X-M Radio is organizationally challeneged

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 6:36 am

My recent experience with X-M customer servicehas lead me to believe that the company is: 1. Organizationally challenged 2. Having extreme difficulty holding on to customers I've been on the phone with them 4 times in the last month and a half trying to arrange a billing program and get an invoice. - I keep getting conflicting information from their people about billing options and prices. I'll be told one price one time and another price another time.- My radio has been turned off and on and back off several times (currently is off). - The various departments within the company do not talk with each other and their personnel do not appear to be trained properly in how to manage the accounts. - I cannot get a billing invoice sent to me via mail to save my life. - They're very inflexible about billing options and they tell you one thing and do another. Conclusion: This company is looking a lot like Sprint did two years ago. It's a freakin' mess. Stay away. I've actually got Sprint and am plugging Sprint radio from my phone into my car radio at the moment. If I ever get a straight answer from X-M on a price and get an invoice in the mail I can set up with bill-pay at my bank, I may re-up my subscription. In the meantime, no go. I've got a "lifetime subscription" to Sirius that they won't transfer to my X-M radio, so the phone reps keep offering me a discount option and turning my radio back on, only to have it turned off again a week later and I have to call back and start the process all over again. Eventually, I may just hook my Sirius PnP unit back up to the car and use it until it breaks down and they'll get no money from me.

star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:05 am

That's why I only use Sirius, although here (for now anyways) they're seperate companies. You can transfer your lifetime subscription to another sirius unit when yours dies. My old starmate1 still works fine but I've recently upgraded to the sportster5.

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:36 am

Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver Â»That's why I only use Sirius, although here (for now anyways) they're seperate companies. You can transfer your lifetime subscription to another sirius unit when yours dies. I thought they merged. The stock symbol is for "Sirius-X-M"I don't mind sticking with Sirius. I was trying to be reasonable. I was willing to pay the a middle-ground price they initially offered me to use my OEM radio. Except they backtgracked and now I can't get a straight answer. I honestly don't think they know what they're doing. They have the air of a company that's desparate, IMO.

star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:39 am

In the states they're they've merged, they're still seperate (on paper anyways) companies in Canada!I thought that one (if not both of them) had filed for bankrupcy protection not too long ago...

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 7:39 am

I have Sirius. It also sounds better and has better reception up north than X-M. I got a lifetime sub. that was supposed to come with 3 transfers, and there should be 1 left. I re-upped my X-M with a promotional offer for 3 months and then after that I tried to cancel my X-M. X-M asked why, and I explained that I already had Sirius. I asked if there was any deal for Sirius people who moved over and the cancellation technician said I could get this $77 / yr. deal. I asked if they could bill me an invoice so I could set up "bill-pay" at my bank. He said sure. Only the invoice never came. The radio went off. I called back, explained, the radio went back on. The invoice never came and after a week it went off again. I called back. At first they said they could not bill an invoice by mail, as they initially said. Then after re-explaining everything for 10 min they say they'll send another. I'm dubious. So, I'll put up with the dangling wires for the time being and use my Sirius. (see the photo below). One problem with Vibes is it's really hard to find a place to put PnP units on the curvy, crowded dashboards. Right now there are wires everywhere. The antenna is up inside the sun-roof door and the unit is plugged into a power strip on the floor via the 120v outlet. I'm using the indoor mount and it's sitting on a sticky pad. Photo of temporary Sirius setup:

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star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:04 am

All the wires run between the weatherstripping beside the dash then under to the center console. The aux cable comes out via the gearshift boot. The antenna runsout the door, through the gap inbetween the left front fender and the A pillar up between the windshield and A pillar then under the left rail where the roof racks go to where the antenna sits, 6 inches to the inside of the left rear roof rack attachment. most of the cableing is beneth the rubber stripping. The Radar detector cable and Vacuum gauge hose are routed the same way. The Vac hose goes through the firewall where the brake pedal exits. I use a splitter on the cig lighter

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star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:06 am

White cable through the shift boot.

