT Travel Link

subscription, they tried a refresh again but Travel Link still did not work. I was transferred to a

SPECIALIST and they told me that the TRAFFIC portion of Travel Link had expired after the

6 months FREE period but the other functions such as Weather, Sports, Fuel Stations, Movies

and a few others were good for the 5 years. When I checked Travel Link initially I always looked

at TRAFFIC so I assumed none of Travel Link was working.

So it seems Travel Link Traffic is only good for 6 months and it requires to establish/extend your

subscription to it.

[Griff]

Hi Griff,

 

I purchased my Energi on 6/30 and I was told I had a 6 month free trial period.  I also received a letter from SiriusXM with my expiration date and the offer to renew for various lengths of time.  Even online it showed my expiration date after which my service would end.  I renewed my subscription so I did not have an interruption in service.  I don't know about the Travel Link though.  My account shows this too...

 

Infotainment:Complimentary 5-Year Trial – Sirius Travel Link^™   Trial Ends: 07/02/2018

 

Here's what my account says

 

Audio: Complimentary 5-Year Trial – Trial Ends: 06/18/2018

Infotainment: Complimentary 5-Year Trial – Sirius Travel Link^™ Trial Ends: 06/18/2018

[Fat Fusion]

I'm apparently within a couple of weeks of my Sirius expiring.  I have a Sirius account for my receiver in my garage, how can I find my Sirius # on the Fusion to add it to my existing account?

[jeff_h]

I'm apparently within a couple of weeks of my Sirius expiring.  I have a Sirius account for my receiver in my garage, how can I find my Sirius # on the Fusion to add it to my existing account?

 

From page 304 of the Owner's Manual (3rd printing), there is an option called 'Show ESN' which according to the manual: "Select to view your satellite radio electronic serial number (ESN). You will need this number when communicating with SIRIUS® to activate, modify or track your account."

 

It's not that hard to find just sampling different menu options in the audio, I've stumbled onto it several times.

 

And I am in the same boat as you, her car's Sirius expires in 8 days so I will let it expire and then see what deal I can get to bring it back, as she does want to have the Sirius available and likes the weather portion of Travelink.

Edited March 11, 2014 at 12:44 AM by jeff_h

[meyersnole]

I had XM in my Acura for the 7 years I owned the car, it was a game each year at renewal time and they always blinked. I think I got 6 months or a year free to start, then I got a $79/year to renew -- found out about the deal through the enthusiast site for the TL.

 

XM would give me the deal with the understanding that it would roll into the normal rates after the year. I would put it on my calendar to call and cancel. I would call and simply state they can renew me for the $79 or cancel. Rarely did I have to go very far with this, they would try to offer some other not as good deals... but always gave in. Honestly, for the last few years I was hoping they would say no. Sound quality for music on satellite is very low quality, so much better to just stream what you want from your phone.

 

This car is even easier to cut the link with the blue tooth connections. I miss the college sports station a bit, but not enough to come up with subscription fee. My phone gives me just about everything at higher quality for music. About the only real content they have is their data, and as mentioned above they rarely deal on that.

[jeff_h]

XM would give me the deal with the understanding that it would roll into the normal rates after the year. I would put it on my calendar to call and cancel. I would call and simply state they can renew me for the $79 or cancel. Rarely did I have to go very far with this, they would try to offer some other not as good deals... but always gave in.

 

I guess I will be doing the same thing -- subscription ended in her car a week ago, and as expected the below is what arrived in the mail today -- the fine print at the bottom which notes "renewing automatically at the then-current price" means that I better set an outlook reminder for 5.9 months down the road and cancel and bet dollars to donuts that another letter like the below comes again a week after that.

 

[Fat Fusion]

Cool.  Waiting for my letter...

[murphy]

If you keep waiting they sometimes get better.

I have an XM portable radio that last had a subscription 6 years ago.

I've received many offers of 6 months for $25 plus in the fine print a bunch of fees.

