My wife has a factory installed XM unit in her '06 Honda Element. We cancelled the account last year once the free preview ran out, because we were already Sirius subscribers. She has a Starmate Replay in her Element. Can I call Sirius now and add that XM unit to my current Sirius account (which has 3 radios on it now), at $6.99/month? Or do I have to call XM and re-activate the account that was tied to that radio, at $12.95/month?
Add factory XM radio to my Sirius Account?
- Thread starter jnj86
- Start date
Call XM. They haven't merged the activation, billing, or customer service departments yet.
Oh, okay. I was hoping I could get rid of her Starmate, which is under my account at $6.99/month, and just use the factory XM unit instead at $6.99/month.
I would still ask the CS rep though. It's actually a very good question considering they are "one" company now.
Huh
If they don't let you do this, they need to get moving in that direction fast. They now have one service. You should be able to have all radios listed in one place and have one number to call for customer service. Hopefully it will be on the Sirius side because the XM customer service is crap.
If they don't let you do this, they need to get moving in that direction fast. They now have one service. You should be able to have all radios listed in one place and have one number to call for customer service. Hopefully it will be on the Sirius side because the XM customer service is crap.
This question keeps coming up over and over. The answer is no you can't do this, the billing systems are separate and cannot talk to each other. There is no way for them to offer it right now. No one knows if it is something they will eventually do or not. But today it is not available. If you activate the OEM it would be at the full $12.95 per month.
But he is wanting to call Sirius and add his XM radio at $6.99 under a multi radio discount. That isn't the same thing as calling and saying you are going to cancel, then they do a retention offer on you.
If he callled XM with a new tuner, they aren't going to offer him a $77 a year plan because he says he already has a Sirius Radio.
The unanswerable question becomes whether letting people add a radio from the other side is a winner or a loser. For example, are their more people who would add a radio of the other side or are there more dual subscribers who would gat an instant $6.00 discount. Probably not a lot of either.
I'm in the opposite boat. I have a Mazda that came with Sirius. I have 2 XM radios. When I got the Mazda with Sirius, I activated it for the free services and paid for about 6 months waiting for the merger. I was hoping I could add the Sirius radio from my Mazda onto my XM account or get some kind of family plan discount for the Sirius radio.
Since that didn't happen, I cancelled my Sirius radio when the subscription ran out. I've called Sirius every few months to see if I can somehow add my Sirius radio to my XM account or get a discount because I have two XM Radios already. No luck, so I haven't activated it.
I called again today. I'm so disgusted at this point that I will also be cancelling my XM radios in March when my current subscription runs out. If Sirius/XM gets their act together, I may consider activating again, but I doubt it. I'm getting use to using my MP3 player, CDs and my FM radio again.
BTW.. Whether their billing system can handle it (or not).. I don't care. I view them as one company now. There is no excuse for it.
Since the channels have merged for the most part on the music side and chances are coming soon they will be doing the same on the talk side, the necessity for having dual service is almost nil. I've already cancel my dual service and just stayed with the XM side.
So rather you enjoy the service or not, you will cancel just for principle because in your mind you think 3 months should be long enough for them to have not only combined their billing system, but their activation systems and the separate systems in general. I think you are being totally unreasonable and rather you care of not isn't what is relevant, these things take time and right now it just isn't possible. The fact is it may not be possible for a while if ever. But you know nothing like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
So rather you enjoy the service or not, you will cancel just for principle because in your mind you think 3 months should be long enough for them to have not only combined their billing system, but their activation systems and the separate systems in general. I think you are being totally unreasonable and rather you care of not isn't what is relevant, these things take time and right now it just isn't possible. The fact is it may not be possible for a while if ever. But you know nothing like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The point is, that I am getting use to listening to audio using other means because my Mazda is my main car. I won't pay a full service fee on a radio because I don't believe it is worth it for an additional $12.95/month. Now that I am getting use to listening using other methods, I find that I am using my Pioneer Inno less, because I am using my plain MP3 player more. I am also plugging in my MP3 player into my 2nd car and listening to it more often, because that is the device I use for listening to music.
Yes.. It is partially principal and partially because I don't think it is worth it to pay for 2 separate services at full price. I don't care if you think its a stupid decision. I was just voicing my opinion because its been frustrating for me. I really was hoping things would be good as a merged company. Which is why I paid for service. I haven't seen or heard anything from sirius that says... oh yes.. We'll be able to help you, it is just taking us a while to get our billing systems combined. I've heard "sorry.. you're SOL from every CSR I've talked to". You'd think Sirius would want to try and do everything they could to keep customers. I know other companies that provide non-essential services (cable, Sat. TV, etc) are.
I don't hope that Sirius folds, but the service in it's current incarnation isn't for me. I don't know any of my friends who are still using it either (who were subscribers before).
I don't worry to much about what my friends or doing in terms of what I am going to do. But I have an iPod and there is just no way that it can or ever could in its current incarnation replace sat radio. Now if all I listened to was music then maybe it would, but then when I start thinking about new music and keeping my library fresh and what that is going to cost me. Sat Radio is a freaking bargain even paying two $12.95 subs.
I am just not a big person on doing things based on principle especially when I understand that merging every aspect of two totally separate companies with totally separate billing and activation systems is likely to take months if not years to accomplish. Maybe they would like to be able to do this, but right now just can't pull it off. I agree it would be a smart move. By the way I never said your decision was stupid, you have to do what is best for you. But I just got the sense the way your post came off it was like you were going to show them because you feel regardless of the real facts they should be able to do something they simply can't do at this time.
