[oemtech]

I am coming up on my 1 year freeby Onstar usage. The phone seems to be a waste as there are not many places that my smart won't call out from. Turn by Turn is nice but my Garmin or Tom Tom has Lifetime maps and they are portable. Besides I have Google Maps on my phone. Security seems like a good deal... cheaper than low jack.

How many of you renew?

What package do you get?

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Didn't renew. If they had a pay per use plan, I might but the charges would have to be based on the cost to provide the service not a fear of laying smashed up at the bottom of some canyon with my cell phone broken.

p.s. I recomend cancelling and reactivating if you want to keep it. Nobody should miss out on the cancellation experience. They won't let you cancel until you listen to a VERY long winded speech explaining how you will surely die a gruesome if you cancel and then confirm you understand that inevitable fate. I believe they even report you to a suicide hotline. I had to make multiple calls because they didn't feel I was taking the danger seriously enough the first few times.

 

[mikesul]

I had let Onstar lapse, but received a "Hit the Road" offer of top-of-the-line Directions & Connections for $45 for 3 months in an email. Leaving for a road trip to VT, then Cape Cod and back so the timing was right. Took them
up on the deal yesterday. It would be great if you could pay only when you want the features. Just like this road trip.

 

[Zl700]

Good thing I monitor my statements, those crooks started billing me $39 "month to month" after my free year ended. It was a free year right? How could they assume I wanted it? My "one year" offer dropped to $28 when I called in to complain and cancel. It's a lot of money but I understand why, they have to contract with the cellular company besides all other service requirements. Just not needed for me
After one year of use, the only thing I miss about on star is sending a address or location to my CUE from my phone.

 

[vfaninva]

Good thing I monitor my statements, those crooks started billing me $39 "month to month" after my free year ended. It was a free year right? How could they assume I wanted it?

Did you read the fine print when you accepted the free year? Like many free/trial services nowadays, there is often an automatic renewal agreement included.
Caveat emptor, "Let the buyer beware".

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

the only thing I miss about on star is sending a address or location to my CUE from my phone.

Then you've been lucky. In the ATS at least, if you use the OnStar app to send an address to your Nav and that address happens not to be in the maps, you're likely to get directions to one end of the street its on or just the center of the town its in. Plus, they either don't get to the car some times or the car forgets if you let much time pass between sending it and driving. I only did it maybe a dozen times and 3 times it gave me wrong directions (as described earlier) and another 3 or 4 times, the car acted like it never got them and I had to send them again.

 

[oemtech]

So, just what are you getting for your money.

Nav is a joke per se... Considering GPS's with lifetime maps & smart phones with Google maps I don't see paying Cadillac a monthly fee for convenience.

Security, maybe. Depending on when your report the theft and when the cops show up your ATS has been stripped or trashed.

Phone... Only benefit I see here is that it is satellite supported. But, cell phone dead spots are almost a thing of thge past. Besides the cost is high compared to a cell phone.

So what's left. Diags or a phone call when youu crash.

I think i am going to cancel. But, you have to call.:mad2:

 

[Zl700]

Did you read the fine print when you accepted the free year? Like many free/trial services nowadays, there is often an automatic renewal agreement included. Caveat emptor, "Let the buyer beware".

I know but, I find it misleading especially how they send you offers in the mail near the end and plan on billing you anyways.

----------

Then you've been lucky. In the ATS at least, if you use the OnStar app to send an address to your Nav and that address happens not to be in the maps, you're likely to get directions to one end of the street its on or just the center of the town its in. Plus, they either don't get to the car some times or the car forgets if you let much time pass between sending it and driving. I only did it maybe a dozen times and 3 times it gave me wrong directions (as described earlier) and another 3 or 4 times, the car acted like it never got them and I had to send them again.

