[slatt C7]

Is anyone else aggravated with OnStar? I just had the worst customer service experience since dealing with Comcast!

I do not see much value in the OnStar service since I have built-in navigation and AAA for roadside assistance (and other benefits of AAA). I have been responding to the numerous phone calls, emails and intrusive in car announcements that I do not want to continue the OnStar service. It now turns out that they continued my service anyway on an auto-renew clause. I have not used any of the apps or services/information from OnStar, since I originally told them to cancel in in May '14.

I have been telling the callers who have contacted me from OnStar (monthly since April) that I do not want to continue their service. Yet they have continued to bill me without my realizing it, as it was getting billed to my wife's card and she was just paying it without my knowledge.

Apparently telling the outbound caller that you want to discontinue the service - and them acknowledging that fact, is not sufficient. So I am being told that I should have known that since there is a required acknowledgement that "emergency services " are being discontinued- and I didn't have those read to me, and I therefore didn't cancel services.

To make it even more fun I was told that I must continue my OnStar subscription if I want to dispute the charges because they cannot service a closed account.

I am so angry right now! Not over the $200 they beat me out of, but the way that they treat their customer(s). Seriously makes me not want to buy a GM product. I am buying a new car for work this week and was planning to buy a GM car. Not anymore. Going to check out VW. The CC seems nice. Enjoy my $200 and I will spend $30k elsewhere.

 

[TNSQUIRE]

Is anyone else aggravated with OnStar? I just had the worst customer service experience since dealing with Comcast!

I do not see much value in the OnStar service since I have built-in navigation and AAA for roadside assistance (and other benefits of AAA). I have been responding to the numerous phone calls, emails and intrusive in car announcements that I do not want to continue the OnStar service. It now turns out that they continued my service anyway on an auto-renew clause. I have not used any of the apps or services/information from OnStar, since I originally told them to cancel in in May '14.

I have been telling the callers who have contacted me from OnStar (monthly since April) that I do not want to continue their service. Yet they have continued to bill me without my realizing it, as it was getting billed to my wife's card and she was just paying it without my knowledge.

Apparently telling the outbound caller that you want to discontinue the service - and them acknowledging that fact, is not sufficient. So I am being told that I should have known that since there is a required acknowledgement that "emergency services " are being discontinued- and I didn't have those read to me, and I therefore didn't cancel services.

To make it even more fun I was told that I must continue my OnStar subscription if I want to dispute the charges because they cannot service a closed account.

I am so angry right now! Not over the $200 they beat me out of, but the way that they treat their customer(s). Seriously makes me not want to buy a GM product. I am buying a new car for work this week and was planning to buy a GM car. Not anymore. Going to check out VW. The CC seems nice. Enjoy my $200 and I will spend $30k elsewhere.

I cancelled on star last week effective 10/17. I was actually surprised they did not try harder to retain me. I will be watching very closely to ensure my service is actually cancelled.

 

[Brett]

Is anyone else aggravated with OnStar? I just had the worst customer service experience since dealing with Comcast!

I do not see much value in the OnStar service since I have built-in navigation and AAA for roadside assistance (and other benefits of AAA). I have been responding to the numerous phone calls, emails and intrusive in car announcements that I do not want to continue the OnStar service. It now turns out that they continued my service anyway on an auto-renew clause. I have not used any of the apps or services/information from OnStar, since I originally told them to cancel in in May '14.

I have been telling the callers who have contacted me from OnStar (monthly since April) that I do not want to continue their service. Yet they have continued to bill me without my realizing it, as it was getting billed to my wife's card and she was just paying it without my knowledge.

Apparently telling the outbound caller that you want to discontinue the service - and them acknowledging that fact, is not sufficient. So I am being told that I should have known that since there is a required acknowledgement that "emergency services " are being discontinued- and I didn't have those read to me, and I therefore didn't cancel services.

To make it even more fun I was told that I must continue my OnStar subscription if I want to dispute the charges because they cannot service a closed account.

I am so angry right now! Not over the $200 they beat me out of, but the way that they treat their customer(s). Seriously makes me not want to buy a GM product. I am buying a new car for work this week and was planning to buy a GM car. Not anymore. Going to check out VW. The CC seems nice. Enjoy my $200 and I will spend $30k elsewhere.

