On Star
Consumer Complaint/no refunds period Washington, DC

My wife and I purchased a new GM car in August and with the purchase received a one year subscription to On-Star's Safe and Sound package. We also purchased 100 minutes at an additional cost so we could use the hands free satelite phone. Each year since we renewed the Safe and Sound package with one payment. The thing with On-Star's hands free sat phone is that the minutes don't roll over, you must purchase a minimum package of minutes to keep any unused minutes. After having this account for 4 years we accrued over 200 minutes. With the economy the way it is and us having to watch our dollars we decided we could do without On-Star's $192.43 a year Safe and Sound package, which is basically a glorified insurance package that we never once used. Well I take that back, I did use it once to report a bad accident that I was not involved in, in what On-Star refers to as being a "good samaritan" I called On Star today to cancel our annual Safe and Sound package and discovered that if I did I would no longer be able to use the sat phone. My wife had just purchased $45.00 in minutes (the lowest minutes package they have to keep from losing the 100 plus minutes we have already) on June 26 and it posted to her credit card on June 28. To keep these minutes I asked the service rep if they could do $99.00 a year for my service. She placed me on hold to talk to a supervisor. Soon after she came back on the phone and said they could not do $99.00 and that they don't even have that amount in their system. She did say she could give me a loyal customer discount of $149.95 for this year only. I told her I could not do that and really could not do the $99.00 but would in order to keep all the minutes I was about to forfiet if I cancel my Safe and Sound package. Anyway after some back and forth I told her I would dispute the $45.00 recent minutes package purchase on my credit card and hung up. Well the our credit card company refused to reverse the charge because according to them it's in On Star's contract that all purchases are final, no refunds. I was never told that by an On Star rep, anyone at the GM dealership where I purchased the car or in any of their sales brochures. I feel that On Star's sales practice of hold unused minutes "hostage" in order to get you to purchase more minutes on top of forcing you to keep a service package open at $149.95 (discounted) just to be able to use those minutes is unethical at best. I have never heard of a business that will refuse a refund on purchases that are only days old unless they tell you that upfront at the time of purchase. Nobody at On Star has ever told me before any transaction was complete, or even afterwords, that all sales are final. Beware of this if you decide to use On Star.

Company: On Star
Country: USA
Address: PO Box 96214
Phone: 18884667827
Site: onstar.com

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