[ddonnikE92]

So I just wanted to share my story how I had free XM satellite radio until my dumb**s actually called customer care...

First, let me explain how I got the xm signal. My car was prewired and ready for satellite music but I needed an activation code. The dealer wanted to charge me $650 for the code, so I looked around online and found BimmerTech's XM/Sirius Satellite Activation offer for only $275. At first I wasn't sure about it since I never bought anything from them, but for half the price of the dealer, I gave it a shot. Fortunately, I was amazed at their fast service, because within hours the activation code appeared online in BMW database (I had a relative that works for BMW check it).

Next, I had the activation activated (by remote coding with the help of BimmerTech) and at first, there was nothing....so I grew concerned. However, after like 2-3 minutes, my radio updated itself and I saw the "satellite radio" option under my iDrive audio sources. So up until now, BimmerTech was awesome, provided me with everything I needed and my channels appeared on my screen.

Here is where I made a mistake. After about 3 weeks of using my radio, I noticed that some channels "might" be potentially missing (i.e. channel 11,12, 54, among others). So I was curious why that was as those channels should exist.

So I knew that my activation came with a year promotional subscription to XM/Sirius, and I therefore didn't think much of it. HOWEVER....I decided to call XM customer support and ask why I was missing channels. That's when I was informed that my Radio ID was not "in their system" and my "account" was not showing up on their end. In fact, they told me that I shouldn't be receiving a signal at all...

At that point, the lady on the phone actually told me (laughing at the same moment) that I "shouldn't have called them, because otherwise I would have had a signal indefinitely."

So at that point I realized that my radio was somehow receiving a signal but without the subscription. I jokingly asked the lady if we could just pretend I never called and we just hang up and she delete any notes of my radio ID. She said she is not allowed to do that. 15 minutes later my radio went into "updating channel list" and all of my stations disappeared and I was left with the 1 free demo channel.

Long story short, if you get the BimmerTech activation code (which makes way more sense than getting it through the dealer and you probably get even better service), and if your radio starts playing music - DO NOT CALL CUSTOMER SUPPORT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

I now realize that I could have potentially had free satellite radio for a while, and then STILL activate my free 1 year subscription for the next owner. Oh well, you live and you learn.

I just wanted to share my experience and give a big shout out to BimmerTech for their awesome and fast service!

[skrelnik]

I have the same story!!!! I bought a new SAT module that has the missing channels, that was the reason for missing a few stations...a module pre XM Sirius merger is missing channels.