Does anyone have any experience with an Onstar/Verizon account in their RL? I was told this was much cheaper than using the Onstar solely "units" which can get expensive. I was wondering if the Onstar functioned great as a speaker phone, etc. My experience is that the Onstar recognizes my voice number dialing much better than the Handsfree link with my Cingular phone link. I would appreciate all info, specifics, and recs. Also, I was told that any Verizon phone would work, not just the ones listed on their site. Is that true?

 

Basically what happens is you add onstar to your verizon family plan. If you already have a family plan then it would cost $10 extra a month to add your onstar device. It is basically like adding a seperate car phone.

The onstar device in your car is the phone itself - you do not need any other phone. The list of phones you are talking about is for use with the HFL - those phones must be bluetooth enabled, but for the onstar device you do not have to have any specific phone.

IMO the onstar/verizon plan is MUCH better than the handsfreelink for multiple reasons including the better voice recognition, better call quality in general. Also, keep in mind, the antenna for the onstar phone is in the sharkfin on the outside of your car which gives you slightly better reception with more battery power to attempt to reach a signal when your actual phone may not be able to do so.

If you want to sign up for this all you have to do is push the blue onstar button and tell the representative that you want to sign up with the verizon calling plan and they will transfer you to the department that will explain everything to you.

 

That is very interesting, I wasn't sure how that worked. But if you add onstar as another device, does that give you another number or does it somehow tie into your existing number/phone?

 

This is VERY interesting!

You mean to tell me for $10 more a month with
Verizonm I can use Onstar to make all my calls
instead of my cell phone?

Now....

That $10 is just for phone calls or does that include
Onstar features as well?

Also, how many minutes do I get? I am presuming
whatever minutes were on my original Verizon plan?

 

It gives you a new phone number. You can, when you get in your car, dial a number using your regular phone and it will forward all calls to your onstar device.

 

Yes

The $10 per month is paid to verizon to add a phone to your family plan. This does not include the onstar features, you would have to maintain an onstar account to keep this running - so it really comes out to be $30 a month for the phone and onstar feaures.

The minutes is whatever is on your original verizon plan.


I suggest anybody interested in this, just push the blue button in the car and ask them about it. They can explain it in more detail.

 

I tried that several times during the year and OnStar representative keep telling me that OnStar-Verizon combo works for GM vehicles only and cannot be done for Acura

 

Yeah they are idiots. I had several representatives tell me that. I tried back several hours later (assuming different employees working then) and they set it up for me. Worked great.

 

Thanks so much for the great information. Let me clarify one more question. So I can sign up for a Verizon family plan and get any one of the coolest phones available and they will assign me a number and then after that I can push my Onstar button and tell them that I want to add Onstar to my Verizon account phone number and they will add it for an extra $10 per month on top of my standard rate? At that point, I can use my Onstar inside my car for all of my cell phone calling needs without bluetooth, etc. Is this right?

 

Yes, you can choose any verizon phone you want with or without bluetooth becaues you will not be using the bluetooth system to speak to people.

The extra $10 per month is ontop of your standard rate - correct - BUT, you must have a family plan - not an individual verizon plan - so make sure you look at the family plans.

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

No problem.

 

I am having the same problem. In my case, the Verizon rep was ready and willing and then when she (conferenced in with me) called OnStar for verification, we were told that Acura and Saab were not eligible. I went through a supervisor as well and he told me the same thing. I'm currently waiting for a callback from the supervisor's manager, but I don't have high hopes because he claims that he and she discussed this exact issue yesterday and there was no room for negotiation. It seems that GM wants to keep this 'in the family' for now, although I'd like to have been one of the lucky ones who got a rep that OK'd it!

 

Crap I shouldn't have cancelled mine to get my discount then. hmm

 

Ok, well, last night I hit the blue button and they gave me no problems iwth activating the verizon plan with onstar. He said "your equipment works with this service" and then transfered me to verizon to set it up

 

Another update - I had to call onstar tech support to get it working - apparently because I had cancelled it to begin with, but then activated the service again a couple nights ago. It took about 5 minutes on hold with the lady and she said it was working. I tested it out after she hung up with me and it works great.

 

Did you buy a separate phone or just a phone line for your Verizon/Onstar account? I am thinking about getting a separate phone for personal calls via Verizon/Onstar and using my old cell for business related calls only (Cingular account I am happy with my Razr V3). I was wondering if they tried to sell you a phone or are they expecting you to already have a Verizon phone number account prior to you calling them to add the Onstar. Would you rec. me to get whatever best deal on a new phone family plan account thru Verizon and add the Onstar later? Just seeking advice.

