Question for the informed satellite radio folks.

[Benzman66]

Newbie here to the forums. Got a question and hope someone can help. I had two XM radios back in the early 2000s that I use to use. Ended up packing them away as I was using CDs at the time. I was on a month to month subscription on both and had them deactivated in 2004.

Strange thing is I was doing some housecleaning and went into the cubbyhole to throw stuff out and found the radios back this December 19th. Thought what the heck and powered them up just to see if they would work. The one did and of course displayed the radio ID and the demo channel, BUT the other radio was getting pretty much everything, so I powered it up and ran it for a few days and all worked great!

So I looked on the Sirius website to see what deals they were running and saw they had a six month promotion going on until Dec 31st. I thought maybe I was getting a free demo or something and it would run out, so I called and got activated on the new plan

For the past few weeks it has been gnawing at my brain, WHY was I getting the channels in December without a plan? Should I have taken a chance and not got a new subscription and played the roulette wheel to see how long it would last? I know for sure I use to be on a monthly plan, so there was no chance of a lifetime sub or anything like that. Has anyone else had this case where a radio is still activated after cancelling. Who knows, it might have been good clear up from 2004 till now?

[Ryan]

It just wasn't deactivated. It would have turned itself off within a few days, depending on how much you had it on per day.

[Benzman66]

Thanks for the reply Ryan. That was what I was thinking too, but then I have spoken to people who have radios that were supposed to be deactivated and they are still using them years later without a subscription and getting the full tilt

I saw where they were having a free listening period this past November, and thought maybe they had extended it and that is why I was getting all the channels in Dec.

I could shoot myself for not just letting it go the way it was before buying a subscription and maybe in plain words screwing myself by doing so. LOL

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

[johnnyfever78]

I have 3 active radios ( not in use) that were deactivated in 04,05 and 08 (sirius) all work but they are in a drawer. I have 2 active subscriptions. The 2 XM working radios are a skyfi 1 and skyfi 2.

[daver40]

It's really just the luck of the draw. The radio will probably work indefinitely.

[maxx2002]

I have a XMP3i and a MiRGE Sirius XM radio in a drawer un-activated, and I know this cause, according to my on-line XM-account it says that
I currently only have 2 activated radios an XM-Edge & an XM-Onyx, and I know that they do not work, cause they aren't activated.....

[johnnyelectron]

I had an XM radio that was deactivated - sat in a box for over a whole year - turned it on last week and it ran all of 15 seconds before it was killed, so XM doesn't waste anytime making sure you radio gets shutdown (SkyFi2).

[mikeargo]

My Sony tuner in my vehicle worked for a week after I canceled it.

[Jhon]

I have an original SkyFi that I deactivated years ago. I still works. I use the thing about 5 times a year and it hasn't stopped yet.

Last year I bought a used Roady II on eBay to replace the one my son had that broke. I Mailed it to him and told him to call me when he got it and I would transfer the sub. He never called because it worked out of the box. I waited a few months and then canceled the sub on the broken one. It has been about 8 or 9 months and he plays it for hours every day. Don't know if the original owner had a long term sub or not, but it was not advertized as such. There was even a disclaimer letting people know they had to pay a monthly subscription fee.

[thejfinsocal]

I had a very early model Sirius tuner in a car (think cigar box in the trunk old). I think I was about sub number 250,000 for Sirius and about the same for XM (got it about 9 months earlier also a cigar box tuner in the trunk). The Sirius tuner was on a lifetime sub that I paid $299 for (Joe Clayton was desperate for cash I guess) way back when. In 2006 or 2007 I transferred the lifetime sub to a different car - they didn't charge me the $75 transfer fee and also didn't deactivate the old radio. Still worked until I gave the car away a few months ago. It didn't get all channels but it was going strong for 4+ years.

More recently I had a Sirius OEM trial sub expire last November - drove it for the first time a couple weeks after the anniversary and it died within 15 minutes so they appear to be getting better.