OnStar Subscriber Services

PLEASE READ BEFORE BECOMING AN ONSTAR CUSTOMER… I have had OnStar for years now. I have been a loyal customer having every thing they offer for their new vehicles. I have been on the same plan for as long as I have been a OnStar customer. My plan was 9000 or unlimited minutes each month. They have always taken the money out of my acct and have renewed my minutes as that was how my plan worked. For the month of Nov. I went to use my phone and was cut off in the middle of my conversation because I didn’t have any minutes. When I called OnStar I was told I didn’t have any minutes because they are not offering that plan anymore and all the plans that I have now have different names. I was not notified of any of these changes. Out of courtesy the agent gave me 8000 minutes and said she was sorry. The next day I called OnStar Executive Relations and asked why I was notified and was given the run around and the agent I talked to kept avoiding the answer to my questions of why wasn’t I notified, why wasn’t I grandfathered in, why wasn’t I offered another plan. What he did say was I am going to give you 2 months of security and directions free of charge. I tried to tell him that is not what I want I want answers to my questions. Again he avoided my questions. I also asked him why the Exec. Agent that I have dealt with over the years and I talked to a few days before this incident didn’t tell me he said he didn’t know. I have been calling this Agent every day since and have been told she is temporarily out of the office. If this is how OnStar treats their loyal customers I advise people not to become a customer. The only way to get any problem fixed is to call their Executive Relations Office because their Customer Care Agents wont do anything for you. For this reason I rate them a 2 star.

Onstar has changed to the bad. Did not provide service paid for. And over charged on both cars. Terrible company. Get a cell phone and GPS. Save your time and money. Former G M worker.

Onstar keeps fraudulently charging my credit card account. I’ll get 2 charges in one month, then a refund then randomly another charge. I never even gave them that credit number! I called customer service and they said there was another $ 95 charge about to go through. When I told them they were not authorized to charge my account, they basically said «too bad» there’s nothing we can do! WOW! Beware of giving them any information about your accounts. Now I’m having to go through the fraud department of my bank.

After a 3 month free trial they began charging my card 37.00 per month for the premium plan. I did not select this nor want it.

Onstar is just too expensive for what they offer. I can buy a nice GPS unit for three months at Onstar’s price. My insurance company offers road side assistance at 4 bucks a month so that’s $ 28 a month less than OnStar.

my husband and i have been with on star for several years however, we had to cancel because of price hikes. i would tell any one that is considering on star to watch out for raises in price. they really do not care about keeping customers. they would not let us keep the the same plan for the same
we cancelled.

I would give this service no stars but one star is Minimum they will accept. My vehicle became stuck in sand close to Page AZ. When I hit the on star button I got the OnStar agent who passed me on to a third party «Chevrolet Roadside Assistance» The OnStar advisor did not stay on the line to make sure my emergency was taken care of as she should have done. The Chevrolet Roadside Assistance advisor said she did not know where I was and could offer no assistance. She was totally unhelpful and seem confused and out of it. At one point she said the GPS showed me in Lake Powel. I was 1000 feet from the lake. I tried to explain that I was only 5 miles from Page AZ but she insisted I was closer to Kanab UT which was 70 miles away. I finally had to call a local tow company on my own who responded within 20 minutes. I canceled my On Star Assistance program as it was of no help in my emergency. What is the point of paying money to a company that totally fails to provide any service?

The employee assisting my friend and I to setup his onstar system put us on hold for a unacceptable amount of time. The pre recorded message and «ding» that continuously played while we were on hold was literally the most annoying sound I’ve ever heard. Onstar and it’s team needs to get 1 more on call support. 2 a new prerecorded hold message/​song. And 3 they need to start caring about their customers time.

