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OnStar

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OnStar • OnStar Owners Bristle at Loss of Service • OnStar Goes in Pursuit of Bad Guys • Lower Insurance Rates for Some OnStar Customers • GM Promises "Star Treatment," Dumps Old OnStar Subscribers • OnStar Goes Digital, GM to Drop 500,000 Subscribers • Consumer Complaints --- • More about GM ...

John of Portsmouth, RI October 6, 2009

I am receiveing constant phone calls from onStar to my cell phone. The calls began on 1:07pm on Sept 30th and it came up as "Unavailable". The call is coming from a modem, as I am getting an tone and beeping. I called the 972- number and received a message from onStar, on Monday Oct 5th @ 1:14pm. I received a message stating I should call 877-. I called that number @ 1:15pm (Oct 5th). I got a simple apology and I was told it was going to be corrected.

As you can see by the calls, it was not corrected. I called again and asked the issue to be escalated and I was told they could not do it. Upon my second call, they never asked for the phone number being called (and I did not call from that number), nor did they ask for my name.

It's clear all the calls are coming from onStar, and seeing as I am not a customer, they are not willing to do anything at this point. onStar is using alot of my cell minutes. At this point, a simple apology is not enough. As you can see most of the calls are in the middle of the night as well. Again, the simple apology is not enough. Since then I have received calls from the same "Unavailable" on: [18 times in 3 days]

donna of fort smith, AR October 2, 2009

I see I'm joining a long litany of complaints against GM's Onstar. My elderly mother, my 11 year old son and I got locked out of my 2008 Buick Enclave two nights ago in the parking lot of a local store. My purse, cell phone, keys--all in the car. With my mother's cell phone I contacted OnStar, explained the situation, and requested they unlock the vehicle. Of course they wanted identification. No problem. I gave her my full name, my husband's name, our home phone number, his cell phone number, my cell phone number, his business number, and the make, year and model of my car. She was unable to find our account. This part alone took about 10 minutes with us standing there in the dark beside the car. She explained that we apparently were not subscribers to their service. I explained that we apparently were since they automatically withdraw 20 dollars a month from my checking account every month and have for 2 years. She then requested the VIN of the car stating she could match it up that way. Easier said than done. I couldn't read in the dark the numbers on the panel. My mother certainly couldn't. However, my 11 year old son could--by climbing up on the hood of the car and shining the dim light of the cell phone on the panel to read off the numbers. I repeated them to the operator. She told me it was an invalid number. Alex climbed BACK up on the hood and read off the numbers to me AGAIN. AGAIN, I repeated the numbers to the operator. This time she was able to make the match.

Miraculously, my husband's name, my name, his cell phone number, his work number, the make and model of our car--it was all there after all. (We've now been dealing with this simple issue for about 25 minutes in the dark, in the parking lot.) Great. Now unlock the car please. Oh wait, ma'am. I can't. You've got to give me your 4 digit PIN since YOU COULDN'T PROVIDE ME ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION. This is for your protection after all. I explained that I had no idea what my 4 digit PIN was, I've never called the service before, any info I would have on this would after all be IN MY PURSE, IN THE LOCKED CAR. Surely after all the information I've provided she had no doubt I was whom I claimed to be, and PLEASE JUST UNLOCK THE DOOR, WE'RE NOT IN A SAFE SITUATION HERE. The operator refused, and disconnected. My mother offered to fix this the old fashioned way. We called her AAA service. The AAA guy was physically there in about 10 minutes and had us back in the car in less than 30 seconds after that. No charge.

My third call, while waiting on the AAA guy, was to OnStar's accounts service. I spoke to a representative there, explained the situation, the difficulty we had and asked to cancel the service. Now. No use to me when I needed it. She got the supervisor on the phone who offered to discount my monthly charge to 12 a month. Incredibly, even after speaking with 3 Onstar people, at this point in time my car WAS STILL LOCKED!! And NO ONE offered to just unlock the vehicle for me. I again requested the service just be cancelled. Only then did they tell me that the accounts people were actually not working at night, I'd have to call back tomorrow. I DID call back the next day, and went through the same routine again. Offer to discount the monthly fee for a few months, reminded me I may need the service some day in a life threatening situation. I replied after what I'd been through I'd probably have my head hanging out the door bleeding all over the place while some OnStar operator from a different country kept asking for a PIN before they'd do anything about it. After talking to another supervisor, now my 5th contact at OnStar, they agreed to cancel the service.

