XM Radio Bill..........YIKES!

[TheAxeman]

I just got a call from my CC company asking me if it was OK to put through a $606.51 charge from a "satellite provider". After calling XM I found out the charges were as follows on a 3 year contract:

Radio- $401.45

XM Nav Traffic- $143.64

"Royalty Fee"- $61.42

What ever happened to $9.95/month? :angry: And since when is there a "royalty fee"?

It's one thing to stick the umbrella up the consumers ass but they don't have to open it!

Of course since I can't live without it I guess I'll just bend over. :blink:

 

[Go Far]

Wasn't there some talk about 'monopoly' before the merger?

:angry2:

I just got a call from my CC company asking me if it was OK to put through a $606.51 charge from a "satellite provider". After calling XM I found out the charges were as follows on a 3 year contract:
Radio- $401.45

XM Nav Traffic- $143.64

"Royalty Fee"- $61.42

What ever happened to $9.95/month? :angry: And since when is there a "royalty fee"?

It's one thing to stick the umbrella up the consumers ass but they don't have to open it!

Of course since I can't live without it I guess I'll just bend over. :blink:

 

[BwanaDik]

The "royality fee" was discussed a few weeks ago, basically pissed everybody off but no choice. You're up to $11.14/month and that doesn't count the royality fee. Odd, seems pretty high, I'll have to look at ours.

And I don't like the new jabbering idiots they have on the rock stations, if I wanted to listen to idiots, I'd turn on Talk Radio :lol:

Of course you could always subscribe to Muzak.....

Can we complain to the FCC? (like it would make a difference?)

 

[FJRBluesman]

We have XM in the car, too pricey. I only get it again when they give me a killer deal like the last one, $20 for 5 mos.

 

[jzzmusician]

Don't even get me started on "royalty fees." I have to pay almost $1500 PER YEAR just to play music at my restaurant.

 

[SLK50]

I've let my XM service lapse since I discovered shoutcast.com.

34,000 stations ( Yes, that's THOUSANDS ) and it's all free.

Figure out a way to stream audio to a portable device and you can take it with you.

 

[BwanaDik]

Phew! Get in line (73 pages!) :angry2:

XM

 

[exskibum]

Wouldn't solve the royalty issue at commercial establishments, but it's this kind of thing that is the reason I have an iPod for riding and other personal music purposes. I think I've only bought one song that's on it, but then, I have a LOT of CDs, and it was pretty simple to burn them to the iPod. It lacks the ability to listen to new stuff, but I have that elsewhere, and can always buy what I want of that. With these XM prices, that's becoming a better and better deal.

 

[twistedcricket]

Wouldn't solve the royalty issue at commercial establishments, but it's this kind of thing that is the reason I have an iPod for riding and other personal music purposes. I think I've only bought one song that's on it, but then, I have a LOT of CDs, and it was pretty simple to burn them to the iPod. It lacks the ability to listen to new stuff, but I have that elsewhere, and can always buy what I want of that. With these XM prices, that's becoming a better and better deal.

+1

Amazon's music downloads can be cheaper. Refurbed 16mb mp3/fm tuner/movie player for $80, and mp3 downloads...it'll take ma a loooong time to equal $600 for xm

 

[tmc]

I wonder if you could buy a cell signal booster, stuff it on the bike somewhere, and use streaming services like Last.FM, Pandora, or even Iheartradio for "free" (of course you have to pay for an unlimited data plan too, but I have one anyhow so I didn't count it).

 

[Larry33319]

I just switched out a bad XM radio to transfer service to another radio I had. The person from XM offered me a "Lifetime" membership for 500 bucks. The only problem is it only allows service to be transferred 3 times to other radios. It seems my Roady 2 will last about 11/2 years before it dies from vibration on the bike.

 

[jmdaniel]

They just tried to do the same thing to me, when my 5 year sub on the Tahoe/Corvette ran out. Cancelled! The wifie gave me an XM SkyDock for Christmas, so I pay a sub for that, and it rides in whatever car I am in. Can only drive one at a time, so don't need multiple subs. The Feejer has the Zumo 550, and the SD cards works just fine on that.

 

[GalaxyBlue]

I have the lifetime subscription on my gxm30. It works on the 2730 on the bike and the Kenwood 8120 in the Jeep.

 

[wfooshee]

I live fine without it. Never had it, probably never will.

 

[RsvlFeej]

Had XM for about 1 1/2 years. Got too spendy so I went the IPOD route. XM people are JERKS when you cancel their service, so even if the IPOD hadn't worked out, I wasn't going back.

 

[airboss]

Dumped XM

Replaced it with this.

Monthly subscription + royalty fees buys a lot of Cd's

 

[rickcorwn]

I called back in December and asked to suspend my service for 6 months, they have a plan for that. My billing will restart in June automatically. Unfortunately for XM my service is still active :blink: I guess I'm getting a discount. I like the XM service in the summer when I'm traveling a lot. I listen to more of the talk and entertainment channels rather than just the music so the ipod /mps player route doesn't do the trick for me I've also got the weather service.

 

[Bounce]

I just switched out a bad XM radio to transfer service to another radio I had. The person from XM offered me a "Lifetime" membership for 500 bucks. The only problem is it only allows service to be transferred 3 times to other radios. It seems my Roady 2 will last about 11/2 years before it dies from vibration on the bike.

i got that deal for my Sirius back in about 2004. it's 4 xfers for me and anything done under warranty doesn't count against the total. it DOES make you think about the application and method of installation if it's a harsh environment.

all i know is i had one receiver die, got it replaced under warranty (keeping my 4 xfers = 5 receivers) and then in 2008 (after all that time with the receiver in the boom box, in the car kit, and in the bike's tank bag[1]) xfered the account to the Sirius receiver I had added to my new car. -1 so down to 4 more receivers. That works out to 1 xfer every 4 years or 20+ years worth of service depending on the life of the receiver/vehicle.

No royalty fees either. It's all covered.

[1] Note how it's not hard mounted or exposed so weather and vibration and lessened... i place my wind/face shield cleaning rag under it as a pad. Do you lose the convenience of changing stations while riding? Sure! But money's involved and you should be watching the road anyway.[2]

[2] Nyaaaaaa [3]

[3] And get off my lawn while you're at it, ya whipper snappers!

 

[CAJW]

I'd better hurry up and list my Garmin XM Sat radio "hockey puck" antenna for sale before too many people get wind of these new prices. Looks like I may have a paperweight with a cord on my hands.