OnStar Rant

[wadeh]

I've read a few threads about OnStar and they seem to get contentious, especially on the electronics forum. Before I say my piece, I want to be clear that I don't want to start a debate on whether OnStar is good or bad. There are people that are very happy to have OnStar, and that's cool. I don't need a tinfoil hat. And I've read a number of threads about disabling the hardware, so I am not looking for technical information. I just want to share an experience that ruined the fun I was having with my new car today...

I've had my new Camaro for about a week and have been having a blast with it. When I left work this evening on the way home, I was listening to the radio when the music stopped and the radio went silent. The display on the radio face continued to show the frequency, but the RDS information went blank. It was as if the radio signal was lost.

After about 5 or 10 seconds of silence, a voice came over OnStar to tell me how great OnStar is. Excuse me? You interrupted what I was listening to because you thought that your stinkin' adventisement was that important? This is absolutely NOT OK!

And that's not the worst part. I hit the OnStar button. When I got the rep, I explained what had just happened and asked that they terminate my service immediately. And get this...THEY REFUSED! Their claim is that my dealer paid for the first 6 months of service and that I would need to take it up with them.

So I took the next exit, turned around and went directly to my dealer. They were very suprised that OnStar refused to cancel the service. They also assured me that they weren't paying anything to OnStar at the dealership level. Finally, they told me that they are going to contact OnStar tomorrow on my behalf and try to get it cancelled.

I am considering writing to GM to let them know how OnStar's behavior has affected my experience as a new owner. Also, it is my understanding that the individual sales reps are instructed to activate OnStar with each new car and that it affects their rating if they don't do so. I would like them (and the dealership's management) to know that I am very satisfied with my salesman's handling of the deal - and would be even more satisfied with GM, the dealer and the salesman if it had been made clear to me that activating OnStar was optional and that it didn't need to be done if I didn't want the service.

Anyway, I just wanted to get this off my chest.

Thanks,
-Wade

[PIPE]

LOL. I guess when a commercial comes on TV that you dont like, you just rip the TV off the wall and return it back to the store bitchin to the salesman cause you didnt like the commercial.

[MMC]

[jrisebo]

Originally Posted by PIPE

LOL. I guess when a commercial comes on TV that you dont like, you just rip the TV off the wall and return it back to the store bitchin to the salesman cause you didnt like the commercial.

It came on during a non commercial time. I can see the gripe. Your comment is about taking hardware back, I dont think he is returning his camaro.

[motorhead]

Originally Posted by PIPE

LOL. I guess when a commercial comes on TV that you dont like, you just rip the TV off the wall and return it back to the store bitchin to the salesman cause you didnt like the commercial.

Not the same thing at all dude. It's more like a telemarketer calling you while your eating dinner. I would be pissed too. If I want to talk to them I'll push the blue button.

[67 Convertible]

Hate to see how you'd react if something really important happened in your life.

You missed part of a song???
Running to the dealer immediately and considering writing to GM?

Over-reacting a little? Let it go, it really doesn't matter that much does it?
Not like it's going to happen every day.....I think it happened to me once in two years.

[cuffnstuff1]

i have had my camaro for 3 month 4,300 miles with active onstar that has never happened to me and if did no big deal i wont throw a fit i have used onstar several times with great sucess, i hate to say it but looks like you need to chill and enjoy your car.

[Globemaster]

Originally Posted by PIPE

LOL. I guess when a commercial comes on TV that you dont like, you just rip the TV off the wall and return it back to the store bitchin to the salesman cause you didnt like the commercial.

LOL

[spectre_]

Maybe Onstar didn't like what song you were listening too..

My Onstar always tries to take me to Jared's...

[wadeh]

Originally Posted by motorhead

Not the same thing at all dude. It's more like a telemarketer calling you while your eating dinner. I would be pissed too. If I want to talk to them I'll push the blue button.

This.

Well actually, it's more like an automated telemarketer calling during dinner. Except that you cannot ignore it and are forced to stop eating dinner and listen to the pitch.

While that's annoying enough, I probably wouldn't have bothered to post it here if it were just that. The thing that really set me off is that when I asked them to cancel the service, they refused to do so. They even lied about the reason for not cancelling by saying that the dealership paid for the service.

To those of you not bothered by this, I'm happy for you. I happen to find telemarketing objectionable and specifically avoid doing business with any company that chooses to intrude on my time in this way. And when I call a company to cancel a service, any response other than "yes sir, we'll do that right away" it borders on illegal.

To those of you not bothered by this, I'm happy for you. There are probably lots of things that bother you that would not bother me. I see plenty of threads with people worked up about stuff that I would find no big deal. I was hoping to avoid a thread full of "what's your problem" responses by starting my first post the way that I did.

[BlueDragonVT]

Originally Posted by PIPE

LOL. I guess when a commercial comes on TV that you dont like, you just rip the TV off the wall and return it back to the store bitchin to the salesman cause you didnt like the commercial.

Sorry, but that analogy is completely incorrect. Think something more like this: You are playing a video game on your PS3 through your TV, when your cable provider interrupts your game in order to advertise themselves. When you sign up for cable, or pick up a broadcast transmission, you are accepting the fact that advertisement IN THEIR BROADCAST is a part of the way the provider pays for the service. That doesn't mean they get to break in and pitch themselves whenever you are using the connected device. Onstar breaking into your system in order to pimp their product actually represents an unethical misuse of their access to YOUR PROPERTY. Now personally, I like Onstar, and intend to keep it. Then again, I have never had this issue, and would cancel the service if I encountered this type of treatment from any company I did business with. It is a similar abuse of power to the situation we saw six months ago, where Onstar decided that they were going to continue to collect data from cancelled customers, and sell that data to third parties. That one nearly cost them the majority of their subscriber base and a class action lawsuit, until they backed down and decided it was a bad idea. In the age of electronic access, companies increasingly need to remember that just because they may have the technical ability to do something, that doesn't mean that they should do it, or that they have the right to do it.

[CSM088]

I can't blame him, that's rude and intrusive on OnStar's part.

As a side note, I have 90 days free with the service, I am looking forward to learning what it can actually do cause I don't know anything about it.

[Rangore]

I agree that it is rude and intrusive. They could send an email instead of a call like that. Calling to the car is a terrible marketing move IMO.


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[ColdCamaroSS]