What to do when satellite radio trial expires?

[drsubie]

Just curious what folks are doing when their Sirius XM radio expires? On my previous new cars, I never thought much of XM and just let it expire, but I'm finding I quite like it on the Ram as it's my daily driver and we have a 30min each-way trip driving my kid to school (she just started the school).

I would think about continuing the subscription, but I have 2 other cars w/ XM capability, and it seems kind of silly to just have it in 1 car and/or pay ~$15/month x 3 for 3 subscriptions (or whatever their add-a-car cost is). I even think $12 to 15/month for satellite radio is kind of silly...

Any one have experience w/ the portable units and how they sound? I'm thinking that way I can just move it from car to car...

 

[Lonestar21]

CarPlay. Free Pandora and Spotify

 

[danielle2019]

Call Sirius, tell them your trial is about to expire and you plan to let it lapse, and they will offer you six months for $20. Repeat every six months. I don’t feel bad about doing that, because they make the offer, and it’s what I feel is a fair price for what you get.

I first experienced satellite radio when I bought my 2008 Charger. I loved it! If the service was the same as it was then, Id pay a sub. But now I find it more talking, lame DJs trying to be cool, and far too repetitive. Even Stern repeats the same couple segments all week.

Anyone had the service at the time and remember how often Sirius played Metallica “Hardwired” ?! They actually cost a band a sale, since I was sick of the album before it even dropped!

 

[duke2001]

Just curious what folks are doing when their Sirius XM radio expires? On my previous new cars, I never thought much of XM and just let it expire, but I'm finding I quite like it on the Ram as it's my daily driver and we have a 30min each-way trip driving my kid to school (she just started the school).

I would think about continuing the subscription, but I have 2 other cars w/ XM capability, and it seems kind of silly to just have it in 1 car and/or pay ~$15/month x 3 for 3 subscriptions (or whatever their add-a-car cost is). I even think $12 to 15/month for satellite radio is kind of silly...

Any one have experience w/ the portable units and how they sound? I'm thinking that way I can just move it from car to car...

Once you negotiate price for Ram, if you decide to get it, then ask them about price to add additional vehicles, if you desire. You get discounts for additional vehicles. Don’t quote me, but it is around 50% less per additional vehicle.

 

[Jeff270]

Do NOT pay full price. They will negotiate, They will offer you a deal for 6 months. Tell them that they do NOT have your permission to automatically renew. They will try and push this because they will renew you at the normal rate. Insist that they do NOT renew. They will call you right before the 6 month expiration to convince you to renew, Play the same game again. We have two cars (at times 3) that we have done this with for the past 5 years. Oh, if I forgot to mention do NOT pay full price and do NOT give them permission to automatically renew.

 

[drsubie]

Thanks for the advice/suggestions...yeah, I kind of hate constantly having to negotiate (I guess I'm not a negotiator at heart)--kind of like having to lease a car and go through the hassle of negotiating for another one each time (or my cable TV subscription for that matter). Businesses probably make a lot of extra $ counting on people not wanting to go through the hassle...

I may try the 6m/$20 deal...just wondering if anyone has gone the portable player route...

 

[Johnvan]

I'm pretty sure the second car is at a discounted rate. I just added the RAM to my existing Sirius account even though I'm still on the free trial.
I chose the lowest price package at $10.99 per month for my first car and adding the RAM it shows that the price will be an additional $6 per month. That's all on the "mostly music" plan.
I've always played the game of calling every 6 months to cancel and then taking the deal over the phone or waiting a few days for the email to offer me the cheap rate.
I'm pretty fed up with doing that, especially for two cars. It's frustrating that they have such a stupid business model. If they charged everybody $5 a month with no games they would probably triple their subscriber base.
I'll just suck it up for now and pay the $17 a month for two cars.
I used to have a portable one but with the antenna on the roof, the 12 volt power adapter and the static with the FM transmitter I don't think you'd be happy with it. It'd be a pain to move and selecting stations isn't as nice as with a factory setup.

 

[Jackham]

Call Sirius, tell them your trial is about to expire and you plan to let it lapse, and they will offer you six months for $20. Repeat every six months. I don’t feel bad about doing that, because they make the offer, and it’s what I feel is a fair price for what you get.

I first experienced satellite radio when I bought my 2008 Charger. I loved it! If the service was the same as it was then, Id pay a sub. But now I find it more talking, lame DJs trying to be cool, and far too repetitive. Even Stern repeats the same couple segments all week.

