I Pushed the Blue Button
 

Bear with me. I have to vent.....

So we dropped about 60K on a new GMC Denali Duramax. And we love it.

The sales guy said it was very important to press the onstar button as soon as we could to activate our onstar and whatever.

I figured I had to set up my account anyway, which I couldn't do on the website due to two weeks of site problem and still can't do. So, after two weeks and a few reminders from sales guy, I pushed the button. And got on what was basically a tele-marketing call trying to get me to upgrade plans, buy services, yada, yada, yada...

I understand about paying for services and am OK paying for whatever I need and want. But sheesh. After dropping 60K on a truck, they mean to tell me that I can't use their stolen vehicle locating service and vehicle slow down features unless I have an additional monthly subscription. WTF. I'd have thought that something like that would be a given. Charge extra for navigation services and other 'concierge' type services if they like. That's fine. But some things seem like they should be under the heading of 'already covered' when a vehicle costs this much.

Anyway, I'll end up with some of the services eventually, but this kind or torqued me off!

Phew. I feel better now.

I have Fords, but I had bought a Tahoe a few years ago and thought they gave us a 1 year trial subscription??

You didnt get anything like that? that sux!

I got a used Escalade and I got a free year too. Should be standard operating procedure for the dealership.

Some space junk may have taken out the sattelites now its fund raising time .

You should have 6 months free full services. Wait till the very last minute to "renew" subscription. I got the full directions and connections for the price of basic. 19.95month for it all. When I bought mine they wanted a credit card after pressing blue button but I didn't give it. Just waited and waited and the emails kept coming. Until the price dropped. Then I did it. Get the onstar app you can do lots of cool **** with it and also locate the truck. I like it. They also tried to get me to buy minutes to my trucks phone but that makes zero sense with an unlimited cell. Lol

The ability to locate and disable a stolen vehicle can be activated at any time, without a subscription, a friend of mine had a Cadillac located a week ago without having a subscription. (Older car bought used) Im not sure if they had to pay for the service at that time or not

I have a friend super paranoid about "big brother" watching. He disabled the OnStar somehow.

Had a neighbor get into a pretty serious wreck in an Avalanche. Airbag blew, truck ended up in a ditch and he awoke to OnStar operator talking to him.....for a minute he thought he was dead and angels were talking to him!

Important to activate the basic services! Gives a lot of free features. Yes therey are offering a few upgrade but what product does not offer upgrade?

On another note, you have no idea how much pressure gm puts on each salesman to activate the basic blue button call service! But there is absolutly no money or price or gift given to sales staff for activating either the basic or upgraded program.

Cool Unlock feature too- Wife has used it Several times- Just take out your KEYS I say

Don't count on that disable function too heavily. It will only stop an amateur. The pros can disable it in no time.

Ask me how I know... I lost my Suburban a few years ago and when I told the cops it had On Star they just laughed. Never saw it again. For me On Star is a waste of money.

I also have a 2015 Denali D-max and do not pay for the Onstar service, the basic is free for 5 years. With the Onstar and MY GMC apps on my I-phone I can unlock doors, find my truck and start it. My 6 month free part ran out last month but everything I need still works. I did the wait game with the Sirius radio and got a deal for both my vehicles for 6 months but I have to catch it before it expires and play the game again.

i had a car stolen once, called the police, they tracked it down, and were able to stop the thieves while running away with the car! got the car back, and it saved me an insurance claim and off course a great deductible!
can t complain about onstar here! and that was with the free basic program!

I had a 2001 Buick Century, and back then it was a $3000.00 option that some how my wife could not live with out, after the sales person filled her head that she and the children safety were at stake, well I took a 4 year loan on the car and after 3 years, I was contacted by Onstar and they told me that I was no longer going to be able to use my Onstar option, because it was analog based and they were going to digital, they offered no compensation or nothing they just dropped me, yet I was still paying for the car and the unit that was in the trunk that used up 1/4 of the trunk space, so ask me what I think of on star, I have bought other new cars and trucks since then and have disabled it right at the dealership before leaving the lot.

Dean

I respect that! but why not use it while it's free and it could save headaches?

I get a free 6 month of everything I think and then get some basic stuff for 5 years. But the kicker is they want you to pony up the $35/month for full service after the 6 month trial. I might do it, but will wait. I like the idea of waiting them out ans
d seeing if the price drops.

I just ran my HTC cell phone through the laundry. My pants were clean but my phone was hosed!

I figured I'd get one of the phones that support the OnStar app to replace it. But I have insurance coverage on the HTC and they replace it with an identical one. Damn! The mobile app would be one of the things I might actually use.

I am very old school and proud off it, and I feel that if I did take there free offer that, I would have accepted the way I was duped and treated by them, and would have had more of a toll on my self respect, then any headaches I could ever had or avoided by not using the service. I did not have that service all my life until then and had managed to survive with out it and still have to this day.

Dean

We have on star in our 09 Sierra. We keep a few minutes of talk time on the phone part of it. it has come in handy in the past because it gets service when cell phones don't.

I get 5 months of Sirius for $20 everytime......Works like a charm...Call and tell them I want to cancel because it's too expensive and listen to the offers...I have cut it off a time or 2 and within a few days they were calling with better deals..

there is a fuse you can remove...had to disable in my truck to change to a tuned ecm from duramax tuner, after complete just put fuse back in

Call the dealer, as mentioned I bet there are some free services.
The car based phone does have significantly more power than our hand sets so that can be an advantage. Old timers may recall the difference between .6 watt Bricks and 3 watt bag and installed phones? Still applies. OnStar is a full 3 watts.

Agree too on the "wait them out sales approach" Keep putting them off as they start hassling for renewal. They will usually load 100 min and roll over any unused from the prior year as well as come down significantly in price. Take the one year lump payment, then they have to beg again and give up the deal. If you go monthly subscription, they will simply roll you to a higher plan after 12 months. You can call them out on it and they will usually credit the higher charges to a renewed subscription. I would rather make them do the sales work to keep my business than be at their mercy to give me a price.

The reason for the upsale is due to declining profit margin. The big 3 have to do something to cover the incentives/rebates that they have made "standard".

http://download.gannett.edgesuite.ne...gap_022315.jpg

Temporarily install the Onstar Remote app on somebody's phone, at least. It's great for starting the truck out of remote range, and if the app is used once during the trial period, it's a free service for 5 years.

Gonna do that for sure. Turns out my HTC phone is android so I'll be good.

The OnStar app is cool for sure but does have some limitations.

The vehicle can't be buried in the middle of a concrete parking structure or the signal may not reach the vehicle.

Also, the vehicle has to have been started at least once within (I believe) a week for it to work.

We're in MI, went on vacation and left our coats in the truck thinking we'd start the truck when we landed back in GRR with the O/S app and the truck would be warm when we got to it. The problem is we were gone for 10 days and it wouldn't start the truck & it was COLD.

My wife was neither impressed with me (dork!) nor OnStar ("who the hell goes on vacation for less than a week?")

Congrats on the new ride

s