Jonney of Hampton, VA August 22, 2009

I can't even begin to describe the frustration and anger I felt when dealing with onstar. I have a 2008 chevrolet that i purchased last year. I had onstar hooked up, but never used it. They called and told us we needed to renew which my husband did. I am thinking everything was ok, and had to go on trip to south carolina, and did get lost, and finally called onstar, and the lady says her records indicate that my visa did not go thru when my husband updated the service (should'nt they of told us then?, or even gave us notice?)

I ended call, and called my husband from my cell phone, he got connected to someone in the phillipines who could hardly speak english (i could not understand a word he was saying, I did understand him saying sorry over and over again for the inconvienence, i apologized to him also for being so frustrated. my husband and man from phillipines call me and say that everything is taken care of.

next day August 21st 2009 we needed some help with directions, hit onstar button, lady answers and again tells me that something is going on with my visa and i needed to update minutes, by then i had had enough of these people!

we were lost, tired, hungry and just wanted to get home here in Virginia, she said i had a one time something that she could use to help with directions which i accepted, she connected me to onstar directions, and that was giving us the wrong directions, i remember at one point it told us to merge to left and make immediate u-turn when it was safe, we never did find a turn to even turn around. I am so disgusted with these people.

I became very angry and frustrate, my sister and I were lost and it was night time, she is a diabetic, and I am on chemo, i personally did not feel safe with this service, and she stated that she would not recommend it to anyone.

Lyle of STRAFFORD, MO August 19, 2009

I purchased a 2009 Chevy Traverse with 88 miles on it on 8/17/2009. By the time I had it home I had 127 miles on it. Every thing was running normal. My new vehicle did not move until 2:30 in the afternoon on 8/18/2009. My wife drove it 5 miles to pick the kids up from school. Upon leaving the school at around 3:00 the vehicle engine light had came on and the display was reading No Traction Control.

After four blocks the vehicle shut itself off. She kept starting the vehicle and after four starts got it to roll 200 Yds to Safety. At 4:00 we contacted OnStar to do a diagnostic test to tell us what the problem might be. They said it was something with the engine and transmission. Here is the Kicker. When I got home tonight I checked the e-mail and there was a report from OnStar with a time stamp of 2:31 p.m. stating that all systems were normal. So does this mean onStar diagnostics does NOT work, or even worse does it mean that an outside source (OnStar) can actually CAUSE the system in my new car with 132 miles to malfunction by communicating with my vehicles systems? Does any one have any knowledge of a similar situation? I would like to think Chevy is not the reason for this weird situation happening.

Yvonne of Lexington, KY July 8, 2009

In an attempt to change my billing date from the odd date of the 26th of each month to the 1st of each month, I requested that my current account be cancelled then renewed with the new billing date. DUH! In doing so I was told that my current car phone minutes would expire Sept. 2009 and I would need to add additional minutes. I was politely placed on hold. However, the problem is ONSTAR doesn't allow hold calls for more than 3 minutes. So I had to call back.

This time I was told that instead of the minimum amount of minutes added to update my account I was now being charge for 1000 minutes!!! at 349.19 WHAT!!! To add insult to injury my billing date will remain the same the 26th of each month. What kind of racket do you guys have going on over there.

Today I called and spoke to John in the billing department. He assures me that within 3 to 5 business days a credit should appear on my account. Well, who pays for the overdraft fees from my bank?

stephen of camano island, WA June 10, 2009

Onstar will not cancel our service. it is not working, we are being charged for 1/2 mins that we did not use and the hands free service takes 3 or more times to work. We had it 2 wks and want rid of it completely. The onstar persons says no, we have to have it for a year!Well this is an unwanted service and I wish to discontinue it now.

