Why Doesn't the Dealer Install XM?

I'm going to drop of my 2011 Prius 2 tomorrow and they are going to take it somewhere to have my XM installed. I'll receive a rental (I think it's free, it better be) and the install should be completed same day.

When I got my 2009 Corolla however it too needed XM installed. It was listed as an option just like on the Prius 2. And the install was done by the dealer.

Why can't the dealer install XM on it's own Prius? Or is this just my dealer for some reason?

 

Acknoweldging their incompetence? Those are pretty strong words.

The dealer for my Toyota Corolla which did install the XM were a bunch of liars, sold us cars at a lease rate that was way above what it should be, and also sold us a "maintenance" package which just consisted of a book of coupons. BBB rating was F+ (found this out later).

My new dealer leased my Prius for $40.00 a month less then my Corolla, and they have a A+ rating at the BBB. So respectfully I think you're giving me an answer from the gut as opposed to the facts.

Anyway, it's not like Toyota dealers are that close by my house. We will see how it goes today, so long as the install is completed before service closes and I can pick up my Prius, I will be happy. I will speak with the service manager and ask why they don't do it themselves. I'll report back later.

 

No, it sounds like you're trying to make me look like an idiot, and I'm not. If you're not going to say something that's contributing to the thread then don't say anything at all. Troll elsewhere.

 

Well, you may be right. Perhaps I'm an idiot.

All of this sounded funny to me but I didn't pick up what they were putting down. Here's the deal: On the sticker it clearly shows that it comes standard with an 8 speaker AM/FM/Mp3 XM capable (with hardware and subscription service) for the sound system.

Now my actual sales person was closing a deal with someone else so he sent "Jen" over to get the ball rolling on my Prius. I made it clear that XM was a must have. Without XM I would not be interested but I see here that it says the radio is XM capable. She said yes and said she would have them take the radio out of my Toyota Corolla and install the XM into the Prius.

Then she came back and said that couldn't be done, that the technology on the one installed in the Prius is different then the one in the Corolla and a kit would need to be ordered. Now I understood this to be similar that the "kit" would be similar to that my previous dealer ordered for my Corolla, they would install an antenna for the satellite and it would be built in. Remember, the radio is XM capable. She also mentioned that the install would be farmed out to someone else, which is why I started this thread.

Now I know why. What they did was take it to either a Best Buy or some place like that and installed a dash mount Sirius radio! Not even an XM. Wires sticking through the side of the dash to a radio that I can barely reach. In addition, they wired it to the power side of the car so it won't work in ACC.

Now I heard the word "kit" but both my wife and I understood that to mean hardware for the existing radio, not some radio that Sirius/XM would sell to me for $19.00 anyway. And because it was Sirius, not XM I had to open another account for that radio. I have an XM radio already in my home. Matter of fact this radio was an updated version of my XM Roady which I now use with my sound system.

So I'm going to go speak to the sales manager today. I'm going to see how to sales people could possibly screw this up so badly and how or why they would think that a dash mount with wire's hanging out could possibly be acceptable.

Hey, I might just be an idiot. Apology for the troll remark. Maybe I wanted the Prius so bad I missed something, but to be honest I don't think I did.

I've gone ahead and activated the radio, it works off the FM and it sounds fine. But I'm not a happy customer, I'm going to see if any compensation will be provided for me. Like they can pick the tab up on that radio as far as I'm concerned, if I paid anything extra cut me a check.

If I don't get some type of resolution to this then I'll just take some pictures and send them to channel 5's consumer reporter with my story and see what he thinks. I'll also mention to the sales manager my intent to file with the Better Business Bureau which will force them to do something to clear that out of their record.

Unless as suggested before it was spelled out to me in black and white and I signed for it. Then I'll just hang my head in shame.

 

Update:

Apparently the part that's needed to make XM capable radios capable are no longer available. I talk to the sales manager and she said when you look in the computer they are no longer there.

But she did tell me she looked around and found one in California, so they are going to get that for me and install properly. She was extremely nice, very apologetic. She said that she would check her XM contacts and make sure that the money I paid to activate the Sirius unit can be transferred to the XM account. So if everything falls into place I will get a proper install.

If there is a problem with the money moving she's going to work something else out with me. We will see how it all comes out but I feel much better now. Maybe someone looking at a Prius might read this and see that even though it says the radio is XM ready, it might not be.

This is much better service then what I experienced from the dealer I bought my Corolla from.

 

It says on the sticker "hardware and subscription needed." But on my Corolla which was brand new in 2008 it said the same thing. Basically they just needed an antenna and perhaps an internal part. Point is I never agreed to a cheap dash mount nor did I ever agree to a Sirius radio. We talked XM every time it was mentioned.

There is no doubt that I was confused by my sales guy, though I don't think there was anything deliberate about it. But certainly having wires sticking out of the front of my dash was unacceptable. He should have known that

I have some pictures on my computer I will post up to show how poorly this looked. You won't believe it.

