ezatnova

New owner here. Called to activate traffic on the Nav, and the SIRIUS lady said "mercedes owners get a free three month trial". I said ok, and she set me up.
The radio is working fine with all of the stations, but traffic still says "Call SIRIUS for subscription".
When I call them, I give them the ESN number (which is the same as I gave them to activate for the radio...which is the number the COMAND tells me when I go NAV -> Traffic).
They are saying "you need a different ID for the traffic, or your vehicle isn't compatable with traffic". I tried telling them they are incorrect, and I'm reading them the ESN # RIGHT FROM THE SCREEN, but they don't
want to hear it. Her only suggestion was "wait until the free trial is over, and then sign up for traffic." That seems...not helpful

Any idea what I need to do? Frankly, I don't care about the radio stations, I just want the traffic.

Thanks!

cswang

I think traffic is a separate package and not included in the free trial. I think you need to have the navigation package to have the traffic. At least that was the case for my C350.

ezatnova

Thanks. That sort of makes sense.

I just don't understand why it's so impossible to pay the $3.99 more and they add traffic on top of the free trial. If that actually is impossible, then I guess the SIRIUS lady was "right" with her "wait until the free trial is over", lol. Awful.

The confusing thing is, when I log on to my account, it says I have Sirius Select, and the only "upgrade" is to Serius Premier, for $10 more a month. But that doesn't say it adds traffic or anything. It's like I can't even view an option to add the traffic, but it also hints that Sirius Select HAS traffic built in, which would make sense to me, but clearly it doesn't, or it would work!

Wiggo

My Lincoln has two ESNs, one for the radio and one for Travellink, that are activated separately. I was assuming my on-order C350 would too. If not, I don't know how Sirius can activate the traffic. And apparently, neither do they.

ezatnova

Lol. Yeah I'm pretty confident there's only one ID/ESN, since if I went to AUDIO -> Satellite or NAVI -> Traffic, it gave the same ESN. But, that's part of what I'm asking people to help clarify here, so I'm not 100% sure yet.

Thanks

Ron Jr

I had it before I changed my plan to music only.

ezatnova

You had traffic with your free trial? Or with Sirius Select?

acr2001

I have traffic with my free trial (on a new 2012). Maybe the free trial is different if it is not a brand new vehicle? Sirius really seems to suck anyway. I'm still debating keeping it or not. Might just pay for the traffic - if they can even keep it activated in their ineptitude!

Ron Jr

Could have been either I had select on my 08 and still had 3 months paid so transfered it to the 11. When the trial and subscription ended I changed my plan to music only and lost traffic and weather.

rb23lb

i forgot, you cant get traffic on an '08, right?

DCubed

Correct.

For any new car it is a 6 month free trial with traffic and weather for 2012 models with the COMAND nav.

venchka

Ditto. Traffic delay icons only appear on major highways.

Wayne

PilotAlan

I'd let the dealer or MBUSA figure it out. THEY are Sirius' customer, will know who to call to bypass the drone on the phone.
If they see the lunacy, they may pressure Sirius to correct their customer service scripts.

Ron Jr

Had it over the radio but not on the Nav screen. It was a waste for me as they very rarely gave traffic for roads on Long Island that I use daily.

venchka

The graphic yellow & red rectangles on the navigation screen roadway map is fine if you are on an Interstate, Federal or State highway in an urban area. They seem to be accurate and up to date. The broadcast traffic reports from local radio stations are USELESS. Case in point: I drive a lot in Houston. The broadcast station for Houston is shared with Dallas & Phoenix. That is a lot of help.

Wayne

kowyzg0moo

I use Sirius Radio and Traffic as part of my 6 Months Free Trial in my 2012 C250 Coupe and I absolutely love the "Dynamic Traffic Routing" feature that you can enable in the Navigation menu. Comand is finally smart enough to utilize the traffic data to give you the fastest possible route. I can't speak for other cities, but I drive around the Los Angeles/Orange County/San Bernardino areas alot, and the traffic has been a life saver.

Just my two cents

newyorktoLA

I HATE SIRIUS RADIO!!! THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THEY ARE GIVING ME THIS CRAP ABOUT HOW MY ESN NUMBER DOESN'T SUPPORT SIRIUS WEATHER OR TRAFFIC...

My trial just ended and they're not renewing my Sirius Weather for my COMAND unit because they're saying I need to have a separate ESN number...MY 6 month trial from MBUSA had WEATHER!!! WTFFFF

mr inkredibul

I have a 2010 and my free trial also had traffic but yes its too different subscriptions

mysticmarine

I spent over an hour on FIVE different phone calls to Sirius today asking why they turned off Traffic after over 2 years. They told me I never had Traffic and would not assist me further except to instruct me to call MBrace or my dealer. MBrace told me THREE times to call Sirius. I finally found someone at MBrace who actually treated me like a customer. They said they'd call me tomorrow. We'll see.

This is supposed to be a Mercedes Benz product. But, there's not much quality or attention to detail here....

balticgreen

On-screen traffic updates (not to be confused with the weather and traffic audio channels on Sirius radio) do come with the trial as long as you have COMAND navigation, but getting it activated and then keeping it activated is awful.

- My dealer activated radio and traffic when I picked up the car. Great.
- I called Sirius to cancel the plan on the car I traded in (also a Mercedes but that shouldn't matter). Because that car was the primary radio on my account and I had a secondary tuner, the woman on the phone said she'd go ahead and move the new car onto my account as the primary and my trial would transfer. Great.
- I got into the car after that call and the radio was active but the traffic wasn't. Bad.
- I called again and asked to have the traffic re-activated as part of the trial because it had been working before I called the last time.
- They said okay, park in an open area, etc, we'll beam the signal, it will take up to 10 minutes. I sat for 20 minutes and it didn't activate. They said to call back later when I was in an area serviced by satellite. Uhhh... Baltimore isn't serviced by satellite???
- I called again from my driveway and asked for traffic to be reactivated. Park in an open area, we'll beam the signal, yadda yadda yadda. This time traffic activated. Great.
- The next day I switched from iPod to Sirius radio and the radio was dead. Bad. But the traffic still worked. Minor victory.
- I called yet again to get BOTH the radio and the traffic working AT THE SAME TIME. I don't know why that was difficult. It took this fourth call just to get everything back to the way it was when I picked up the car.

mysticmarine

thanks for your reply. This is almost my situation. Glad to hear there's hope. But, my radio won't take the new signal for the traffic. So, i am going back to the dealer again to see if they can try and intercede. Its a lot of effort for traffic but now its a matter of principle. Thanks for your reply.

acr2001

This is insane (and hysterical). Is it a problem with our vehicles in particular, or is Sirius just completely incapable of providing their service to people who are looking to pay for it? So glad I dumped their stock a while back.

mysticmarine

I think it is the way MB, MBrace or the dealer activates the GPS with the free Traffic promotion. The activation is not included in the screens the listener care people or their supervisors actually see. So, since Sirius is all about revenue and apparently not about customer service, it probably takes a while before one finds a customer service rep who has the right combination of work ethic and critical thinking capacity to provide a solution. I'm hoping I'll get lucky on my 9th call.

venchka

I just signed up today for Sirius Radio AND Traffic when our free trial expires soon. The folks on the phone knew that I had a Mercedes-Benz and they didn't ask for a second ESN number. In fact, they didn't ask for the number at all. I did give it to them to make sure that they had the correct information. We shall see what happens later this month when I switch from free trial to paid subscription.

Wayne