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XM Radio, which plan?

SPOKESMAN

New member
Ok, so I got my hockey puck installed, and now it's time to buy a plan.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that with the Zumo 550, it's mandatory that you subscribe to XM Weather and Traffic. Is this true?

If not, can any of you with experience offer opinions regarding the weather and/or traffic services? Are these handy or not worth the money?

Thanks.
 
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I don't know if there is a different weather/traffic service for the Zumo, but the reg XM only covers that in 25-30 cities, and it's pretty spotty and out of sync with real time traffic. They recently combined Orlando and Tampa coverage into one report. Pretty much no coverage for the 60 miles between the cities (traffic).
I would want more if I were subbing for an additional fee over the radio selections on a GPS unit.
I don't think there is any coverage north of Orlando until you get to Atlanta.
The 'emergency' channel coverage for road opening info was pretty worthless a few years ago during the fires in the I-75/I-10 junction area.
Again, this info is based in regular XM subscription for a Roady.
 
The following has nothing to do with the traffic service, but their customer No Service.

I'm a several year subscriber to XM and I am ticked off at them. My renewal came last month. $273 (I think) renewal for 2 radios. If you did not want to renew you "have to call" them to cancel or they will automatically renew against the credit card you used last time.

I called to tell them that I don't give permission for automatic charges against my accounts to anyone. They immediately said they would cut the renewal charge by 50%. I said I would do that, but I would not authorize any automatic charges for next year. I was told that if I wanted XM I would have to agree to that.

My response was that after about 5 years I would no longer be an XM customer. Then they offered me an even cheaper rate. I said that would be fine. But I would still not authorize an automatic renewal. I was once again told I "Had to agree" to be subscibed to XM. I told them I would happily renew every year when they sent the bill but I would not agree to any automatic renewal.

The final outcome was that in Mid- Feb. my subscription will end. And XM will not get any money out of me just because I do not like their strong arm tactics. Why would a business willingly drive away a paying customer by forcing you to agree to automatic renewal payments?

To anyone whose renewal is coming up, if you want a much lower rate just call them and tell them you want to cancel. If you just let them automaticly renew you will be getting hosed!
 
I have several XM radios including the Zumo 550. I did not have to subscribe to traffic & weather and choose to not subscribe.
 
I had xm radio for a few years, but got to the point where I didn't listen to it
enough to justify the yearly subscription. It was automatically charged to the
credit card every year. Two months before it was to be automatically renewed
I called them and told them to cancel it after the subscription ran out. Two months
later, the credit card was charged for another year, it took me 3 phone calls to
finally get the charge taken off the card. I was also offered a discount to stay
with them but declined. I am still getting offers for 50% off. If you could pick
five channels only for a few dollars a month, I would stay with them, but to be
charged for 120 channels where you never listen to 95% of them just wasn't
worth it to me. I don't know about a factory installed radio that comes with XM,
but with the car kit from XM that is installed separate and played through your
car radio, you cannot tune in a channel and listen to it coast to coast, you have
to find a channel in the area where you are that is not being used and then
program the XM receiver to that channel. When you get to an area that is using
that channel, you must reprogram the XM to another channel not being used in
that area. It was easy to do, but a hassle to have your channel fade out.
 
OK, I'll skip the weather & traffic services. I'd rarely use them, even if they did work well.

I did not see any annual subscription options on the XM website, even though they obviously have them, as indicated in the above posts. I only saw monthly packages.

http://www.xmradio.com/whatisxm/plans-pricing.xmc

I think I'll do the "XM Everything" package and then cancel in a couple of months to see if they'll offer me the 50% off.

Thanks to all that replied.
 
I don't know about a factory installed radio that comes with XM,
but with the car kit from XM that is installed separate and played through your
car radio, you cannot tune in a channel and listen to it coast to coast, you have
to find a channel in the area where you are that is not being used and then
program the XM receiver to that channel. When you get to an area that is using
that channel, you must reprogram the XM to another channel not being used in
that area. It was easy to do, but a hassle to have your channel fade out.

Boy that would be a hassle. My Avalanche is factory, no problems there, the Zumo does double duty, as GPS and handsfree in teh Avalanche when not on the bike. My other units play independently in my office and woodshop. My first unit, which was an add-on in my old car, fed into the audio inputs in the back of my pioneer stereo, so again, no issues like yours.

You are correct though, I tend to listen to about no more than ten stations. And since Sirrus took over, I don't think the music programming is that great.
 
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