Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by josefresco 2827 days ago
You could replace "SiriusXM" in your comment with "<insert your ISP here>" and it would still be 100% relevant. Fortunately for you, SiriusXM is easily replaceable ... your ISP? Not so much.
2 comments

My ISP doesn’t have anywhere near as shady marketing practices. Does yours regularly ignore do-not-call and do-not-mail requests? Do they send misleading envelopes that don’t have their brand on the outside? Mine (AT&T) doesn’t.
AT&T is nortourius for this in my area. They will send letters on cardstock with handwritten font, an obscured return address, and a stamp that looks hand placed. No branding until you actually open it.
I was speaking specifically to their predatory "intro rates" and added fees which obscure the actual price of the service.
Comcast most definitely does this in my area, and even withholds higher speed tiers unless you bundle with TV and phone.

Luckily, I have the choice of getting gfiber for 1/3 the cost of comcast.

Well, it's not really fully replaceable in your car without other work. That is, I have SXM in my car radio, integrated in the system. It's the only option. All else is bluetooth or cable plugins, a different interface to manage while I'm driving, and potentially additional costs (data costs, etc.).

Note that BMW and other "lux" makers are now offering deeper integration with phone apps... but they make you pay a subscription to them to enable said functionality. https://www.bmwusa.com/explore/connecteddrive.html describes it; half the features are free but traffic for the nav, integration with mobile apps, other features have an annual cost, around $50 US currently.

And yes, fair point on the 6 month complaint cycle being forced on us by obnoxious subscription approaches.