For the second month in a row, XM has billed me for my XM Radio and NavTraffic on my 3-month old '06 RL.

Last month, I argued with them until I couldn't stand it anymore, then called my dealer and turned it over to them. They called their XM regional contact and I was told to disregard the bill.

Then today I get two bills from XM - one for $13.50 (?) that is decribed as "past due" (grrrrr ...) but doesn't say what it's for, and one for $15.65 for the RL's radio and traffic. So I called XM and spent another 30 minutes of my life explaining that '06 RL's get a year of included service, and that their bills are wrong. Their reps seem to be totally clueless as to what's going on and what they are billing people for.

I finally succeeded - by sheer force of anger and will - in convincing the rep I should be credited for these amounts and not billed again for a good 9 months. She assured me the account is marked that service is prepaid for the rest of the 12-month period, and that I shouldn't get another bill. But that's also what they told me last time.

All I can say is WTF is wrong with them?
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I'm with you.

I have yearly subscriptions setup, yet my last credit card bill contained a charge from XM for around $35. Of course there is no explanation of the charge from XM. This is not the first time this has happened.

For those of you who are subscribed to XM, please monitor your credit card statements carefully for charges applied by XM.

For anyone from XM who might be reading this, if you make charges to your customer accounts it would be very wise to inform them by email of what the charges are for, of list them on our online account page.

Pete

 

Good point Pete with the credit card, but i ask and only pay XM via check. Went thru the same debacle that you and Mike went thru - very dissapointing and Acura should apply some pressure.

 

Mike,

I also had problems with XM. The last young lady I spoke to was completely clueless. It seemed like I was speaking with a child who had not been trained. Anyway, the easy solution was to insist on speaking with a supervisor. She almost refused to transfer me until I reminded her I had her name and would just call back again. Supervisor came on the line and the issue was resolved in 2 minutes.

So, when the XM call answerer seems clueless, best to just ask for a supervisor and keep the blood pressure normal.

BTW, part of XMs problem is they contract out their call centers. For example, I have called late at night and been told it would be better if I called back in the morning when the "regular" XM people are in. When I asked what that meant, he told me he worked for an XM contractor.

Bob

 

Thanks, Bob. If I have any more 'trouble' with them, though, I'll probably just call my friendly dealer. They have an XM guy who represents the dealer community and seems to be able to make things happen. (Of course, he didn't score 1000 on this last issue ... )
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Hmmm...I think I *may* be getting a bit of a deal from XM.

First off, I already have a Roady2 and pre-paid for three years of service. So when the XM subscription runs out on my RL, I'll just add it as a second radio. Much cheaper.

Not only that, but I bought my car with 5,000 miles on it from the dealer. They said it would have the balance of the 1 year for free...about three months of service before it ran out. I've had the car for a month, now, and just got the "welcome" letter from XM saying that I get to "enjoy all that XM has to offer for the next 12 months." I'm not counting on it, but I think I may have gotten more than I bargained for.

 

XM is well known for having horrible customer service. I tried cancelling my service when I bought a new Acura, it took me 3 months to get them to stop billing me. In fact, they charged me for 3 more years!

 

I have to say that I am very happy that my new RL came with XM. I listen to it most of the time. The selection of music, news, weather, traffic, etc. with minimal commerials is great. I called XM to verify that I have 12 months of free service; we'll see if they try to bill me before that. If they do, I'll deal with it when it happens. Until then, I'm enjoying the XM service immensely.

 

I've had a heck of a few days with XM traffic. For the past few days, there has been the "No Traffic Reports Within 30 Miles" message. Then, the traffic Icon went away. Then, the traffic icon came back, but still no traffic reports. Just this morning, it seemed to start working again normally.

I enjoy listening to Bob and Ray on Sonic Theater on my way to work.

Rob

 

I've decided that's "normal" (the disappearing icon thing, not Bob and Ray ). Mine comes and goes occasionally, too, and I've decided it's because of satellite signal aberrations.
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Just pray you never have to deal with customer service. Once you wade through their prompts, you have a good chance of being disconnected. And if you have a billing problem, get ready for months of problems.

I haven't received traffic in Boston for 5 months, nobody knows why.

 

Again I am slugging it out in morning rush hour traffic and finding many of the XM Traffic reportse inaccurate. Many times I drive past an accident icon and there is nothing there. I am not sure XM Traffic is worth the cost after the free year is up, especially since I can only go one way to work, regardless of traffic problems.

Bob

 

I'm with you, Bob. One of the issues from the start was that info would be stale by the time it got reported to XM, verified (either with police agencies, from traffic cams, or through independent traffic reporters), entered into the system, uploaded to the satellite and beamed out to the masses. Frankly, I find the same thing with XM radio traffic reports.

In some parts of Europe (part of the ringroad outside of London, for example), they have embedded sensors in the roadway that measure traffic speed and display it realtime in control centers. In that kind of setup, info can get to the system much quicker and more accurately. We haven't quite gotten there yet.

And, BTW, with XM and Sirius' financial troubles, it's doubtful satellite traffic is going to improve in the near future anyway ...
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