XM and the 396

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:17:16 GMT, Maule Driver
wrote:

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Maule Driver wrote:

I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

So it's ready for use when you do decide to use it.


You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone. This isn't a
$10-$12/month subscription, in many cases folks are paying $50 for the
full weather service.

The implication is that when they de-activate your account for non-use,
they stop charging you for it? A wonderful policy if that's the case
but surprising to this observer of corporate policies and practices.

I doubt it.

I suspect it's something similar to the DirecTV system. They send
down authorization packets for (youraccout/deviceid) every
(onceandawhile). The device receives the packet, updates the expire
date, is happy, and keeps working. If you don't use it in
(morethanonceandawhile) the authorization packet times out and you
have to either ask them to send a packet specifically for your device
to hear, or leave it on for (longenoughtogetanewpacket). They don't
stop charging you for the service because you decide not to use it (or
in the case of DirecTV, have the receiver unplugged) for a month.
Perhaps there is a 'seasonal suspend' feature they have available,
but I have no knowledge of that.

In article ,
Maule Driver wrote:
You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone. This isn't a
$10-$12/month subscription, in many cases folks are paying $50 for the
full weather service.

The implication is that when they de-activate your account for non-use,
they stop charging you for it? A wonderful policy if that's the case
but surprising to this observer of corporate policies and practices.


I don't know, but my point was that if you're not going to use it for an
extended period of time, why wouldn't you call and de-activate it so
that they stop billing you?



JKG

A refund w/b nice but they're #1 and they know it. Customer service not
required.

I had major startup issues when getting my system up & running right after
they offered it. I "strongly" requested a credit for the time I was unable
to use the system b/c they had refresh issues (the toll free operator person
thought I had a 'radio'. He didn't know about the 'aviator' customer.)
When we finally got it all straightened out, they said they would consider
it. I never heard from them. A follow-up letter from me brought a canned
"we decline to issue the credit. Have a nice day."

They are starting out like Garmin is now.

--

Thx, {|;-)

Victor J. (Jim) Osborne, Jr.

"Maule Driver" wrote in message
om...
Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
Maule Driver wrote:

I'm not sure about the "inactivity timer," but why would you want to
continue to pay if you're not using it?

So it's ready for use when you do decide to use it.


You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone. This isn't a
$10-$12/month subscription, in many cases folks are paying $50 for the
full weather service.

The implication is that when they de-activate your account for non-use,
they stop charging you for it? A wonderful policy if that's the case but
surprising to this observer of corporate policies and practices.

You can call XM and have it re-activated over the phone.

What if you're not near a phone when you discover that you need it and
it's not there? Or if "due to unusual call volume, there will be a
slight delay before our highly trained service representatives can get
to your call."?
--
Nothing takes longer than a shortcut.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

In article ,
Jose wrote:
What if you're not near a phone when you discover that you need it and
it's not there? Or if "due to unusual call volume, there will be a
slight delay before our highly trained service representatives can get
to your call."?

Honestly, when is this ever going to be the case? The reasonable
assumption is that if you're going to go flying, you call and activate
it. If you know you aren't going to be flying for an extended period of
time (months), you deactivate it.

I believe that XM charges a $75 activation fee if you deactivate and
then re-activate, so you would have to determine your break-even point
based on the plan to which you subscribe.


JKG