XM vs. Sirius

The Odyssey van has XM Radio, which has been great. And it's the start of the NCAA Basketball season, and XM has exclusive coverage of NCAA and specifically ACC basketball...sweet for driving while a game is on, and it has a simple scoreboard that has constantly updated scores for any game.

Anywho, the new ride coming in to replace the Subaru Outback has Sirius as the only option. So, each vendor (XM and Sirius) does a $6.99/mo deal for extra subscriptions over the first, so they strongly incent you to have all of your satellite radio from a single source. And since I can add Sirius to the van for $50 in hardware, sell the XM hardware for $50, it's technically very easy for me to manage this.

So I called XM to tell them not to auto-renew my subscription when it ends in December, and I get the normal "let me transfer you to our custome retention department". They go nuts, offering free radios and discounted service. So I let them give me a year at half-price, which amounts to the identical cost to put both cars on Sirius. I win - no changes required in the van, I can still get ACC Basketball in that car, and my daily driver will have Sirius for FREE (1st year is free) and it has better normal stuff (other than ACC basketball)!

Looks like you've got to push all of your vendors. DirecTV does this BIG-TIME too, they hate to think you'll move to cable and they'll make HBO and HD feeds and everything free for 6 months if you just think about switching. Credit card companies will waive yearly fees, cut interest rates, etc. if they think you'll close your account. It's a consumers world baby!