Has anyone sought or received an extension of the one free year to the XM service (also NavTraffic) based upon the XM receiver glitches or other reasons? Probably no one has actually come to the end of the first year but a number of us early adopters will have that first year expire in about a month.

Would the best avenue for pursuing this be through Acura customer relations or directly with XM? It would seem Acura would be the best bet unless anyone has had different experience. Thanks.

PS, I am writing this from the Acura Dealer service area waiting for my XM receiver to be fixed, again. Received the service bulletin update yesterday here at the dealer and today there is no XM or navtraffic service.

 

I would say give it a shot. I would send a certified letter to acura complaining about the issue and the number of times you have had to go in for service and that you believe an extension of the XM is warranted for the amount of time you had the car that the XM did not work properly. Costing them less than 200 dollars I can see them doing this - I know they do one time customer courtesy reimbursements and refunds if the complaint is warranted.

 

You have no XM or traffic is because the dealer did not call in your new radio ID. So
XM thinks it is an unregistered radio. They also have to tell them you get traffic (as most XM customers don't get it).

After the call you'll be up and running. I had a similar issue. My dealer could not get through to them, so rather than wait around I called XM myself, explained what happened, and I was up and running (radio and traffic) in a few minutes.

Mel

 

Actually the dealer may have called in the radio id while the car was off. That's what happened to me; same technical issues at XM when the dealer called while I was at the dealership (which I later ran into when I called XM myself). Dealer told me they would keep trying (and they did). XM experts correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it works kind of like the way the cable company resets your cable box - if the unit isn't on, it doesn't get the signal.

Once I called XM myself (while in the car, love that HFL bluetooth!) the reset was relatively painless and the display update issues had clearly been resolved. Hoorah!

As to the OP's desire to extend his free XM subscription - more power to you and I agree that going through Acura customer relations as a cust. sat. issue is your best bet. Personally - while the delay update was annoying it doesn't come close to being enough of an issue that I would pursue trying to get a free subscription. The XM unit was replaced at no cost to me while I was already at the dealership for scheduled service and the 20-30 seconds of not having the radio display reinforce my knowledge of what song was playing . . . well I'd just feel too petty demanding compensation for that. Like I say, though, that's just me.

 

Karl, I didn't go into all of the details about my XM receivers (plural) history and absence of meaninful and reliable navtraffic service in a market where it was offered as I wasn't so much trying to justify the concept of extending the first free year as exploring whether that had yet been requested by anyone.

After having three of the updates applied yesterday during a service visit, including the XM/Acuralink update and with everything working afterwards yesterday, I found today that there was no XM nor navtraffic/acurlink service at all. That's when I took it back to the dealer. They had activated the receiver okay but had done it via computer rather than calling in and speaking live to an XM customer service person. They told me today that like the dealer's owner and a few others experienced they had found that the day after the computer activation, it was failing and no service received the next day, exactly as I experienced. They have had no troubles when they are able to phone in and talk with someone, and that is what they will be doing going forward.

They spent 45 minutes on hold waiting to register the receiver and told me to go on back to work rather than waiting further. By the time I got back to the office they had left me a message indicating that they were successful and I should now have service. They were right as when I took the RL back out of an underground garage and after about 5 minutes of driving the XM service resumed, even though the car had been off and underground during the dealer's activation work with XM.

Only there was still no navtraffic service so I called the dealer and the service folks forgot to mention that so they called XM asked them to activate the navtraffic again for me. They called me back while still in the RL and said it was taken care of. Sure enough the navtraffic returned in a few minutes.

The dealer was aware that I was on my last month of the free service so they at the end of all of this asked XM when my free service would be expiring and they were advised that a free year commenced today with the activation of the receiver. They told me that it would be good through October, 2006. So we will see if they are right.

The moral to the story is when getting the XM update, ask your dealer to phone it in and talk live to XM rather than doing it by computer and ask them to verify that the one year free service commences on that day when the activation takes place. Hopefully you will get the same answer I received (and hopefully it will hold true).

 

I know XM is $12.99 per year.

How much is it with Nav Traffic per year?

 

Last I heard NavTraffic was $2.95 surcharge (could be higher now??).

 

XM NavTraffic only: $9.99 per month.

XM NavTraffic and XM audio combined: $12.95 audio plus $3.99 NavTraffic = $16.94 per month.

 

Wow thats an expensive option

 

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Sorry, the four year old got ahold of the keyboard. Please delete. Thanks.

 

Which is why I was interested in pursuing an extension of the free service since nearly all of the first year for navtraffic in particular has been a beta test and the acuralink control unit and XM receiver have had some problems that are just now being addressed.

By the way I am a paying XM subscriber with a MyFi unit as well that is used in the house and other vehicles. The XM service is great and worth keeping imho. Once navtraffic is finished with the betatesting I think it is also going to be worth keeping and paying for in the urban markets where the RL drivers spend any amount of time navigating the freeways/expressways.

 

A few months ago there was a discussion about a promotional discount from XM that offered an annual renewal for $60 ($5 per month).

Here's the link with the promo code. It's worth a call to XM if it's time for your renewal.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...hlight=renewal

I'm happy enough with XM (and dissatisfied enough with commercial radio) that I'll pay the $12.95 per month if that's my only option.

YMMY,

Dave

 

I had the same issue. I had to call myself also. Finally got it right!

 

Even though this respond is like 6-7 years later I just contacted XM and Tom them I just purchased a used 2008 Acura RL and I was interested in the Sieus XM radio. They asked what dealer I purchased my vehicle from and gave me a three month free trial.... No credit card needed.