I realize you're angry right now and I would be too. But not considering another GM car simply because of OnStar is throwing the baby out with the bath water. If you were to buy another GM car, simply tell them at purchase that you do not want to free trial. If you don't give them a credit card # they can't bill you.

 

[Ragtop]

Wow. I don't think I ever gave them a credit card number. I kept getting last ditch effort calls to get me to subscribe or I would lose all my services. I said fine, the service is too expensive.

 

[JS1977]

And this is why I did NOT give them my credit card number when I was at the dealership setting up my account with onstar.... Been down that road before, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice NOPE!

 

[blakebird]

I took delivery of my car, next day went on a 4,200 mile road trip. I realized about 100 miles in that I hadn't activated the Onstar, so I did.

I remember reading a couple of horror stories like this - and while talking to the representative I let him know I was wary of giving my credit card for a $5.60 charge for some miniscule thing, as it looked like an opportunity for them to get their foot in the door and start billing away automatically.
I realized that just giving them the card number was potentially asking for an invitation to a nightmare scenario - so I emphasized to him what I'd read about the difficulty of stopping service, and that it had better not be an issue - as I'm most likely not going to continue it. He assured me it would not be a big deal.

Now I've got my fingers crossed, and have saved all the contact information I got via email. I watch my cc bill like a hawk, so this will be interesting to see as it unfolds in a few months.

 

[JoshuaKM1]

I keep hearing all these terrible things about Onstar but I have to say that the service can be pretty cool every now and then.

I was driving home on Sunday evening after a weekend road trip and I wanted to know if a certain pizza place would still be open when I got back in town. Instead of doing what I usually do - which would be to look up the restaurant's number on my phone while driving (which is obviously incredibly unsafe) - I called Onstar and a very friendly representative called the restaurant, confirmed they were open until 10pm, and then sent the restaurant directions to my GPS. Is this worth 20 bucks a month? Maybe not... but then again I'm not really familiar Onstar's complete feature set as of yet.

 

[rdslon01]

This is EXACTLY what happened to my wife.

They were so tricky to get her credit card information in the beginning by giving us a very reasonable deal on 60 minutes of cell phone service through the car's GPRS transceiver. We decided to buy the 60 minutes since we thought it was so cheap, and you never know if some emergency might happen and the mobile phone she has got lost/stolen/battery ran down, et cetera. So, she gave them her credit card number for the 60 minutes, and we forgot about it (by the way, she never used those 60 minutes).

But, one year later (Cadillac gives OnStar free for a year), after OnStar started charging her credit card automatically, we were surprised in various ways, including how they got her credit card number. But then we remembered what we did about purchasing the 60 minutes from them that I discussed in the paragraph above.

They are low-down and tricky. We don't like them.

I took delivery of my car, next day went on a 4,200 mile road trip. I realized about 100 miles in that I hadn't activated the Onstar, so I did.

I remember reading a couple of horror stories like this - and while talking to the representative I let him know I was wary of giving my credit card for a $5.60 charge for some miniscule thing, as it looked like an opportunity for them to get their foot in the door and start billing away automatically.
I realized that just giving them the card number was potentially asking for an invitation to a nightmare scenario - so I emphasized to him what I'd read about the difficulty of stopping service, and that it had better not be an issue - as I'm most likely not going to continue it. He assured me it would not be a big deal.

Now I've got my fingers crossed, and have saved all the contact information I got via email. I watch my cc bill like a hawk, so this will be interesting to see as it unfolds in a few months.

 

[Sinner]

I don't understand the point of onstar and have always thought it's a pos gimmick. I need to see if they are billing us now but I don't think they are because we've gotten renewal letters and emails.

 

[C7Driver]

It's for this exact reason that I refused to give OnStar a credit card number when they started hounding me just a few weeks after I took delivery of my Corvette in March. They told me they needed a credit card to "set up my account." I refused and said I had a 6-month free period to try their service. The caller said that was correct but to "set up my account" they needed a credit card. I refused and they gave up, except for the emails telling me my service would end "shortly" and I would have no protection. I don't miss them.