 

Thanks, and I think they will. I've caused a bit of a headache myself on this by activating the Sirius Radio they installed. Now I have a Sirius account and a XM account. But the dealer assures me they will do right by me on this as well if there is an issue switching the account money back to XM.

Bellow is a couple of pictures of the install. Makes you wonder how the sales person could ever even think this would be acceptable.

I am a bit concerned as well about what will happen to the dash as the portable unit base is held on the dash by one of those strong stickies base attachments.

 

Oh and believe me I am. Here's the odd thing though. When I went to pick up the car it was so close to closing time and I was literally stunned. I was thinking "this can't be right" but at the same time I knew I wasn't on the same page as the sales guy so I thought just go home and read your papers.

I did and the next morning I sent the sales person a text. I said I don't see how you could possibly think this is acceptable and that I was coming down to speak to the sales manager. He replied that he thought I understood what I was getting, but obviously I was upset and could he set up an appointment on Monday. I told him I wasn't available on Monday and that I just needed a few minutes of the sales managers time to discuss this.

He said, and I'll quote this, "I would hate to see you waiting around all day and not get a chance to speak with her." I responded with "I would hate to have to take these pictures of this install and send them to the consumer reporter at channel 5 and to the BBB."

Ring Ring. It's the sales guy and he is pissed. "Jessica ****** is the sales manager and I've seen her do some amazing things. But if you threaten us that's not going to work. We will throw you out of here. What time do you want to meet with her?"

Well, the threats may have pissed him off but suddenly she went from unavailable to what time do I want to meet with her. I said I'd be in around 1 pm.

Ring Ring. It's the sales manager. Apologized profusely said she totally understood why I was upset and said they simply can no longer find the part necessary for the conversion in the computers, however she did some other type of search and located one in California. Would I allow them to make this right?

I said certainly but now I had two accounts, one Sirius, one XM. She said they are the same company, should be able to transfer one from the other. I told her that's not how they work and explained that even though they were one company, the two different radios were in two accounts.

She admitted she didn't have satellite herself but she would research that issue. I advised that if there was not a resolution available I'd be looking for the refund of the money I spent on the Sirius account. She said that could be discussed.

So that's where it stands now. I know she's there Monday, off Tuesday so I figure I'll give them until Wednesday to get back to me. That part should be FedEx and there by Tuesday IMHO. We will see how it goes.

 

Update: Part arrived two days ago and it will be installed today. The dealer has made arrangements for any money I paid into the subscription of the pre fab kit radio to be refunded.

Now I have one last worry and that will be resolved or require further repair.

The install of the kit as you may have noticed from the picture is the placement of the radio on top of the dash. I've used this before it's like a strong sticky. I'm worried that when they take this off it will damage the dash and force me to come back for another repair.

I've got to the point where I really like the display on the third party add on. It looks better then my Corolla's display but not enough to compensate for having the actual radio built in.

I also thought that when you had XM activated that it came with 2 weeks free install. Wife just bought a Honda CRV that came with 3 months service for free.

I plan on bringing my Droid 2 and an iPad with me to activate the new radio before I even leave the lot today. I expect things to go well, and if they do I'll feel free to start to recommend the dealer. Thanks for the feedback you have have gave me.

 

I was just reading through the thread, someone mentioned that it was sad the dealer didn't know the radio is XM capable. They do, there was never a question about that. The problem was whatever the part they need to make that happen isn't showing up in the computer. They managed to find one after the Sales Manager got involved.

So I went to have the install done, it was suppose to take an hour or hour and a half. 2 hours went by and the tech who was in charge of this came by. He said that the XM was working, however he claimed that the people who installed the dash unit broke an antenna and he had to order the part to fix it.

Now this sounds like bull puky to me because the dash unit played on an FM station. I think the dealer screwed this up.

He came back 5 minutes later and told me I could take the car. My sales guy came up and said wait a minute, I have to activate the unit. It comes with 3 months free XM. Said he'd have it done in 5 minutes.

Well, 35 minutes later I sent him a text. "Your 5 minutes are a lot longer then mine." A few minutes later he's walking up to me. They can't get it activated.

So I followed him back to the car and he was still on the phone with dealer XM assistance. I double check the ESN and then I said lets try power everything down and power up and have the rep send us a signal. Well, I don't know if that had anything to do with it but it started working.

So now I have XM, 3 months free service, no fm and no am. Now to be honest I would never listen to fm or am but you know, it's a new car everything should work. So when that part comes in I'll be bringing it back for that.

Not exactly a great start.

 

Just thought I'd try to wrap this story up. Part I needed for AM/FM issue was backordered! I was told this 2 days ago. I shot an email off to the sales manager and once again she did whatever she had to do to get the part in which arrived today.

Yesterday I saw a box on my rear seat. I looked and I'll be darned if it wasn't the Sirius radio that was attached to my dash. Now I could have and maybe should have kept that radio, maybe sold it on eBay but I'm not really that way. So I brought it back to the dealer today. That's when I found out the part was in but I can't get an install until Monday.

So hopefully nothing else goes wrong. Crossing my fingers.