# XM Radio



## danogg (Nov 16, 2011)

Well...have had my new car for 6 days...XM was working great till this morning when it suddenly stopped working. 2 hours and 3 calls later to customer service, the problem was finally looked after! Not too happy that it took that long and that many calls to fix the problem. Oh and to top it off, customer service rep #2 told me I had to leave my car running for 15-20 mins. which cost me money in gas too! Customer service rep #3 was able to do a hard reset from their end right away so why did the first 2 reps have to waste so much of my time this morning?? Not surprised that alot of people don't continue on with XM service once their free promo is done


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

I hardly listened to it even when I had the free trail.


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## CHUV (Jun 25, 2011)

its nice if you live in a crappy city with a poor selection of radio channels. I like that there are no commercials either and the songs aren't repetitive....but after the trial is done I probably won't continue unless they offer me a cheap deal.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

I sprang for it since my area has very few radio stations, and only 1 that's worth listening to. Which fades out halfway through my drive to work. The customer service I've had was all right.


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## gman19 (Apr 5, 2011)

I'll be dropping XM next week. I subscribed only so I could try out traffic and weather. Traffic loads pretty fast, but I have to drive nearly 20 minutes or so before any weather will download. I really do not understand this, but I am almost to work by the time the weather will load. As far as the radio goes....why do I hear repeats all the time? Repeats on comedy channels, music channels...etc. On the decades channels, with 10 years of music to play, I should very very rarely hear a repeat!

And the other thing....I subscribed after my trial only because they said I had to let the trial end before they could add on the traffic and weather....sounds pretty dumb to me, but that's what they said. If they will cut me a deal on traffic, I might go for that, but the other services still suck.


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## villager (Apr 11, 2011)

I guess it works depending where you live. I live on Vancouver Island and it keeps cutting in and out several times and no signal message during almost every song. It dosen't work on the North end of the Island, nor in Campbell River or Comox or Nanamio. However, I took a trip to California, and it worked great after crossing the border. All the way down I 5 to Sacramento and I 80 to the Bay Area. I will not get a subscription after the trial period. Anyone else in BC have this problem


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## Dale_K (Jul 16, 2011)

I've gone the other way. At first I didn't renew my XM subscription and of course they send you a bunch of "discount" offers to get you back but I resisted. Then I bought a small Bazooka sub woofer and now I like the stereo more than before so I re-enlisted. The rep told me the reactivation signal was going to be sent right then and I needed to have XM on channel 1 for about 10 minutes. It went perfectly.

I always wondered how the satellite radio worked for this kind of task. I mean it's not like your car is going to be able to have a 2-way communication with the satellite.


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## FatKidsCruze (Sep 2, 2011)

I too opted to keep my XM on a monthly basis. In my area there aren't really that many stations and my wife loves XM so we kept it.


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## StoneCrab (Sep 14, 2011)

villager said:


> I guess it works depending where you live. I live on Vancouver Island and it keeps cutting in and out several times and no signal message during almost every song. It dosen't work on the North end of the Island, nor in Campbell River or Comox or Nanamio. However, I took a trip to California, and it worked great after crossing the border. All the way down I 5 to Sacramento and I 80 to the Bay Area. I will not get a subscription after the trial period. Anyone else in BC have this problem


The XM satellites are geosynchronous in orbit over the equator. At high latitudes they are at a low southern line of sight, which is more easily disrupted by trees, buildings, etc. Further south you go the higher they are in the sky and fewer disruptions.


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

I didn't know XM was available in Canada. Every time I looked at the service it only mentioned the 48 continental states and not Mexico either. I don't know how they could stop it by area but...... I have a lifetime subscription to XM cost me a whopping $400. In Cincinnati, all I hear on the crappy stations we have(none have music I like anymore) is commercials. They are sort of like MTV. If you remember they used to play music on MTV now it is all commercials and some programming. I have satellite(bought it before buying my Cruze). I have been happy with it. I have never had any of the problems you are siting even with my XM receivers in my old car. I think one time it had to be reset but that just required the XM unit being on. FYI there is no difference between having the key in run mode without the engine running and having the key in the on position. for what that is worth the stereo just had to be on(which you do not even need the key). The problem is you listened to someone that knows nothing about how car stereos work and I sorry you didn't know the engine did not need to be running. :th_coolio:


FYI I went directly to the XM website to find the lifetime subscription after they offered me a renewal on my previous 3 year subscription. I don't believe they offer the lifetime subscription any more.