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ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:09 am

You know that corner looks like it might work. I'll have to dig around a bit there. I need a new seating piece for my mobile mount. I've got nothing to set it on like yours. It has a screw mount and the old one is the wrong shape and the sticky stuff was pulled off my old vibe so it's not sticky anymore. The old vibe had a smoother dash texture that held the sticky mounts better.

star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 8:17 am

When all that equiptment was installed in the Sunfire, it was in the middle of the dash. But the dash of the Sunfire has a piece against the windshield that's just clipped into place and is easily removable. The wires were easy to route and hide. I don't even want to think about the difficulty in removing the Vibe's dash...The windshield mount is designed to adapt to various Sirius units. The Sportster bolts to it while the original starmate clips in.

lovemyraffe · Post by **lovemyraffe** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:21 am

I have a Sirius subscription that was given to me. I'm not sure I would fork out the money for it myself. Not really worth it IMO.

jake75 · Post by **jake75** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 12:32 pm

Latest offer rec'd today to reactivate my XM service was $19.99 for 5 months. (Original XM expired 4-12-09)

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:39 pm

Quote, originally posted by jake75 Â»Latest offer rec'd today to reactivate my XM service was $19.99 for 5 months. (Original XM expired 4-12-09)Yes, I've heard they've been doing stuff like that. That is also a sign that their business plan is flawed. They shouldn't need to be offering different prices to different customers. How do you think the full-price customers are going to feel when they find out some folks were offered cheaper rates? Not a way to build loyalty. I at least thought I had a resonable argument in that I was willing to surrender my lifetime Sirius subscription for a compesatory rate. Hoever, I'm hearing that almost anyone who tries to cancel will be offered a lower rate now. What's the result of that? Everyone's going to cancel... doh!They need to lower the price accross the board until their price matches the market and they reach the number of subscribers they need. There's all sorts of competition right now. Cell phones have music now (like "Sprint Radio"), there's digital radio coming, i-Pods, etc. Their customer service system is divided into two parts, the sales part and the cancellation part. After you sit on hold for 10 min with sales and tell them you want to cancel, they transfer you to the cancellation dept. where eveyrone has a different accent and you wait 20 minutes to get through and they try to sell yo ucheaper plans. They could save a lot of money by doing away with that second half of their customer service staff, who don't seem to be able to do anything but try to sell you more services that they then can't deliver.

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 4:46 pm

Quote, originally posted by star_deceiver Â»White cable through the shift boot.Good idea, thanks. I'll take a look in there, now. I saw they moved this to "off-topic" but the thread isn't entirely off-topic, since there is installation discussion going on.

renate · Post by **renate** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:42 pm

My subcription to Rhapsody is 14.99 a month,but well worth it.I get only the music I want .I like commercial free radio,but I still here a lot of stuff that sucks on it and they don't play all the good stuff all the time.With Rhapsody,I can listen at home,in the car(mp3 jack) at work,anywhere....

Herb · Post by **Herb** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 12:13 am

On occasion I've been using my digital voice recorder to record phone calls when I'm trying to resolve issues with some business. I just inform them that I am recording the call and proceed. You'd be surprised on how much more on the ball they are when they know they are being recorded. It's the only way I know how to hold someone accountable to what they say on the phone.

star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:05 am

The shift boot just pops free, not too sure about cover in the automatic. There's no commercials on the Sirius music channels and no censorship either!!!! And since the type of music I listen to is not availible on fm $16.xx a month isn't much to pay for decent music! Hell, I'll spend that much at starbucks in a week!

silvrhawk7 · Post by **silvrhawk7** » Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:13 am

Personally i hate the whole merger, they took a few key channels away after they merged, also, i noticed with certain channels that are XM as well that they are poor quality (almost tv antenna quality). Persoanlly i download my music anymore and play it off of my flash drive in my car. If Nikki wasnt using her radio in her van, i would cancel my subscription. Also Ned, i thought with the lifetime subscription, that unlimited transfers were free as well when you pay that flat rate, if they charge you for that, that is not free for life, when i called to inquire about that, they said that the cost of the new radio was all you had to pay*......