Lately I've been getting 5 months for $20 offers again with fees in the fine print.

[jeff_h]

If you keep waiting they sometimes get better.

 

Good point by Murphy, as usual...

 

I just did the renewal for 6 months, still don't like that I can't do it myself with my existing online Sirius account and adding an ESN without assistance, but they still don't enable self-service for that.

 

So because I hate dialing an 800 number and going through all that stuff, I did the renewal over chat with a Sirius customer service rep, took about 5-7 minutes.

 

I said that I wanted to add my trial offer ESN to my existing Sirius account and got a letter in the mail with a special offer... customer service rep said sure they could handle that, and then asked "what were the terms noted in the offer letter?" so that tells me there are varying offers out there and the customer service people may not have access to which customer was offered what special offer, who knows?

 

So because my wife wanted Sirius back now, instead of waiting for X days/weeks for a better offer to arrive, the renewal for 6 months came to 35 bucks when the royalty fee is included.  The travelink was still active and my account says "Infotainment: Complimentary 5-Year Trial – Sirius Travel Link^™    Trial Ends: 09/18/2018" along with the "6-Month Promotional Plan" in which I just enrolled.

Edited March 29, 2014 at 12:54 AM by jeff_h

[meyersnole]

Good point by Murphy, as usual...

 

I just did the renewal for 6 months, still don't like that I can't do it myself with my existing online Sirius account and adding an ESN without assistance, but they still don't enable self-service for that.

 

So because I hate dialing an 800 number and going through all that stuff, I did the renewal over chat with a Sirius customer service rep, took about 5-7 minutes.

 

I said that I wanted to add my trial offer ESN to my existing Sirius account and got a letter in the mail with a special offer... customer service rep said sure they could handle that, and then asked "what were the terms noted in the offer letter?" so that tells me there are varying offers out there and the customer service people may not have access to which customer was offered what special offer, who knows?

 

So because my wife wanted Sirius back now, instead of waiting for X days/weeks for a better offer to arrive, the renewal for 6 months came to 35 bucks when the royalty fee is included.  The travelink was still active and my account says "Infotainment: Complimentary 5-Year Trial – Sirius Travel Link^™    Trial Ends: 09/18/2018" along with the "6-Month Promotional Plan" in which I just enrolled.

I have no real experience with the Sirius side of company, even though they merged they really seem to act like two different companies at times. Rates being one of those times. On the Acura forum we had a script you could read from and users confirming that the deal still worked.

 

<rant>I have not seen anything similar for Sirius, but as I mentioned I have not looked... next to offering it to me for like $10-$20 for the year, I was not buying. The base entertainment system on this car is so good I just don't miss it. If I want to listen to music streaming I just fire up Pandora. If I want to listen to a sports show I fire up a podcast or Tunein radio. The only thing I miss is listening to MSNBC or the college sports station... but do not miss it enough to pay as much as they are asking. Now if they would have kept the XM music contract and dumped the cheaper Sirius one I might feel differently. I really miss the old Squizz station... you could listen to music for 2 or 3 days and not hear the same song... now the ratio is just like terrestrial and you could hear the same song again in an hour or two.  </rant>

 

The deal you got is not bad, but as you mentioned be sure to put it on your calendar to call in and get yourself kicked over to retention to continue the deal. The bad news is that you might hear it from Mrs jeff_h when the radio is dead the next day because it did not work on your first try. I never had them cut me on this, but have on others... and it really depends on if they think that you are going to cave.  For XM there were better numbers to call for more success (search the internet) there probably are for Sirius too. If you do end up with a strategy, maybe start a thread and share.

[jeff_h]

The deal you got is not bad, but as you mentioned be sure to put it on your calendar to call in and get yourself kicked over to retention to continue the deal. The bad news is that you might hear it from Mrs jeff_h when the radio is dead the next day because it did not work on your first try.

