SIRIUSXM: Still Lazy After All These Years (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

I've had my current car five years now (will be paid off next month!!! ). I had my first exposure to Sirius XM with the free three-month introductory trial and renewed the service each year up until about a month ago.

I had been calling each year at renewal time with threats to end service only to get a much better annual offer.

But this time I decided I didn't need it any more as my reasons for wanting the service weren't as important to me any more.

But I thought I would probably get some really good "please come back" offers. But that hasn't been the case. In fact, I just got my first such offer in the mail the other day. And this is it. Rather underwhelming, I think.

If it was $60/year, I might consider it. But having to go through the service-canceling process in just six months doesn't interest me. I'm currently working on migrating my own personal music collection into my car anyway. So I figure I likely don't need the service any more. We'll see.

 

[B-ROLL]

I've had my current car five years now (will be paid off next month!!! ). I had my first exposure to Sirius XM with the free three-month introductory trial and renewed the service each year up until about a month ago.

I had been calling each year at renewal time with threats to end service only to get a much better annual offer.

But this time I decided I didn't need it any more as my reasons for wanting the service weren't as important to me any more.

But I thought I would probably get some really good "please come back" offers. But that hasn't been the case. In fact, I just got my first such offer in the mail the other day. And this is it. Rather underwhelming, I think.

If it was $60/year, I might consider it. But having to go through the service-canceling process in just six months doesn't interest me. I'm currently working on migrating my own personal music collection into my car anyway. So I figure I likely don't need the service any more. We'll see.

I think i received a similar offer and checking the longer fine print it's only for the once car and you have to pay extra for another SIRIUS device (like my receiver). They screwed up the 90 free period I can't count on them to actually do what they say they'll do so

 

[David Norman]

Just cancelled my latest round of XMSirius -- last 3-4 years I had the $60/year rate pretty much all the time (+Fees).

After I retired 5 years ago I pulled my 2004 Pioneer Portable Car/Home unit out of the closet just to play with it for the first time since 2010 or so. Played through an old Yamaha and Paragdigm speakers it even sounded decent enough for teh handful of stations I listened to. I bought it originally for a 3000 + mile car trip vacation through OH, Chicago, MO, AR, TN, GA and it served it's purpose. It still works great except the built in battery is pretty much good for 15 minutes now.

Sitting at the computer, wanted something a bit more varied than my Music or std radio, so it seemed pretty good. Got a Free EchoDot a few months ago and it seems to serve about the same purpose with a bit better sound overall

Anyway go around to cancelling again and this seemed a bit easier than the CSR 3rd Degree Hard sell I've gone through before. 1st 2 phone calls I got a rep who said SMSirius' computers were down and they had no access to accounts and please call back in an hour -- all of course after going through the 3-5 minute automated confirm your phone number, zip code, house number, what you're called about before getting to a live person who apologizes several times. Actually should have known since the online website kept giving me error messages on multiple of the help pages and FAQs.

Tried again a few hrs late when they seemed to be up -- somewhere in the chain they asked if I wanted to bypass the long queue and do a Text Communications. Figured it might be better than 30-45 min on hold so I changed from teh home phone to cell. Got back into the system -- still had to go through the initiation, but started chat, confirmed name/account, bumped me to stage 2 where I filled out a bit more detailed information (acct, phone, address, full name, email address), and stage 3 finally to a live person (all within 7-8 minutes). Asked to cancel, he gave it one try with the "special rate $4.99/month for a year" if I stayed, I declined and after a couple simple question I was done.

If I hadn't have gone through all the other stuff from 2-4pm and the 1st aborted call it probably would have been pretty nice, but the preliminaries still soured the whole process. Overall I think the text thing would remove 80% of the past hassles with cancelling though. Maybe next time.

 

[Malcolm R]

They seem to think the ability to listen on your phone, online, and at home is a major selling point/attraction. I have no interest in anything outside the vehicle. I think mine runs through September. Will have to decide then what I want to do. I do enjoy it in the car, as this new car seems to have the worst local radio reception of any car I've ever owned (perhaps intentional so you'll subscribe to Sirius).

 

[Jeffrey D]

They seem to think the ability to listen on your phone, online, and at home is a major selling point/attraction. I have no interest in anything outside the vehicle. I think mine runs through September. Will have to decide then what I want to do. I do enjoy it in the car, as this new car seems to have the worst local radio reception of any car I've ever owned (perhaps intentional so you'll subscribe to Sirius).

I know nothing about streaming, but I was able to figure out how to run a program from the app into my home theater by way of Bluetooth. That came in handy when I wanted to listen to a specific program while I was at the house.

 

[TonyD]

Seems like I pop in here every 5 months or so to say they sent me another decent free for several months offer.
This time it’s 4 months free with credit card attached.
Just have to sign up for a SiriusXM Essentials package and remember to cancel.

 

[Jeffrey D]

A heads up for any Metallica fans here- Liquid Metal (channel 40) is playing all of their stuff for the next couple of weeks.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I just tried to find out which Sirius channel the Bengals game is on by going to SiriusXM.com
Used to be easy to find out the channel that your team was on- go to a Sirius or XM icon, and click which one is applicable. That’s not there anymore, at least not that I’ve seen. The game is listed on the XM type channels (225,226), but my Stratus radio doesn’t access those channels. Dumb that changes are made just for the sake of change.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Speaking of making changes just for the sake of change...

