PJay

Just sent you an email.

DAFFYDRUNK

I wonder If I had anything to do with him getting busted? I added factory nav to my car, so XM thought my car wasn't travelink compatible and refused to activate it on my car when the ebay guy setup my "subscription". I also didn't get all channels. It was just the same channels you get when you do the 6 months for $25 deal. So I called XM to get stuff straightened out. I did get travelink activated but they killed the ebay account doing it. So then I bitched about that. Right now I have travelink but no XM as I don't have the energy to attempt to communicate with them, and I can't get a good deal on any package with the Nascar channel. Got my $78 back from Ebay at least.

For those who wonder why anyone would try buying a year of XM on Ebay, it's because paying full price is a freakin' rip off, and playing stupid games to get good XM deals is a pain in the ***. Some of us work our asses off and already spend tooo much time on the phone. Spending 30 minutes 2x a year playing a game of chicken with English as a second language people is fuggin lame.

Foosh

OK, so if I understand you correctly, you're saying that buying XM legally is too expensive, thus people bought it illegally, have gotten ripped off, now have no XM, and have nothing to show for the money they did spend.

Did I miss anything? It's also amazing how cheap you can buy electronics from the back of unmarked white vans on big city street corners.

What I find puzzling is how folks fell for what appears to me to have always been a rather obvious scam. It's amazing this eBay felon got away with it as long as he did.

PJay

Quite a few folks on here, including you have alleged that "people bought it illegally". I bought from a longtime ebay seller, with lots of positive feedback, after reading several good recommendations from members of this forum. If you have tangible information that what those of us who bought from the seller, or what the seller himself did was illegal, please share.

In light of what has happened, it's easy to say this was a rather "...obvious scam". But, I didn't see any posts before I bought from him, suggesting that there was any problem with the seller. And, again, the seller's reputation on ebay (since 2009) was very good.

Foosh, we're brothers in our love of all things Corvette. Next time, give us a head up man

B&BVettes

I got all access from Sirius for $99/year.

DAFFYDRUNK

As essentially already stated, you are playing Monday morning quarterback. All I was doing was buying from eBay. Something I do literally every day with my computer biz. If I was gonna do something illegal, I'd try to figure out a way to activate the radio for free.

Foosh

Had I seen these ads prior to people getting scammed, I would have given folks a heads-up. I However, I would never have thought of going to eBay to purchase an XM subscription.

It's not a matter of "playing Monday morning quarterback." For as long as I can remember, certain service subscriptions can only be purchased from the company offering the service. Things like cable TV, Direct TV, Dish Network, and Sirius/XM, Netflix, Hulu, etc., are some major examples. Sometimes, you can buy a receiver or other piece of hardware from a vendor like Best Buy, etc., but the actual service subscription must come from the provider.

I don't recall any of these or other service providers selling service subscriptions on places like eBay, but if they did they would clearly identify themselves as the seller. It was clear from the ads I've seen, that it was being offered by individual(s), not Sirius/XM.

If I had seen that eBay ad, it would have immediately set off my scam detector. The other obvious, dead give-away is that they were massively undercutting the real provider's price. Obviously, the seller(s) got away with it for awhile, and walked away with a decent amount of money. Hopefully, they've been arrested.

AdventurePoser

Well, I'm one of those guys who bought from this website some time ago. Great price, and it works flawlessly...he activated it right away, and there are no issues. My decision to buy on Ebay was based on an XM thread on this forum some months ago, where people were extolling the virtues of buying Sirius...

The price did seem too good to be true, but he appeared to be a trusted seller on Ebay, so I figured, "Why not?"

pewter99

if its too good to be true.....


why people will spend $70-100K on a car then cheap out on other stuff is mind blowing

red 1

Don't know about this guy but a lot of the subscriptions are sold by used car dealers that Sirius allows to give away trial subscriptions. Your vin or radio ID are put in as used car inventory and a trial is issued which the dealer sells to you.

xwing

Because they like to get a good price? You can get a lot more for your money if you are frugal on everything. Being frugal doesn't mean not having nice things; it just means getting good value for your money on everything you buy.

air86

I have stated this truth for a long time now. Nobody listens to me

Twisted Swifter

I often get miffed when someone who doesn't know what they are talking about tells me that I'm doing something illegal. "Illegal" seems like a pretty strong word. What basis does anyone here have to claim that the purchase of a subscription from a recommended and "trusted" third--party vendor is illegal?

If, in fact, it was illegal wouldn't eBay and/or Sirius/XM have already put a stop to it? My guess is that this isn't even in the grey-area of legality. The guy has a source for the codes to activate this service. Who has evidence that his access to these codes is illegal? Who has evidence that his sale of these codes is illegal? For that matter, who has evidence that my purchase of this service is illegal?

The answer: NO ONE!

So please stop accusing people of breaking the law when you have no evidence to support your position. It really casts both parties in a bad light.

hisvett

Interesting....I purchased a 1 yr subscription from this guy last May for my Chrysler.....subscription is still working as of this morning. I was looking forward to doing the same for my C7 in Oct.

Foosh

It appears you misunderstood.

Your purchase would not have been illegal unless you knew for a fact that it was "stolen merchandise." It was the eBay seller who appears to have been engaged in illegal activity.

Buyer beware does apply because it's clear many were ripped off.

Scoobydoobydoo

Same here, bought it in May and no issues at all.

Flame Red

Here is a bit more info as far as how this guy works. Wife's XM just crapped out after 3 months. She called XM and they found her radio ID listed under some car leasing company account with thousands of other cars. I guess that how he resold it? Or perhaps he worked for the leasing company and was doing this on the side - and got caught?

Anyway, he took the $ and ran. She found his phone number but he won't answer. Yep, scammer.

vbdenny

The easiest way I found is to get the Sirius app then just Bluetooth it from your phone. Once Sirius has your credit card number then the will automatically jack up the rates and automatically charge your card. As to buying subscriptions on eBay, not something I would do.

dbirdhouse1

My whole relationship with Sirius has come down to renewing 5 bucks/month for a six month span and repeating it FIVE TIMES; every time it is up I call them, they put me through exactly the same number of steps trying to get me to upgrade and spend more, I repeat my pat responses and by the third tier they give it to me again (and I will not allow them to extend beyond that automatically, they must paper bill me first).....it works but geez......

MRose0906

Yup, I'm in the same boat as you. It's nice to know that my car can get XM though. HAHAHAHA. Only plus about having it is the weather app works. But, again, got the ole trusty phone for that.