Anyone had the service at the time and remember how often Sirius played Metallica “Hardwired” ?! They actually cost a band a sale, since I was sick of the album before it even dropped!

If you are in a situation where you cover a lot of miles over vast areas it is unequaled. Like Montana. If I lived in a city I see no purpose.

 

[drsubie]

I'm pretty sure the second car is at a discounted rate. I just added the RAM to my existing Sirius account even though I'm still on the free trial.
I chose the lowest price package at $10.99 per month for my first car and adding the RAM it shows that the price will be an additional $6 per month. That's all on the "mostly music" plan.
I've always played the game of calling every 6 months to cancel and then taking the deal over the phone or waiting a few days for the email to offer me the cheap rate.
I'm pretty fed up with doing that, especially for two cars. It's frustrating that they have such a stupid business model. If they charged everybody $5 a month with no games they would probably triple their subscriber base.
I'll just suck it up for now and pay the $17 a month for two cars.
I used to have a portable one but with the antenna on the roof, the 12 volt power adapter and the static with the FM transmitter I don't think you'd be happy with it. It'd be a pain to move and selecting stations isn't as nice as with a factory setup.

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of with the portable--that the sound quality will be so degraded, it won't be worth listening to music (over and above the already compressed sound quality now)...

 

[Conch007]

Just curious what folks are doing when their Sirius XM radio expires? On my previous new cars, I never thought much of XM and just let it expire, but I'm finding I quite like it on the Ram as it's my daily driver and we have a 30min each-way trip driving my kid to school (she just started the school).

I would think about continuing the subscription, but I have 2 other cars w/ XM capability, and it seems kind of silly to just have it in 1 car and/or pay ~$15/month x 3 for 3 subscriptions (or whatever their add-a-car cost is). I even think $12 to 15/month for satellite radio is kind of silly...

Any one have experience w/ the portable units and how they sound? I'm thinking that way I can just move it from car to car...

When you come off call xm and ask to speak to retention department. When the truck comes off of the free trial you are entitled to a discounted rate I recommend paying for the year as they will either discount it for 6 months or a year. I say the retentions department cause reg cyst care wants to charge full price, however you are entitled to the discounted rate I had just did that with my 17 then traded it in I simply had them move my balance over to this truck so when it runs out I’m already set

 

[Trfnj74]

I've had them not offer the discount rate after trial a few times over the years and had it shut off. In about a month you will get offer after offer in the mail and email asking you to come back a $20-$25 for 6 months.

 

[DeanKing]

You have multiple cars, like the service, and only want to pay for one subscription. I have same situation. If you are willing to deal with a slightly less user friendly experience, pay for the streaming service instead of a car. The app works with CarPlay. Sound quality is as good or better than direct satellite because they don’t have the same bandwidth limitations. It also doesn’t have line of sight issues. It offers on demand replays of things like Howard Stern interviews. Works in your home and in the gym as well. My wife has it and likes it. I say slightly less user friendly because changing channels from the steering wheel is nice and you don’t get that with an app. Streaming is also cheaper than the price of one car based subscription.

 

[Tjd]

I decided to let XM go. I found myself always switching channels trying to find something to listen too, the stupid “2 skips left” restriction when using the playback on-demand content and finally the significantly better audio quality from Apple Music made the decision easy, not to mention it is about 1/2 price compared to XM all access. Not sure where Sirius is going long term, but with the pricing of guardian service and Waze giving the same info as XM traffic who knows. Too bad really because I once has XM radio stock when they started out.

 

[Gen3CoupeTX]

It's not much of a 'negotiation' ... Just tell them you'll do the $25 or so for six months, otherwise you will not renew it. I've had Sirius since the first month it went live, back when it competed against XM. That was years ago - And I've never paid more than $99 for a full year of service. So long as Hair Nation and Lithium stay in the line-up, it's money in this bank from this Gen X'er.

 

[JJRamTX]

I have to echo what everyone else has said above. I played the 6 months at $20 game for about 4 years with my prior Ram. Never pay full price, they make 98% profit off of you because all of the infrastructure is already in space and they can't do any maintainence... It is all just digital 1's and 0's and a few admin folks to do the billing, account maintaining and programming of the music. Also they can't broadcast in Stereo so there is a lower sound quality than Carplay and it can't process for the Surround sound either. The bottom line is if you are paying more than $4 a month for it you are paying too much. I know that when my free trial ends the main reason I will want it if for the Uconnect service, not for the Sirius XM music.

 

[James1414d]

I like all the extra channels on the Ram with the 360l. Im gonna negotiate when the time comes and keep the service.