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## danogg (Nov 16, 2011)

Patman said:


> FYI there is no difference between having the key in run mode without the engine running and having the key in the on position. for what that is worth the stereo just had to be on(which you do not even need the key). The problem is you listened to someone that knows nothing about how car stereos work and I sorry you didn't know the engine did not need to be running. :th_coolio:.



Having the radio on for re-activation wasn't really the big issue I had...rather the fact that the problem required 3 phone calls and 2 hours of my wasted time when it could have been taken care of instantly with a hard reset on their end on the first phone call. Also the service rep clearly told me that the radio had to be on for 15-20 mins. I know you can run your radio with just the accessories on but in every other vehicle I have owned that option shuts off after 10 mins. to prevent battery rundown. Here is what I found in the manual....

*Retained Accessory
Power (RAP)
*These vehicle accessories may be
used for up to 10 minutes after the
engine is turned off:
[FONT=PI_chars_1][FONT=PI_chars_1]. 
[/FONT][/FONT]Audio System
[FONT=PI_chars_1][FONT=PI_chars_1]. 
[/FONT][/FONT]Power Windows
[FONT=PI_chars_1][FONT=PI_chars_1]. 
[/FONT][/FONT]Sunroof
The power windows and sunroof will
continue to work for up to
10 minutes or until any door is
opened. The radio will work when
the key is in ON/RUN or ACC/
ACCESSORY. Once the key is
turned from ON/RUN to LOCK/OFF,
the radio will continue to work for
10 minutes, or until the driver door is
opened or the key is removed from
the ignition.


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## Dpedraza (Oct 24, 2011)

I'll keep my xm for my fiancee.. I use my Ipod/iphone 99.8% of the time


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## GoldenRS (Nov 11, 2010)

I've had XM now going on 8yrs. and having 3 car units & 1 house unit. Lately the customer service is less than to be desired with the outsourcing changes. But if your lucky, you can hooked up with the Nebraska call center and actually understand them. But the music variety does win out in my book over the local stations. I've had no fade out of the signal even when I went up to Grand Marais in northern Minnesota.


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## SeanM402 (Aug 8, 2011)

I kept it after my trial ended. I travel for my job (on average the closest the job site gets to home is 3-5 hrs) and it is nice not having to consistently search for a station I like. Plus some of the job sites are out in the middle of nowhere and the only stations you seem to get are country or christian (neither of which I am a fan of). I waited for my trial to end and for them to offer me a discount to come back. Within a week they offered me 50% off for a year. I believe with taxes and such it was around $90 for the year.


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## jlalill (Nov 1, 2010)

and soon we'll have running water in Canada too...government is holding it up..something to do with the Queen back at the motherland...

seriously though...above was sarcasm...XM and Sirius in Canada are still run separately...and deals can be had..if you keep asking..they don't want to lose subsribers....



Patman said:


> I didn't know XM was available in Canada. Every time I looked at the service it only mentioned the 48 continental states and not Mexico either. I don't know how they could stop it by area but...... I have a lifetime subscription to XM cost me a whopping $400. In Cincinnati, all I hear on the crappy stations we have(none have music I like anymore) is commercials. They are sort of like MTV. If you remember they used to play music on MTV now it is all commercials and some programming. I have satellite(bought it before buying my Cruze). I have been happy with it. I have never had any of the problems you are siting even with my XM receivers in my old car. I think one time it had to be reset but that just required the XM unit being on. FYI there is no difference between having the key in run mode without the engine running and having the key in the on position. for what that is worth the stereo just had to be on(which you do not even need the key). The problem is you listened to someone that knows nothing about how car stereos work and I sorry you didn't know the engine did not need to be running. :th_coolio:
> 
> 
> FYI I went directly to the XM website to find the lifetime subscription after they offered me a renewal on my previous 3 year subscription. I don't believe they offer the lifetime subscription any more.


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