Ugh, time to renegotiate Sirius XM radio

[wdw4rfam]

I let my one year trial lapse and they offered me $29 for 6 months. I ignored it and just got an offer for $20 for 5 months. I don't really need it because I just hook my iphone up to my radio with he av cord and listen to pandora. But for $20 I just might do it for our upcoming drive to Disney in November. It's nice not to have to look for new stations every couple hours on the regular radio, and I don't want to burn up my phone battery for that 16 hour drive.

 

[supersnoop]

Do you have to call, or can you get this online? DH has this, but we are paying full price, and I am sure he won't call.

You have to call. I think five minutes in the phone is a pretty good trade off when you'll save over $100.

 

[msb578]

just did this today-got the all access package for $10 per month/12 months, and the travel link for $11.94 for the entire year (so basically $1.00 per month). asked for cancelation department from the get-go, and after getting transferred twice negotiated it down to this. much better than the $21.00 per month they quoted on my renewal paperwork.

I purposely had them bill me and sent a check last year so they wouldn't have a credit card on file to renew with.

I got something similar to that. I do prefer All-Access because of the extra sports channels.

 

[hsmamato2]

what is left on sirius to pay for? right now we have another 'free 2 week trial' going but the stations they let us hear are so dull that it doesn't make me want to pay anything for them to come back.....I want to know if its worth bothering with at all anymore?

 

[Jimsig]

... Is there any advantage to Sirrius over just bluetoothing pandora or something from my cell? That would be free. We really only listen to radio disney anyway.

If you don't have unlimited data, streaming will use up a lot of it so you may have to monitor your data usage.

 

[msb578]

what is left on sirius to pay for? right now we have another 'free 2 week trial' going but the stations they let us hear are so dull that it doesn't make me want to pay anything for them to come back.....I want to know if its worth bothering with at all anymore?

For me it's all the live sports, and a couple music channels that play stuff I don't hear anywhere else.

 

[bcwife76]

I just got this in my new car. I got a notice in the mail saying my free trial is ending. Is there any advantage to Sirrius over just bluetoothing pandora or something from my cell? That would be free. We really only listen to radio disney anyway.

We got a free trial when we purchased our most recent car as well. When the free trial was up we didn't sign up and of course they kept calling us. Finally I told them we have blue tooth, music is loaded onto our phones and my husband loads podcasts onto his phones so we have no use for Sirius. They stopped calling

 

[DianeV]

It has to be done over the phone

 

[bdcp]

DH is on the phone right now with them They wanted to renew us this year for $342 for two cars. Of course, the few stations we listen to are not part of the base package. I've had XM for 8 years and the cost has done nothing but go up. With my current vehicle, 2014 Toyota Highlander, I have other options-Pandora, IHeart, etc so for music I get what I want from Pandora, but occasionally like to switch to Sirius/XM. We originally thought that it would be great for when we're on the road, but we don't drive that far very often. We live in the DC area so we have lots of radio options, but like a few of the options on Sirius/XM. They came back with $174 for both vehicles. That's their "introductory" rate so we get to do this all over again next year, sigh.

And, my biggest issue, is that they advertise so they're making lots of money on selling airtime. When we first started using them, advertising was much more limited.

 

[travelbug]

OP here. Thanks for all the replies! My renewal bill was $624 for 3 years. No thank you! So I called, said I wanted to cancel because it was too expensive, did a little back-and-forth, and wound up with $94 for one year.

They count on people to not question the cost, or to not think it might be negotiable. I wonder how many people pay full price because they have no idea it's negotiable. What's strange is that those who do negotiate wind up with final prices all over the place for a variety of lengths of time.

Oh well, I'm done for another year.

