Question about XM radio
 

So I have the touring model with the sport package. When I first purchased the car I had a 3 month trial for xm radio, and with that I got traffic updates on my Navi. After the trial period was over I realized how useful the traffic updates were.

Anyways recently they had a promotion for the Xm radio. It was something around 25 dollars for 5 months. So I went ahead and purchased it. Being a heavymetal fan the radio is cool, but I get no traffic updates. Im a little disappointed by that. Does anyone know if I can somehow haggle these guys into giving me the traffic or if anyone knows of a good deal or a hack or anything. I WANT MY TRAFFIC!!!!

XM Nav Traffic and XM Nav Weather are add on subscriptions. I don't know of any promotions for those. I would call them up and haggle with them over adding Traffic to your current subscription. Good luck...

or wait and when you renew after the 5 months tell them you wont renew with out the traffic...

Use a droid phone and enable traffic under maps?

I never used the satellite radio so I never renewed, but I've heard that haggling can get you far with XM folk. I've even heard of people getting lifetime subscriptions for a couple hundred dollars or something.

WOW REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im going to call them up. I appreciate all the help guys!

I cancelled my subscription after they continued to bill me because I bought it for 1 year. then they auto billed for another without me knowing. I never had my radio plugged in and missed an update so it didn't work and I thought it was done. I get a letter in the mail about my bill for a 3rd year. I flipped out. Called them up and got the update and cancelled. (they had to mail me the bill because my provided card # had be canceled). They called me later in the week and offered me $80/year and the salesman told me it would auto-cancel. The next year it auto-updated and billed me again. I bitched and got another $80 year.

I've had XM for 10 years and in all that time I've only gotten a bill a few times. They NEVER send you bill for anything because they want to charge you to receive bills? That is just flat out stupid, but even if you get a bill or look at it online, they don't itemize anything and you just see the total charge, which is also stupid.

I traded my WRX in for the Z back in summer of 09' and called and told them, then didn't see or receive a bill until 8 mos. later to find out my WRX radio was still on. They wouldn't credit me the charges, so they forced me to cancel. I turned it back on a month later when they offered me a 1yr. promo...which is again just stupid because they could've resolved the matter by just crediting me the 8 mos. charge and I would've been still paying full price on 2 other radios. So with that said, it's time for me to cancel again to get another nice promo price for a year.

Just tell them you will cancel if not given the promo price. Call them in your final month.
The last promo price I got was $77 for a year. Traffic and weather are extra.

Indeed .... about 2 month before your subscription ends, call XM at (866) 635-2349 and when their computerized system asks you the reason for your call say CANCEL. If the system asks again, say CANCEL. Doing this will get you to XM's retention department. Tell them you wish to cancel as XM is too expensive and you are using Pandora now. They will offer you a better deal price wise at this point. IF they don't offer the $77 a year or a better offer, tell them you might consider staying with XM if you got the $77 per year offer your friend recently got. With this the XM rep will offer you the $77 per year (actually ends up about $85 because of taxes, etc.) IF you want XM with Nav Traffic and Weather best you will probably be able to get price wise is about $135 a year for all. Also, refuse to give them a charge card number. Tell them to bill you even though this will cost you an additional $2.00.

All of the above are true. The more you haggle, the more willing they are to deal. Especially if you threaten to cancell. Once in a while you will run across someone new, or a bit inflexible; if you happen to run across this, POLITELY ask for the on duty supervisor. He/She will give you the best offer available.

I had a minor issue when renewing, and the person on the phone kept saying, "that is the best price we have." Which I knew was BS as I had done a bunch of research.

2 Min with the supervisor, and I had the $77 a year deal, which I believe cost 83 or so with tax.

Keep an eye on your CC statement if you do choose to give them your CC#, which I did for convenience. I didn't have any problems, but others I know have caught billing mistakes. (Billarf is right, better to call a month or two in advance, as this tends to smooth the process.)