SiriusXM recently did a reorganizing of their channels. 50s on 5 and 60s on 6 are now up in the 70 channel range. That was kind of stupid. However, they are moving their more popular "teeny-bopper" channels to the lower end of the range so they are easier to find.

 

[Bryan^H]

Curious as to what is on you peoples "go to" preset stations:

My top 5 are:

5 Spa

4 1st Wave

3 Escape

2 Willie's Road House

1 70's

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Curious as to what is on you peoples "go to" preset stations:

My top 5 are:

5 Spa

4 1st Wave

3 Escape

2 Willie's Road House

1 70's

Howard Stern
70s
90s
Mosaic
The Pulse
The Beatles

But really, the music channels are just bad with the same 200 songs on each that haven’t been updated in what seems like over a decade.

And fidelity quality is just crap when played on a good car stereo system. It’s not designed for concert hall audio with their limited bandwidth that keeps getting further squeezed by the addition of more channels.

If not for Howard Stern I would get rid of the service and just use Apple Music.

 

[Bryan^H]

I read an article quite a while ago on why they have such familiar songs all the time. And Sirius could expand their list...if they wanted to. Apparently there is a 300 basic songs vocabulary (across most mainstream types of music) that people identify with. Take away that familiarity and people tend to tune out of the station. So this constant repeat is apparently a self service measure to ensure Sirius keeps subscribers and not lose them.

I'm pretty torn about it to be honest. In my heart of hearts would I rather listen to a B side rarely heard song from the Police on the 80's station, or one of their top hits that is enjoyable, and familiar (Every Breath you Take, Wrapped Around you Finger etc.)?

At any rate it is a dammned if you do/ don't approach.

Anyway the bulk of the stations I listen to don't have that issue, as they are not "mainstream" enough. They seldom play the same songs, twice a day, or week for that matter.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Hooray! Found the Bengals call

 

[TravisR]

My go to channels are:

Howard Stern
Little Steven's Underground Garage
The Beatles channel
Soul Town
First Wave

and then I'll just start skipping around to find something.

 

[Jeffrey D]

My go to channels

The Bridge (light pop/rock from the late 60s through the early 80s)
80s on 8
Hair Nation

 

[RBailey]

I read an article quite a while ago on why they have such familiar songs all the time. And Sirius could expand their list...if they wanted to. Apparently there is a 300 basic songs vocabulary (across most mainstream types of music) that people identify with. Take away that familiarity and people tend to tune out of the station. So this constant repeat is apparently a self service measure to ensure Sirius keeps subscribers and not lose them.

I'm pretty torn about it to be honest. In my heart of hearts would I rather listen to a B side rarely heard song from the Police on the 80's station, or one of their top hits that is enjoyable, and familiar (Every Breath you Take, Wrapped Around you Finger etc.)?

At any rate it is a dammned if you do/ don't approach.

Anyway the bulk of the stations I listen to don't have that issue, as they are not "mainstream" enough. They seldom play the same songs, twice a day, or week for that matter.

The "60's on 6" music channel was recently moved from channel 6 up to Channel 73 and the programmers have added a lot of music never played on the channel. And...guess what? Now Facebook fans of the channel are going crazy because of the new music changes. After years of complaints about "hearing the same songs over and over again", there are now cries of "there's too many songs I've never heard of".
I am loving it! Recently, they've played songs like "The Hucklebuck" by Chubby Checker and one-hit wonder songs like The Balloon Farm's psych-classic "A Question of Temperature" along with many others.

But Bryan above is correct! Damned if you do/Damned if you don't>

Also, My favorite channel above all the others is still Little Steven's Underground on Channel 21. A daily dose of rock and roll education.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Yes this issue of repetition on the radio is an interesting one. I like deep album tracks from my favorite artists, but I also like the comfort food of hearing familiar stuff.

 

[TravisR]

Also, My favorite channel above all the others is still Little Steven's Underground on Channel 21. A daily dose of rock and roll education.

Obviously, I listen because I love the type of music they play on the Underground Garage but the channel's scope is just great too. You can hear something cool from 1955 all the way to 2022.

 

[benbess]

Clearly I need to listen to channel 21. I did once, but for some reason it dropped off of my radar.

In my car I get to pick 12 resets, which I adjust every once in a while. Currently here's what I've got....

5 The Pulse
6 Coffee House
15 Mosaic
27 Deep Tracks
35 XMU
36 Alternative
49 Soul Town
59 Willie's Roadhouse
67 Real Jazz
70 Siriusly Sinatra
76 Symphony Hall
77 On Broadway

I still very much miss Cinemagic from when it was a real channel. For about a decade it's been a zombie channel, but it used to have interviews with the composers of movie scores, directors, etc. Sigh.

I also sometimes listen to the decades channels, 1st wave 33, BB King's Bluesville, etc.

 

[Bryan^H]

My second tier of presets in my car has

6 Greatful Dead

7. Phish

8. Liquid Metal

9. Symphony Hall

10. Ozzy's Boneyard