# Activation Fees: Don't Pay 'Em



## shabadoo25

First, a little background. I am a current XM subscriber that has the in dash in both my and my wife's car. I used to be a Sirius subscriber and owner of several plug and play radios.

My new job has me traveling quite a bit for work, which means rental cars. I got one the other day that had an unactivated Sirius in dash. I had one of my still functional pnp's with me, but it broke.

I called Sirius up and said that I wanted to reactivate and would pay for a month's service if they would just waive the activation fee. At first the CSR resisted, but then eventually did it.

To avoid this circumstance again, I bought a used XM pnp off of eBay. I called XM today to put it on my account, but only if they would waive the $15 activation. With virtually no resistance, the CSR did so.

I don't know if this would work if you were a brand new customer with no history, but it's worth a try regardless.


----------



## mountainDBS

Good you found one to do that for. I had to fight with Sirius back in March over a radio I had to send back because it was not up to FCC regs. They sent me a replacement radio and wanted to charge me activation on it. I told her "you have to be kidding" "this is a radio you sent me for replacement" after a few rounds she dropped the fee. Couldnt believe it -- I guess you can get lucky every now and again with them.


----------



## tcusta00

I think activation fees on sat radio are highway robbery. Satellite TV doesn't even charge an installation fee anymore and they're actually sending an installer out to your home to spend a few hours doing real work - granted, you're under contract, but still... To "activate" a radio they just have to punch in your radio ID number. 

Good for you getting it dropped. They're going to price themselves out of business if they continue to charge silly fees.


----------



## Boston_bill

I had a similar situtation. Im an XM subscriber also and my radio died. I found one on ebay and when I went to activate the agent didnt tell me it would cost $15 I was pissed when I saw the transaction on my debit card.
I called XM back and explained their agent never explained this to me. And they gladly put the money abck in my account.


----------



## rudeney

I know Verizon charges a fee to activate a phone if you call and speak to a CSR. If you are an existing customer and activate a new or replacement phone online, there is no charge. If you have problems activating online and must call a CSR, they will generally waive the fee. I find that to be reasonable. Sirius/XM charges the fee regardless.


----------



## djlong

XM never charged me a fee. It used to be that the only way to avoid the activation fee was if you were replacing radios. I avoided fees early on by buying pre-paid (annual) plans.


----------



## Galaxie6411

I've only paid one or two, both were first time subscribers. For any additional radios I always used promo codes or complained about the price and got the $77/year deal. After buying a radio and paying a monthly sub I think it is ridiculous to expect activation fee's on top of all that.


----------



## churdie

sign up online use the promo code "XMSCION03" at sign up for 3 months free plus no activation used today still works hope it helps


----------