 

[DebbieB]

I "played the game" yesterday, my renewal date was today. I've had 5 months for $25 for some time (plus tax). Every time it comes up, I tell them I will not pay more than that. So yesterday I called and asked what my renewal rate was. They said $14.99 a month for 3 months, total $44.97. I said are there any specials? They said no. So I said I want to cancel. So they transfer me to customer care. I told the next person I want to cancel because the rate is too high, I'm not paying more than $5 a month. She made it easy this time - she said Ok I can continue your 5 months for $25. OK, great, I'll take that. I have a reminder for 10/22 setup in my Outlook to call again.

Usually they start with an annual rate of around $89, I say no. Then $6.99 a month, I say no. Then finally they come down to the $5 a month. This time was easy, maybe they have it marked in my records I will keep saying no! I'm not afraid they will call my bluff because I will cancel it. $5 is about all it is worth to me, I rarely listen to it, just if I'm bored and start channel surfing sitting in traffic. Lately I have been listened to music on my I-Phone that I Bluetooth through the speakers.

 

[AP1209]

I've been on the 5 for 25 plan for a couple of cycles. Called to "cancel" unless I could keep the same rate. For some reason my renewal person was a hard head and wouldnt budge so I cancelled. About a month later I get a letter in the mail offering 5 for 25 so I called and got it. I simply wont pay more than 5 bucks a month. I can live without it if I have to.

 

[mieuxmew]

just did this today-got the all access package for $10 per month/12 months, and the travel link for $11.94 for the entire year (so basically $1.00 per month). asked for cancelation department from the get-go, and after getting transferred twice negotiated it down to this. much better than the $21.00 per month they quoted on my renewal paperwork.

I purposely had them bill me and sent a check last year so they wouldn't have a credit card on file to renew with.

I got something similar to that. I do prefer All-Access because of the extra sports channels.

I just did this last week. I called and renewed the all access package (was $140+ with taxes etc). Only my car has a Sirius XM radio. My husband's SUV does not. The all-access package includes iPhone/computer play. We use the SUV when we travel, so I like to plug in my iPhone and play the Sirius radio (can also do in a rental car w/ USB). I still have a grandfathered Verizon Unlimited data plan. I have Verizon Fios and now with the app can watch TV on my phone 6 plus!! Traveling this summer with the kids will be much less painful.

 

[DVC-Don]

I just called last week. We have 2 cars and I was able to get a total of $55.62 for both cars for 6 months (with tax etc) last time so I told the girl straight out I would be canceling unless I could get the same price and surprise she agreed. I was shocked it didn't take much effort this time. I am sure next time may not go so well

I got this same deal this past February. I've got my calendar noted to call a couple of days before it expires in August. I also have them bill me and pay via check. Never, ever give them your credit card as they'll bill rack rate on renewal without notifying you.

 

[angierae]

I finally gave up. My new car has a USB port and I loaded up a USB stick with music and I don't bother anymore. Constantly negotiating for a rate I was willing to pay stopped being worth it.

 

[superlarz]

Ive been doing $30/6 mo or $25/5 mo for 5 years now. Only one time that I called to cancel they actually let me cancel without making the offer. If I go through with the cancellation I usually get emailed once a month asking me to sign back up at the promotional rate. The email will have a promo code you can call and tell them to avoid the conversation if you want. Regardless, if you just call to cancel, they will almost always offer some sort of deal for $5/mo if you hold out long enough.

 

[5kidsmommy]

We cancelled ours 6 months ago after 3 years of service. They refused to lower it at all. We had two cars and paid extra for internet, they wouldn't come down from the advertised price, we tried for over a month. So they lost our business, it's just too much for us, I miss it but I won't pay the standard rate. This is why we don't have cable anymore, they wouldn't negotiate with us either. It's been three years since we've had cable and I don't miss it.

 

[ilovefh]

What a timely thread! Our renewal is coming up. We'll definitely try this!

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We ultimately cancelled Sirius XM because I was so tired of negotiating them down. Yeah you finally get the price down but they wear you out before they concede. Just not worth the hassle.

 

[bdcp]

DH told them yesterday when he called that if they keep this up, they're going to go out of business because we can easily use Pandora. I'm betting we don't renew next year.