 

[mybluecorvette]

I have had the the same thing happen with other cars other than GM cars. It is hard to discontinue the service if you you give them a credit card number in the beginning.

 

[Modshack]

It's for this exact reason that I refused to give OnStar a credit card number when they started hounding me just a few weeks after I took delivery of my Corvette in March. They told me they needed a credit card to "set up my account." I refused and said I had a 6-month free period to try their service. The caller said that was correct but to "set up my account" they needed a credit card. I refused and they gave up, except for the emails telling me my service would end "shortly" and I would have no protection. I don't miss them.

Same here. I never activated the system but apparently my "free" period is ending per my emails and calls. Go figure.
Seems they use the same reps and billing philosophy as Sirius.
Never Ever give em a credit card..

 

[mark13]

I kept Onstar after the free trial, and I like having it. I appreciate the monthly diagnostics report, but the main reason I keep it is security: if the car is stolen, Onstar can shut it off remotely and notify the police.

 

[abshapiro]

Just a suggestion --- call your credit card company and tell them you do not authorize charges from On-Star. They will track down the last charge while your on the phone, enter the appropriate charge numbers into the computer, and your done.

 

[JCar]

Don't know if anyone has a credit card from Citibank, but they have a pretty cool feature for their credit card holders. They have a thing called virtual account numbers. For each transaction you want to make, you can generate a virtual account number - a unique number that is only for one transaction and cannot be reused. It is linked to your account and verified like it was your primary account number. You can do a single transaction or generate a number that repeats N number of times over a year - like a monthly repeating bill. You can put a limit on the transaction(s) so no more than a defined number of dollars can be charged to the account number. Pretty cool and it really thwarts repeating charges from places like OnStar and Sirius. When they go charge you after the number has expired, the charge is rejected. I love it! I keep my credit card at Citi for this feature alone.

Jeff

 

[Calif Vetteman]

We have On-Star in the wifes Traverse. We have used it for directioins countless times. It has been a life saver. My wife also has some medical issues. With On-Star she has the resource to just push a button, in case of an emergency, and help is on the way

I was also thinking that with the On-Star GPS there would be no need for Lo-Jack.
Just a Thought.

 

[rohard]

I realize you're angry right now and I would be too. But not considering another GM car simply because of OnStar is throwing the baby out with the bath water. If you were to buy another GM car, simply tell them at purchase that you do not want to free trial. If you don't give them a credit card # they can't bill you.

It is easy enough to get out of OnStar, just never give them a credit card number. They use continuous renewal, and will bill you, even if you write a check and tell them to cancel at end of period.
I really am turned off by GM and Onstar, and it does keep me from considering other GM products.
Let's look at Nav and MyLink systems. GM could have followed a business plan of making the Nav system a free standing unit based on Garmin or TomTom, and integrated MyLink (and Nav) to our smartphones, as most of their competitors do. They chose to tie Nav system into their Directions and Connections Onstar plan, with a very basic (and error prone) Nav system. There is no easy route selection comparison, no ability to input coordinates directly, on and on. All these features available on earlier vetts. To add insult to injury, their is no "delete" option for the expensive, obsolete built in cell phone. Their "improvement" this year is to switch to ATT as carrier and require you to buy ANOTHER data plan if you have a different carrier or a unlimited data plan with ATT. They spent their software dollars tying you to Onstar.
GM must have very poor corporate memory. Many of us remember the disastrous purchase of EDS from Ross Perrot (which helped them into bankruptcy later). Telematics (otherwise known as OnStar) may be the residual portion of this. However to think that GM can compete with Apple, Google, or Microsoft is laughable.
Come on Ms. Barra, go back to building world class cars like the C7, and leave the electronics to people who live them. I paid $77,000 for my C7, and you are leaving me with a sour taste over $300/year +\- Onstar subscription. I can get smartphone integration (BringGo example) on intro cars but not top of line. Something wrong here.

 

[Milliwatt Rob]

Hmmm. If all else fails, I still have my 7 inch Garmin at the ready.

I always thought that there should be a Route 66 reunion show, where Tod and Buzz decide to take a road trip from the retirement community in which they live. But their trip is thwarted by their inability to figure out the NAV system on their new C7.