Don’t want to renew? Prepare for harassment. I received 2 calls Thursday, ignored since I didn’t know the number, no message was left. The following day, they called 3 times in a row, back to back, hang up call back, hang up call back, hang up call back. This was extremely annoying, I am at work dealing with my customers. Very angry, I answered the 3^rd time, to find out my «free OnStar service on my new vehicles is about to expire» and they would like me to renew, I declined, of course they burst into full blown telemarketer script. I interrupt, «no thank you» and ended the call. Again, very busy at work. They called 3 more times the same day. I called back Friday evening when I got home and requested to be taken off the calling list, they had all my info already and after being left on hold for several minutes (I am assuming to further frustrate/​infuriate me, purposely) I ended the call. OnStar then called again the following day, Saturday ignored… the next monday, 6 CALLS, are you SERIOUS??? Today, 2 more calls. I have never been so blatantly harassed by a company. They cannot honestly think harassing people will get them to buy their shit service.
They just called again, as I was writing this review. I cannot believe the arrogance. Time for a the least friendly phone call I will make this year

I would prefer to give Onstar a negative 5 rating!!! I am currently battling fraudulent unauthorized charges from Onstar. I had paid last year with a card whose expiration ended this year. Since my car lease is up soon, I decided not to renew. Somehow Onstar is able to force monthly charges without having the current expiration date. When I complained to them, they said they would not refund the charge even though they could see I was not using the service because I thought it had lapsed. The bank says they can’t do anything to prevent Onstar from forcing these charges but have issued me refunds. The Onstar fraudulent unauthorized charges continue but the Onstar service is not being provided anymore. I’m being charged for something I am not receiving at this point.
PS, had my lease not close to ending, I would have discontinued anyway. The last few months their GPS directions are crazy at times causing me to loose confidence in where they will send me. Directions that have taken me in circles, off the freeway many miles too soon and into side streets causing trips to be 2 or 3 times the travel time. When I complained, I was promised free months service, but never received it. Just more charges.

I have not had any experience with how good /​bad their service is. But, I do have to warn people how their billing department works. The credit card I used to pay for their service was lost… so I got a new one. Onstar notified me my account was going to be canceled if I did not update my account with the new card. I decided I did not want to employ their services anymore… so my plan was not to update my account and let the service expire.
Then…two months later, I saw on my credit card statement that Onstar got a hold of my NEW credit card and MANUALLY charged this new card for 2 months of past services without my permission.
How did they get the card? My guess is they pulled it from a 3^rd party or a GMC /​Chevy dealer that had ties to them. A place I had used the new credit card?
This seems almost illegal, and my credit company agreed with me and reversed the charges.
Be warned…

The ONLY reason onstar is worth anything is to alert someone if there is an accident. That said, if you are in a remote enough area and alone you may not have connectivity anyway. If you aren’t in a remote area the number of cell phones around any accident probably means 911 will be alerted anyway. The other reason is perhaps if you have a health event in the car. So you either have to dial 3 numbers on your phone or reach way up and hit 1 button on your mirror. In a health event you may not have the strength to do either. As for the directions, your cell phone will do better for that or for any of the other things they purport to do for you. And finally the most awful aspect, hands free calling:
I will never buy another car with onstar again. I add onStar minutes just in case my cell phone is out of battery and I need to make a call I can but the frustration of making a call makes it my last possible choice. The «voice» gives a tiny slice of time to make your statement, if you say «call» or «dial» to fast I get the «slower please» which has become the most hated statement in the world to me. If I hesitate more than a fraction, it seems, I get «pardon». If I use «call» and a name it get’s it right no more than 50% of the time and I have had it turn «home» into Squaretree or worse.
On top of all this the minutes are 10 times + more expensive than any other minutes on the planet and if I don’t use them in a year you just get to keep my money for FREE. When I had 90 minutes left after a year because I came to hate the system so much I had to buy more minutes just to keep these and it tried to push me into another 100 minutes.
I had to ask for an advisor to get the minimum number of minutes because the automatic system would only give me options on another 100, 300 or 1000 minutes. It took almost 5 minutes of listening and trying things before I found out to say the word Advisor to get a human. Then after he heard me tell my story for the recordings sake (I made it clear this was for the recording not against him) that I hated having to pay anything and that i was just trying to get as little as possible to not loose my existing minutes he asked, and I quote, «would you like me to add the 100 minutes… or 30». DuH!!! Obviously if he listened to a thing I said he would not have had the audacity to ask me again about 100 minutes.
Finally, at the end of the call he asked me if he could connect me to customer service and I told him no I didn’t have time to do that I had already said my piece and he could relay it or have them listen to the recording. I hung up with him telling me that was the only way I could get heard. Yet another case of «do they give a damn» since the policy is to take up as much of my time as they can. I don’t really know why I’m wasting my time now but I have to get it off my chest. I will be posting this around the net in hopes that other people will think twice about OnStar at least for the calling feature.