 

Dr. E - Basically what happens is - you will need to have a verizon account prior to calling in to activate the verizon/onstar device. What will happen is you will have your regular phone which you carry around with you with number (111) 111-1111. The onstar device will be the second phone on the account - you are paying monthly access for a second line - and the number will be (222) 222-2222. The onstar device deos NOT have a contract and you can cancel at anytime. The onstar device is your actual 2nd phone.

If you want a phone for your business calls and a phone for personal calls and the onstar device - you would end up with two phsyical phones and then the onstar device - so you would have THREE phone numbers.

Not sure if that makes sense, but in the end, your onstar device is an actual phone and has its own phoen number

 

That makes perfect sense and sounds like exactly what I want to do. Are you confident enough of the Onstar reps know how to set this up now and won't try to say this isn't possible since this is an Acura and not a GM? Is there any particular person, supervisor, or certain thing to ask/say when calling Onstar so that I don't get the "confusing pass the buck run around" that sounds like several others including yourself have gotten in the past. And thanks so much for your help.

 

I am confident they can set it up. I have it working on my RL. You will probably have to try at several different times to get to a rep who is willing to set it up. I say go for it, the service is amazing with verizon. I love it - and the onstar device makes it htat much better.

 

Sounds great, I definitely will try. Is there a time of day that you found you were most successful, i.e. are the reps in the am 9-5 day shift more knowledgeable than the other later shifts, etc. or did you notice a pattern?

 

Actually, both times I was able to get the job doen with the onstar side of things was later at night... like 8-9 EST

 

Thanks again for your help. It is really appreciated.

 

Anytime

 

what about number portability

can i get an older number of mine on the onstar account

also how does the $ 10 per month become 30

 

I am sure you can get your number ported to the onstar device.

The $10 a month is for the verizon monthly fee. The $20 the monthly fee is for onstar - and you would have to pay onstar after your first 12 month trial is over.

 

I have one downside to the onstar/verizon plan. When you call verizon and have onstar on your line - you go to a special onstar department. These people are complete idiots and incompetent.

 

What do you mean by this message? When would you have to contact verizon and onstar at the same time? At the time of setup?

 

Well, when you setup your verizon with onstar account - verizon has a special department to handle accounts which have the onstar device on the family plan because of special programming requirements.

My problem with the department is that they are stupid. I had gone through 5 of the e815 phones because they kept dropping calls and tech support said they wanted me to try a new phone out (new model) so they sent me the samsung a950 which doesnt work with the HFL. When she did this she offered me either to get ouf of my contract without the termination fee or to be able to change phones again (if the a950 didnt work) so because the a950 didnt work i called and the verizon customer service that works with the onstar device accounts refused to allow me to change the equipment or out of the contract. Needless to say I wasn't happy (but I kept my cool) and explained that I was given this option before hand. The supervisor started YELLING at me. Yes, yelling. She then hungup on me when I said I wanted her supervisor to call me back. (I have her rep ID for reference)

In the end, just now I called VZW back and got a different rep who apologized for the supervisors actions and said he was going to send me a brand new e815 (not a refurbished one) and that should take care of my issues. He also issued me a $10 credit for the hassles (not that I am worried about that). He said he wanted me to get a new e815 because some of the refurbished ones had been having problems (I guess there was a batch of faulty ones).

Either way, by Jan 1 all the verizon reps will be trained to deal with the VZW accounts with onstar devices on them - so we won't have to worry about stupid reps liek I dealt with today.

 

I am sorry you have had such problems. I thought that any Verizon phone would work. Did they explain to you why these phones would not work? Did someone specifically mention Jan 1 to you? If so, I think that I will wait till then. Please let us know if your new phone works. Why are the Verizon folks so incompetent? Could you post the name of the particular rep who was knowledgeable and how to reach him/her if you know?

 

The HFL and Onstar are two different technologies. The samsung phone they sent me did not work with the HFL. It is just a matter of the manufacturer. Some mfgrs don't program the phones correctly to work with the bluetooth/hfl in the car.

Yes, the Jan 1 date was mentioned to me several times by several different employees.

Most of the reps are actually knowledgable. They have always been good - just the couple I dealt with today were stupid. There is no way to reach any particular rep. If you get a stupid one, just call back and you will get a different one.

Either way, the onstar device being setup as a verizon phone works great. Great coverage and voice quality through the onstar device. If you are using the onstar it doesn't matter if you have a bluetooth phone or not (doesn't matter what type of phone you have).