I guess I was
Used it about 100 times and spot on every time with only a few extra miles and unneeded turns a few times

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

I guess I was
Used it about 100 times and spot on every time with only a few extra miles and unneeded turns a few times

Were you using turn by turn directions (available with or without nav option in the car)? Turn by turn won't have those problems, The problems arise when you have OnStar send the address to your NAV system instead. Nav gets confused when it doesn't have the address in its outdated maps. When that happens it appears to send you to one end of that street or the center of the town; either can be many many miles from your destination and possibly even in the opposite direction. If you were sending the address to your Nav and they worked, you were lucky that the addresses were in the map.

 

[Zl700]

It was maps
It was more about I could do a legal u-turn but it would send me around doing the so called safer right turns.

Now as a standalone nav, I still have no complaints overall.

 

[LDYNREDD]

Didn't renew. If they had a pay per use plan, I might but the charges would have to be based on the cost to provide the service not a fear of laying smashed up at the bottom of some canyon with my cell phone broken.

p.s. I recomend cancelling and reactivating if you want to keep it. Nobody should miss out on the cancellation experience. They won't let you cancel until you listen to a VERY long winded speech explaining how you will surely die a gruesome if you cancel and then confirm you understand that inevitable fate. I believe they even report you to a suicide hotline. I had to make multiple calls because they didn't feel I was taking the danger seriously enough the first few times.

?


Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

 

[carpenter]

So, just what are you getting for your money.

Nav is a joke per se... Considering GPS's with lifetime maps & smart phones with Google maps I don't see paying Cadillac a monthly fee for convenience.

Security, maybe. Depending on when your report the theft and when the cops show up your ATS has been stripped or trashed.

Phone... Only benefit I see here is that it is satellite supported. But, cell phone dead spots are almost a thing of thge past. Besides the cost is high compared to a cell phone.

So what's left. Diags or a phone call when youu crash.

I think i am going to cancel. But, you have to call.:mad2:

I use the OnStar app for remote start constantly in the winter here since I am often out of range/sight of the car when I wanted it started. I use Onstar to navigate to businesses as well just because it's easier to get in the car and press a button and just tell someone what business I want without knowing the address. Then have that downloaded. "OK Google" on the phone works well for this too though.

 

[oemtech]

Canceled... took all of 5 mins. Of course they try to run a guilt trip and $5 off the monthly base price.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

If you don't renew does that mean the Navigation system that I paid for stops working?

 

[oemtech]

Not that I am aware of.. assuming it's part of CUE and not turn by turn.

 

[donavo]

If you don't renew does that mean the Navigation system that I paid for stops working?

it doesnt. works fine.

 

[celmem]

Waste of money, not sure how they stay in business honestly.

 

[GJB]

If you don't renew does that mean the Navigation system that I paid for stops working?

No they are not related but you get to pay (150 ea) for annual updates if you want to keep your maps current. That said OnStar does do the turn by turn and they can send it to your NAV, this feature you lose if you don't subscribe to it.

 

[oemtech]

For $150 you can get Lifetime Maps and sometimes Traffic on Garmin, TomTom or one of the other gps companies and you can take it with you. My Garmin has Bluetooth also.

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

For $150 you can get Lifetime Maps and sometimes Traffic on Garmin, TomTom or one of the other gps companies and you can take it with you. My Garmin has Bluetooth also.

Yep. If I have any doubts about nav maps being up to date for my travel or even when I just don't feel like saying a destination 5 times to get CUE to understand, I just use the Windows Phone for directions over blue-tooth. The Here maps are always free with frequent updates and can be downloaded for use without any phone service. And the nav apps provide free traffic (although obviously you need phone service for real time traffic). Plus Cortana constantly monitors my current location and all destinations in my calendar to let me know if traffic dictates I need to start early. And as icing on the cake, Cortana somehow convinces CUE to pause media I'm playing while giving directions when all the car's Nav can do is have CUE mute the music so I miss parts of songs. I still use the Nav screen to show my current location and cross streets, POIs etc, but tend to NOT look at it while in motion for safety reasons.

The only thing the phone doesn't do is display text directions thru the car in addition to speaking them. And I could get those too if I want to take the phone out of my pocket and stick it somewhere visible.