Today was the first time I used On Star roadside assistance. Call took a long time and the attendant, while pleasant, sent the wrong type of help. He sent a car starter service vice a tow. To be fair, I asked if available, could the tow also have a jump start service. He sent the start service that could not tow. Suspect my car ignition is broken not the battery, but wanted to make sure. The start service stated On Star always goes for the cheaper alternative, and for us to call them back. After a twenty minute conversation the third time, the attendant tells us that on star only tows to GM dealers (exponentially more expensive than a local repair guy), despite the repair facility is only a half mile away, vice over ten miles to the Chevy dealer. Understand they need to get you to pay Premium for repairs, not the most honest business, auto repair, but could you have been upfront with us before commencing the over thirty minute adventure on the phone via the on star service and three subsequent calls. As a comparison, called USAA and their towing service was out to us in 45 minutes. The tow had a charger and the car started when he accessed the trunk. Thanks USAA.

Do not give your credit card number to this company! We signed up for their offer of 300 minutes of calling time for $ 10 on our new car and they began to charge us $ 29.90/ month for their other services — after we had told them we did not want them. Once we got them to drop the charge they also discontinued the phone calls which we had not yet used and had paid for. They refused to refund the minutes.

We’ve had On-​Star all four years we’ve had our car and I am happy to tell you it is worth every penny. And, if you mention: «GM Family First Plan» when you are signing up or renewing, you save $ 50 and that buys a lot of groceries!
Saturday night we were heading back to Milwaukee when the red warning light came on. We were about 45 miles from home but didn’t make another five miles.
The car broke down just south of Highway 50 in Kenosha County on I-​94 in 12 degree weather. There was even a light snow falling and worse yet, it was about 10:35 p.m.
I immediately called On-​Star Emergency Services and was impressed despite they being in Florida with the level of service and concern. It took nearly 30 minutes for them to make 14 calls to find a towing company still open and did 20 miles away.
They continued to check on me and I had a Kenosha County Sheriff’s Officer Ryan Gott who waited with us for the tow truck which arrived at Midnight. He too was excellent offering a warm car for my wife and daughter and protecting us from the rear.
This was the second time an emergency occurred, the first being hit by a semi that On-​Star handled all the details successfully. You can’t put a price on safety, we know.
Thank you On-​Star and Officer Gott!

OnStar may be a useful service feature in emergencies, but not for directions. When I got my GM car I needed navigation help and pushed the blue button while I was stopped at a traffic light. I had plenty of time to request that GPS mapping be sent to my inboard screen before I got onto the expressway. I did not expect their representative to try to conduct a full blown interview!
The operator’s voice invaded the car. She initially said she wanted to ask «a few questions» before responding to my mapping request. Needless to say, her questions went on as the stop light changed to green. I had no idea which way to turn as I approached a major intersection ahead. She had not sent trip routing to my screen, so I refused to keep responding to her as I struggled through heavy traffic. Demanding information to complete a form while your new customer is negotiating traffic is inexcusable. To be waiting for a routing service included as part of your car’s purchase package, forced to fend off queries that is distracting you as you operate a moving vehicle, is inexcusable. I felt unsafe so I ended the call.
Not being able to map addresses without downloading locations in advance or using a voice connection is a negative for this service. OnStar has one helpful feature beside emergency services– tracking a car’s diagnostics, which you can do onboard or online via computer.