Not that it matters, but I actually don't know any of my family or friends at this point that have canceled Sirius or XM due to the current changes. Most of them can't imagine going back to FM or having to deal with managing music via an iPod or other MP3 player. It is all a matter of personal preference!
I don't buy that it would take months or years to combine the billing/activation systems.
Does anyone remember when there was DirecTV and USSB? Separate billing and activation systems (but shared satellites). When DTV bought out USSB, there was not even a month delay in billing/activation. After they combined, my next bill was from DTV, including my USSB channels.
If DTV and USSB could combine in a month, then it seems that Sirius and XM could do the same.
I don't think that they want to, which is sad. My sister just bought a XM equipped used car, and for Christmas, I was going to add her XM to my Sirius account. No can do, so Sirius/XM just lost out on and additional radio subscription.
Actually I do remember that, but you aren't really comparing apples to apples here. DirecTV just took over and then immediately switched everyone over to their service. Since Sirius and XM are basically still being run as separate systems with the spectrum split between them. They can't just take the spectrum and move it to one service and create a single billing system. Also lets compare way, way back then the number of subscribers. If one service had 100,000 subscribers that would make the task so much easier. USSB probably didn't even have that many subscribers now that I think back. But since the current 19 million subs are almost equally split between the two systems this makes it hard. Also USSB and Direct was using the same type systems back then as well another thing that that made that transition so easy.
I agree that I see no reason why it would take years, but knowing Sirius as I do, I said months if not years because they are in no hurry to do this I am sure since the systems have to be run separately for years in order to insure that no radio is made obsolete as ordered in the FCC in the merger approval.
It's been 1.5 years (or close to it)...still NO PROGRESS on merging the CS or billing functions. They do use the same web site template -- whoopee!
Talk about inefficiencies! I'm in IT and have personally gone thru 2 fortune 500 mergers, both of which involved much larger companies than Sirius/XM. It did not take us years to combine billing systems (for the top priority products/services).
Combining the billing systems should have been a top priority for Sirius/XM, and if it was, then it should have been done no later than 1H 2009, and that's being pretty generous!
This is just poor customer service and poor business sense. Do they actually think that the extra $7/month they could make from those of us who have Sirius Accounts with factory XM radios outweighs the cost involved of supporting and maintaining 2 billing systems?
I'm glad I am not a stockholder!
It's been 1.5 years (or close to it)...still NO PROGRESS on merging the CS or billing functions. They do use the same web site template -- whoopee!
Talk about inefficiencies! I'm in IT and have personally gone thru 2 fortune 500 mergers, both of which involved much larger companies than Sirius/XM. It did not take us years to combine billing systems (for the top priority products/services).
Combining the billing systems should have been a top priority for Sirius/XM, and if it was, then it should have been done no later than 1H 2009, and that's being pretty generous!
This is just poor customer service and poor business sense. Do they actually think that the extra $7/month they could make from those of us who have Sirius Accounts with factory XM radios outweighs the cost involved of supporting and maintaining 2 billing systems?
I'm glad I am not a stockholder!
While it would be a long term cost savings for them to merge the systems, it would be a short term nightmare.
When they make that switch, their now halved CS Department is going to be slammed combining accounts. In most of those cases, people who had been paying full boat for one side are now going to be paying $6.99.
In other words, it's going to create a s***load of work for them in the short term just to lose $6 or more on every transaction.
We've discussed this in other threads. I am of the opinion that we likely won't see them merge billing or activation systems ever. I think eventually the will combine the spectrum under one system or the other. This will be done through a process I would assume slowly pushing subscribers to one specific network rather it be XM or Sirius. I think the first thing we'll see is them starting to move all the OEM to a single system. Which ever they go with will likely be the system we all will end up on at some point. I've not seen anything specific in the OEM's yet, but these changes take a couple of years to switch over as with most things concerning OEM's.
Clearly it would save them money to only have to maintain one set of sats, one billing system, one call center, one activation system etc. However, I think there are more dual subs right now than any of us realize because of OEM's. You got a wife that has a car that is XM and a husband with Sirius. I just think them trying to offer discounted rates without being able to track it in a single system would be a nightmare.
My last point is why do they want to go through this expense when the ultimate plan is to combine everyone on a single system at some point anyway. Then again I guess if you moved everyone over to one system now it would already be done and you'll have to pay to get it done sooner or later, but later is probably better because they dont' have the money to do it now. Also lets not forget the funds being generated by the Best of Sirius or Best of XM packages. That would likely go bye bye if the combined the systems now too. Plus if all these dual sub familes suddenly started getting discounted rates, that is a drop in income too. I guess the question is what would the numbers be that would get a sub at $8.99 that won't at $12.95 now to have dual service?
I'd like to see it happen, I just don't think it will anytime soon!
Clearly it would save them money to only have to maintain one set of sats, one billing system, one call center, one activation system etc. However, I think there are more dual subs right now than any of us realize because of OEM's. You got a wife that has a car that is XM and a husband with Sirius. I just think them trying to offer discounted rates without being able to track it in a single system would be a nightmare.
My last point is why do they want to go through this expense when the ultimate plan is to combine everyone on a single system at some point anyway. Then again I guess if you moved everyone over to one system now it would already be done and you'll have to pay to get it done sooner or later, but later is probably better because they dont' have the money to do it now. Also lets not forget the funds being generated by the Best of Sirius or Best of XM packages. That would likely go bye bye if the combined the systems now too. Plus if all these dual sub familes suddenly started getting discounted rates, that is a drop in income too. I guess the question is what would the numbers be that would get a sub at $8.99 that won't at $12.95 now to have dual service?
I'd like to see it happen, I just don't think it will anytime soon!