I have purchased my car (USED) two weeks ago and I just realized it has Sirius radio because I browsed to it by accident and it was playing one of the Sirius sat stations.

I figured out what my ESN is and called Sirius and they said that this ESN is not enabled and I should not have any Sirius. They asked me if I wanted a free trial afterwards... I am confused, how is it possible that I have Sirius if they are saying that it's not enabled based on the ESN?

Anyone have any ideas?

 

I do. A car can be registered with Sirius by the dealer as a dealer-operated vehicle, whether a demo or an executive car. Sirius is then activated w/o payment. There is a finite period during which Sirius can be used before the service is shut off but in my experience Sirius just lets it go for a longer, indefinite period. Most likely you terminated that arrangement by supplying them with the ESN. Sorry to break the bad news.

 

Sirius is such a terrible company to deal with. In the past I've never had to pay for any of my cars (They just came activated and it never ran out). I had to pay for my C63, and now they keep calling me and saying I owe them money, even though my credit card is set up for automatic payment and I can see the payments coming out of my card. I don't feel like arguing with 30 idiots before they resolve it, so I just blocked their number.

 

I've never had a problem and I have Sirius in all three of my cars. They've been great to me, I guess its like comcast.... if you never have a service issue, you never deal with their ****.

 

Mine did expire after the 6 month trial period. I never bothered to renew.

 

If you don't want to run sirius, but want commercial free music that you choose I recommend downloading spotify on your phone and connect via bluetooth. I did this for a short time but quickly realized I didn't have the patience to build an entire library. It also takes up data.

Or just download music to your phone and connect via bluetooth. I do this with my ipad sometimes. I like sirius though because I find new music that way.

 

Sound quality on Sirius/XM is so poor as to make it not worth it. I never listened to the free 9 month trial and would never pay for it. Local radio quality is much better.

 

It might have been the free Sirius they run from time to time. Usually over a holiday weekend.

 

I have heard this same exact thing from several people. We haven't had a problem in our other car that's had it for 2 years thankfully.

My free demo just ran out and i'm a little torn because i dont think it's worth the price but I do use it often enough to have it.

 

The key to Sirius is to negotiate. Tell them you're going to cancel, and they'll give you a smoking deal - usually 5 months for $30 or so.

Also, they do have different plans, the one we pay for is $9.99 a month for a lot of great, commercial free music. Their full boat plan is just to pay the contract with Stern. I don't nee to give that dude any of my buckets.

-Tom

 

Last time I got Sirius on a car I got a year for $50 by saying I seldom drove the car and have no need for it only really listen to 3 stations anyway. So if you want it hustle with them and they will likely not even question it. Some money is better then no money.
Since the trial on the 63 ran out I get letters in the mail about bi-weekly asking for me to join. I use a high capacity SD card with about 60 days of continuous music on it so I'm good without it.

 

The dealer left my new M3 on a unlimited dealer subscription with traffic (on accident ), so I'm rather pleased now.

 

I've been getting Sirius for $28 per 5 months. I always call a week before my subscription runs out and they always give me a promo price.

 

keep negotiating... you can get 5 months for $20... basically keep saying you want to cancel

 

I don't even pay that... like Pandora much better.

 

is there a certain number or channels you are suppose to get with sirius? or do you have to pay more for "more" channels?

 

You can also just order the map data at a cheaper rate. I found that out this week!

 

This. Oh, so very much this. They are running the service anyways, and it doesnt cost them a dime to supply you the service so they think anything is better than nothing.

 

I'll do this next time. I just don't want to run into a situation where I keep saying "I just want to cancel" and they stop offering a deal. I work in an area where there is no radio signals.

 

this happened to us on our other car, they basically only offered the current deal going on....and since the wife loves her sat radio she decided to re-up.

on mine i just got a notice the free periods over and they sent me a renewal of 5months for $25