OnStar® Corporation is a subsidiary of General Motors® that provides subscription-​based communications, in-​vehicle security, hands free calling, turn-​by-​turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems throughout the United States, Canada and China. A similar service is known as ChevyStar® is in Latin American markets. The OnStar® President declared in September 2011 that the service has more than six million customers, and I am one of them.
I have OnStar® factory-​installed on my 2014 Chevrolet Malibu, and I am totally delighted with the quality of it. It works perfectly!
I signed up for what is called the «Directions & Connections™» package, which gives me unlimited turn-​by-​turn GPS directions to any destination in the USA and/​or Canada, and UNLIMITED hands-​free cellular telephone calls. This costs me around $ 300/​year, but I can tell you that it is worth every penny and both services are used frequently.
You press the BLUE button to speak to a helpful and friendly OnStar® customer service representative while you are driving or parked, who may be at a call center in North Carolina, Canada, or even in the Philippine Islands, but regardless where s/​he is, the service is of the same excellent quality.
I’ve called to get driving directions from my home in Las Vegas NV, to a hotel in Reno NV, 450 miles away (and 7 hours 37 minutes of driving time). I’ve also called to request directions to, «the nearest Outback® restaurant.»
You press the RED button when you are in an emergency situation, such as witnessing an accident or when you are having a serious problem of some kind. Pressing that button gets you to the «front of the queue,» so to speak, and you get prompt, courteous attention for your immediate needs.
The button on the lower left-​hand side of the device (which looks like a telephone handset) is used to place hands-​free cellular telephone calls.
The one thing you will say to yourself after getting one of these in your own car is, «Why didn’t I get one of these, sooner?» or, «How did I ever manage to get along WITHOUT one of these?» because after you get one, you realize how much you NEEDED one.
You don’t get this for yourself. You get it for those you love, if you have a family. If you’re a man who has a «significant other» (as I do), you get it so when she’s driving alone, you know that she isn’t really «alone» at all. She has an entire team of dedicated professionals riding WITH HER, and THAT is why you get it and keep it.
If you want to have care-​free driving experiences and someone who will answer virtually ANY question about motoring that there is, you need to ensure that OnStar® is on the next vehicle you purchase, or that you get the device installed on your existing car or truck at your very first opportunity.
You will be as glad that you have it, as I am.
Just one admonishment: When the customer service representatives say to you, at the end of a contact call, «Is there anything else I can do for you?» please do NOT respond with, «Yes, what are the Powerball® numbers that are gonna be drawn this Saturday?»
Trust me on this, they don’t know…

IMO, OnStar offers a valuable service and product. In the 3 ½ months I’ve had OnStar, I’ve used their services for turn by turn navigation and driving directions at least a dozen times. Hitting the blue button and speaking to someone to have directions sent to the display in your car sure beats looking things up and typing them into a GPS, especially if you’re driving when you decide you need directions or when you’re in a hurry and don’t want to take time to fool with a GPS. OnStar also offers great peace of mind because if you have a problem or are in an accident, help and assistance are only a push of a button away.
That being said, their service could be much better, at least the navigations/​directions portion. In one particular instance the guy at OnStar claimed he couldn’t find the business I was asking for directions to, yet if you do a simple Google search or a search on Unilocal,it’s dead easy to find. Recently I was trying to get directions to a hotel, I gave them the name of the chain as well as the name of the property. Again, if you do a Google search for that hotel and property name, several hits come back. The woman claimed she couldn’t locate it and put me on hold for a few minutes while she «contacted someone» to get the street address. When asking for directions from my location in Orlando back to Miami, somehow their navigation system sent me to a business park and then told me I was off route. I disregarded the directions I was being given by OnStar and found my own way, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of subscribing to their service.
Again, great concept, but if they’d give their employees access to a simple internet search engine rather than whichever database they’re using to pull business names and navigation information from, it could be so much better!

Onstar is to expensive and does not offer a mutli-​car discount package; say for 3 or more GM cars. The kicker for this review was recently the engine light came on on one of our GMs. We hit the blue button, and asked for a diagnostic. The operator advised it was a Transmission Control problem. Scared the heck out of us and it went to the dealer. The dealer advised it was a Emission code and reset the light due to faulty gas cap.
Caused a little bit of issue with dealer, since we initially thought they were trying to put off a factory warranty repair related to the transmission. Called Onstar back to double check previous info, and a different operator detailed it was Emission, not Transmission.
Thanks alot Onstar, geez.

Onstar usually provides great customer care but they messed up with the auto reload calling minutes I signed up for… leaving me for days with no Onstar phone.
This is going on for months –no Im told you can no longer sign up for this plan… HMM I already signed up… I can’t see paying their high rates for Onstar phone minutes. Too bad they couldn’t get this plan to work seamlessly.