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:03 am

Quote, originally posted by silvrhawk7 Â»Personally i hate the whole merger, they took a few key channels away after they merged, also, i noticed with certain channels that are XM as well that they are poor quality (almost tv antenna quality). Persoanlly i download my music anymore and play it off of my flash drive in my car. If Nikki wasnt using her radio in her van, i would cancel my subscription. Also Ned, i thought with the lifetime subscription, that unlimited transfers were free as well when you pay that flat rate, if they charge you for that, that is not free for life, when i called to inquire about that, they said that the cost of the new radio was all you had to pay*......Well, problem one, my lifetime subscription is to Sirius, and I was told that they will not transfer it to a, quote "XM radio" enquote, (which is what came w/ Vibe). I'm like, "but XM and Sirius are the same company?" The XM people wouldn't budge. My Sirius sub came with two transfers, one of which I used already. You're right on sound quality. Some channels have degraded because XM has lower bandwidth to begin with. XM has always sounded only marginally better than regular FM radio, while Sirius sounds like a decent MP3. Most of the music channels I listen to still sound pretty decent on Sirius.

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 4:47 am

Here's an update. I did get an invoice finally on Monday for about $18 for the service between the time my last contract expired and the time the turned off the radio. The invoice included a $2 "invoice fee" since I didn't pay by credit card and set up auto re-bill (I HATE auto re-bill)I immediately set-up bill=pay and paid that one on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday (yesterday) I got a second invoice for like $25. It an invoice for the same period except that there was a new a line-item of $7.00 for "other fees." I'm not sure what "other fees" are, so I have to call them back and ask. I suppose I'll have to send them another check for $7.00.

star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:55 am

Routing the antenna, from the front of the windshield cable buried under all the rubber... forest fire ashes not included

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jackie879 · Post by **jackie879** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:20 am

Okay, so I just got my '09 Vibe about a month ago and I really enjoy XM. I am considering buying another year of it once my initial 3 months is up.However, I'm not impressed with XM's customer service so far. They have been calling my cell phone every day, twice a day (very annoying and they don't leave a message). Usually I'm at work so I can't answer the phone. When I did have the chance to talk to someone she was very rude and talked so fast (in broken english) that I could barely understand what she was saying. Long story short, I was given the option of $145 for a year of service, which I declined. Is this a fair price or should I try to haggle with them some more? I would be more inclined to do business with them if I could talk to someone without an attitude...

star_deceiver · Post by **star_deceiver** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:04 am

That price is about average for a year. The next time they call, answer and TELL them to you on a do-not-call list, be polite but quite firm and never ask. Tell them this is the way it is or else you won't renew!

ned23 · Post by **ned23** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:34 pm

Quote, originally posted by jackie879 Â»However, I'm not impressed with XM's customer service so far. They have been calling my cell phone every day, twice a day (very annoying and they don't leave a message). Usually I'm at work so I can't answer the phone. When I did have the chance to talk to someone she was very rude and talked so fast (in broken english) that I could barely understand what she was saying. Long story short, I was given the option of $145 for a year of service, which I declined. Is this a fair price or should I try to haggle with them some more? I would be more inclined to do business with them if I could talk to someone without an attitude...They offered me $77 for a year. You have to cancel and wait on hold with the cancel technician, who's in a different part of the world with a different accent. Just say that one of your co-workers was offered $77 per year. ...andI agree, those robo-calls were VERY annoying. When your subscription is getting close to cancellation, they literally call EVERY DAY, "Warning, you're about to be disconnected, please call and give your account number, which is...####...to avoid interruption of service"

jackie879 · Post by **jackie879** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:56 am

$77 a year is a lot easier to take than $145. Thanks for the info!Interestingly enough, after robo-calling me non-stop for nearly two weeks, I haven't had a call from them at all this week.

X-M Radio is organizationally challeneged

X-M Radio is organizationally challeneged

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