 

I already have a reminder on my work outlook calendar for 2 days before expiration to cancel it - she uses Sirius about half the time and local radio for the other half... for me, I like it since the signal does not go out of range like local radio, which occurs on my daily commute (a sign that the commute is too long I guess!)... I don't mind $60 per year but would not want to spend about $150 (or more?) per year for the regular rate.  So to help others maybe avoid paying the higher rate, I posted the above letter, hope it helps others too.

[jeff_h]

Update from above post, that was 6 months ago (time flies) -- it was time again, as the 6-month special radio trial for $30 (from letter above) on her car expires tomorrow.  I couldn't canx via chat, it gave popup that I had to call 888-601-6302.

 

I called and said I wanted to cancel, they asked about the service and I said it was fine, but I didn't want to pay the full price on which the service was about to renew.

 

She said "let me see what I can do for you" and said that they could offer half price off of the normal $15/month fee, I said no thanks as I was happy with the trial offer of 6 months for $30 that I had before.  She said that was no longer available, and I said OK then go ahead and cancel it.

 

She said OK well the next best thing they had was the current trial offer, which was $25 for 5 months -- I said no that's OK just go ahead and cancel unless they still had the same price as I had on the trial.  She they asked me to hold so she could discuss with her support team.  Then I got the funky on-hold music for about 3 minutes.

 

She came back and said that her supervisor had approved them to offer a 6-month trial for $25, so with the fees tacked on that comes to $29.33 -- I said OK sounds good, and that was that.  Just put another reminder on my outlook calendar for 6 months minus 2 days, when it will be dance time for the blue car again.  When they did the 6-month trial for the red car they loaded on back-to-back trial offers, so that one is good until next June, and on the calendar too.

 

So for those who are on the fence and a good price would make the difference, seems like just saying 'no thanks just cancel it' kept them lowering the price, maybe even more than the $25 for 6 months but once she said that I said 'sold' and that amount was OK with me.  But if someone else hangs tough for longer and gets a lower price, "inquiring minds wanna know."

[meyersnole]

jeff_h that brings back many memories... I played the same games. Too bad you are playing them at the 6 month terms, I use to only have to do this once a year.

 

Honestly I think you did pretty good on the price, better than I was getting anyway. At the end of the day, are you happy? At $5 month, how much better could you really do?

[jeff_h]

jeff_h that brings back many memories... I played the same games. Too bad you are playing them at the 6 month terms, I use to only have to do this once a year.

 

Honestly I think you did pretty good on the price, better than I was getting anyway. At the end of the day, are you happy? At $5 month, how much better could you really do?

 

One of the regular users on the hybrid forum just wrote that Sirius recently called him and offered him the $25 for 6 months and he said no thanks he wasn't willing to pay that much, so they said OK thanks for your time and hung up.   So I guess that's the lower limit for them.

 

I figure it's good to post about the various experiences we have to enable others to renew at the best price they can -- unless they don't want to go through the 'renew me at the good price of cancel'... we're happy with that price, so it works for us.

[meyersnole]

When that service first started, I thought they really had a good idea and market. With the proliferation of smart phones and car systems that integrate with them like MFT I am not so sure there is that much value anymore. @ $5/month I can see some value for not wanting to mess with the phone.... but not the market I first thought it had.  I also really liked the content that XM originally had, but that was removed shortly after the merger.

[murphy]

If you have any other XM or Sirius radios and have the online music playback function check to see if the smartphone app works on your phone.  I have two old XM radios with lifetime subscriptions that included free internet access.  I discovered a couple of months ago that the SiriusXM app works on my Android phone most of the time although at the moment it is reporting that the service is not available.

[Hybridbear]

Jeff - are you also getting Traffic or TravelLink for that price?

[jeff_h]

Jeff - are you also getting Traffic or TravelLink for that price?

 

No, those are separate subscriptions - I have only traffic on my car, and only Travelink on her car.

 

 

EDIT - Oh wait I forgot, my car also has the Travelink since it's complimentary for 5 years.

Edited October 7, 2014 at 09:17 PM by jeff_h