They hung up the phone. i have called three times. The service does not work half the time and I want it off! What the heck do I do here??

rhonda of two rivers , WI June 9, 2009

my onstar shut off it is not working anymore the light to it wont evenn come on why is this

Carol of Springfield, IL May 29, 2009

The battery in my 2007 Buick LaCrosse (with less than 20000 miles) died 4 times when sitting more than 5 days. Once it dies, you're stranded - there is no key-way into the trunk and if the battery is dead, the trunk release on both the car and the key fob are dead as well. In addition, once you've tried to start the car, the key is stuck in the ignitiion and cannot be removed. So, you can't get your jumper cables out of the trunk and you must leave your car with the keys in it to go for help. You can't lock the door because then you won't be able to get in because the KEY IS STUCK IN THE IGNITION.

There is no solution. And it had to happen 4 times before the local Buick dealership contacted their company's Technical Support and that only happened after I called the 800 Customer Service line. I was told the first 3 times the incident occurred that there was nothing wrong and that they (local dealership's service dept) couldn't get the car to replicate the problem. So I took the car home, left it in my driveway for 5 days and HUH! it was dead. I was able to get it to replicate the problem....3 times.

It was finally decided that a bad module in the On-Star system was the culprit so they pulled the fuse on it and now the car doesn't die, but now I don't have use of the On-Star system. I'm not sure how much that added value to my car, but I sure don't want to have to tell the people I trade this car in to that the reason they onstar is off is because it causes the car to die - that doesn't look to good at trade-in time.

Buick service says they will install a new module but then I'm back to square one..how do I know if the car will die again? I'll have to test it again, I guess. But that means it sits in my driveway for another week while I see if it causes the battery to go dead again. So, since November, I've been without the vehicle, that costs almost 300 a month, for almost 2 months total time.

I had gifted this car to my son as a combination birthday/college graduation present, but he's had to drive my mini-van all this time because the local dealership says he's too young to drive the loaners they've given us (my son is 23!) Everytime we look at the car it makes our stomachs roll. I'm disillusioned and disgusted -we've driven GM cars, mostly Buicks, since 1997 but this whole situation has completely changed my opinion of them. I'm out almost 600 for the vehicle I paid for and I'm really right back where I started: will installation of a module and hooking up the on-star system going to cause my battery to die? If so, I hope my son and/or I are somewhere safe when it does! We have no faith in the integrity of the car nor in the knowledge and skills of the "service" department.

Jennifer of Salisbury, NC May 2, 2009

I was at the grocery store in late May 2008 with my daughter. I placed her in my 2001 GMC Sierra C3. The vehicle was started with the A/C going since it was hot. As I walked around to the driver's side, I heard the click of the door locks. My daughter had kicked the button! I called OnStar to get it unlocked and they informed me they would need to charge me since my supscription had lapsed that month. I agreed, saying my 2-yr-old was in there.

She came back on to tell me they could not unlock my vehicle because it was analog. They offered me the roadside assistance I had originally paid for thru GM, and then informed me unlocking my vehicle was an unsupported service. I was screaming at her that my child was in the vehicle and what if anything could she do for me since I paid all this money AND they still owed me one free direction service?! She got directory assistance for me to a local wrecker service that came and unlocked my door for 50 - what a rip-off.

Jennifer of Salisbury, NC May 2, 2009

I was at the grocery store in late May 2008 with my daughter. I placed her in my 2001 GMC Sierra C3. The vehicle was started with the A/C going since it was hot. As I walked around to the driver's side, I heard the click of the door locks. My daughter had kicked the button! I called OnStar to get it unlocked and they informed me they would need to charge me since my supscription had lapsed that month. I agreed, saying my 2-yr-old was in there. She came back on to tell me they could not unlock my vehicle because it was analog.

They offered me the roadside assistance I had originally paid for thru GM, and then informed me unlocking my vehicle was an unsupported service. I was screaming at her that my child was in the vehicle and what if anything could she do for me since I paid all this money AND they still owed me one free direction service?! She got directory assistance for me to a local wrecker service that came and unlocked my door for 50 - what a rip-off. I was freaked out for almost an hour and my daughter was crying because I wasn't getting in the vehicle. I had to pay 50 to a wrecker, while all the months I was a good paying customer and never used the service just didn't count. I have worked with digital and analog electronics for over 12 years and an analog-to-digital converter for a communication signal is a very small circuit card with only a few components. Also, what moron puts analog circuitry into a high-dollar vehicle AFTER the whole Y2K issue? Digital is cheaper and saves space!

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