Introduction
I hate Sirius XM. It’s not that I hate it. It’s that I don’t need it just because I think radio is fine. However, I know some people love it, and my wife has it in her Nissan Leaf since she loves untz untz untz music.
Rention offer #1
We’ve never paid full price for XM. I think the car came with 6 months of free XM I think. Before it expired, they kept sending me offers in the mail. I waited it out until we got a really great offer. The offer that finally made me pull the trigger was “5 months for $20.” Then there was a $2.50 music royalty fee, so $22.50 for 5 months = $4.50 a month
Retention offer #2
Here’s the thing that was odd about XM. My first offer was paid with by an AGC. Well that AGC had a balance of $0 when they tried to debit it again when the 5 months were up. Instead of cutting of my service, they decided I should have a negative balance instead. This actually worried me since they could send me to collections since I’m not paying my bill. So keep that in mind when you want to use a virtual number.
Anyhow, a month after my 5 months were up, my wife was missing her untz untz untz, so we finally called them up. They then gave us a different offer which was ‘5 months for $25’ plus the $3.47 royalty fee, so $28.50 for 5 months = $5.70 per month. They then credited me back the $12 I had owed them for that month I didn’t pay, so really I got 6 months of service for $28.50 = $4.75 a month.
Retention offer #3
Again, I waited a month after my subscription expired to call in. Since I gave them a “real” credit card number last time, the bastards decided to charge my card without even sending me an email receipt. They knew not to because if I saw it, I would have cancelled. Now I don’t know if they would have sent it at the end of the month; I was expecting it at the beginning of the month like Netflix.
Anyway, my wife called in again and sure enough, they charged us $12 for that first month. We wanted to cancel, and the rep tried to give us a 12 month retention offer. Since we were turning in the Leaf in 6 months, we didn’t want the year long offer. The rep then gave us a 2nd offer which was the same offer we had last time – 5 months for $25 + $3.47 royalty = $28.50. Apparently I had already paid $32 for who knows how long (maybe 3 months?) So the rep gave me back a credit of $3 to my credit card.
Conclusion
Looking at this Reddit thread, it seems most people get the usual 5 months for $25 offer or an equivalent offer for a year. So don’t pay regular price for Sirius XM!
It is possible to get Sirius XM for free for an extended period, or even lifetime. I discovered by accident that if you subscribe to Sirius and shortly before the subscription runs out, make sure you never put your radio to satellite band. (just listen to FM or canned music). Wait it out for a couple of months. Then if you try the Sirius you will discover it is still on. My Sirius stayed on for several years. Apparently after your subscription ends Sirius sends the shutdown signal at random times for a month or two. When that time is up, they no longer send the shutdown signal, at least not very often. I thought this was unusual, and searched the web and others are reporting the same.
Wow! I didn’t know that. I’ll have to try that next. Thanks.
We play the same game. You should note that this is for the XM Select package. Many people do not want this package because it does not include Stern. At least that has been my experience, you can get a great deal on Select but much harder to get a deal on All Access.
Ah good to know. Thanks.