Crimson Pearl
Seasoned Member
A little background first. As you all know, you can purchase minutes to be used to make telephone calls via the Onstar system in your XLR. They are somewhat expensive, but I like to have some available for emergencies or in case I could not make a call using my cell phone.
In March of this year, I received an email fom Onstar indicating that my 100 minutes of calling time would expire some time in April, but if I purchased 100 new minutes, I could "roll over" my existing 100 minutes and have 200 minutes that would be good until April of 2013. This I did and received confirmation via email.
On June 7, I was getting everything ready in order to head out to Pennsylvania the next day. I went to verify that I had 200 minutes available for calls via Onstar. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that I had NO minutes!
I contacted Onstar and they said they would look into it and call me back. I did not receive a call from Onstar. We headed out the next day, and while traveling, called Onstar. I was placed on hold for many miles and finally was told that it had been turned over to the "Technical Department". This same pattern was repeated each time that I called, including on the trip home Saturday, a week later. So we made our whole eight-day trip with no resolution to the problem.
I contacted Onstar several times during the last six weeks and the best that i got from them was that there was a "technical problem" that they were still "working on". Finally, Onstar called last week to inform us that they were still working on the problem!
So, Onstar calls me today about 6:00 pm and informs me that the source of the problem was that they had implemented a new software system and that was the source of the problem. They said that the problem had been resolved and that they could now download my minutes.
Crimson Pearl stays in the garage when not being driven, and would need to be outside so the satellite could "see" the car. They told me that when I had the car outside, to call Onstar and ask for the "Technical Department". So I pulled Crimson Pearl outside and called Onstar.
They were able to download the minutes and now when I check the minutes, it indicates that my 200 minutes are now available. I made a "test" call and it appears to function properly, as it did prior to June of this year.
I thought I would share this with everyone as it might be helpful or informative to someone else.
In March of this year, I received an email fom Onstar indicating that my 100 minutes of calling time would expire some time in April, but if I purchased 100 new minutes, I could "roll over" my existing 100 minutes and have 200 minutes that would be good until April of 2013. This I did and received confirmation via email.
On June 7, I was getting everything ready in order to head out to Pennsylvania the next day. I went to verify that I had 200 minutes available for calls via Onstar. Imagine my surprise when I was informed that I had NO minutes!
I contacted Onstar and they said they would look into it and call me back. I did not receive a call from Onstar. We headed out the next day, and while traveling, called Onstar. I was placed on hold for many miles and finally was told that it had been turned over to the "Technical Department". This same pattern was repeated each time that I called, including on the trip home Saturday, a week later. So we made our whole eight-day trip with no resolution to the problem.
I contacted Onstar several times during the last six weeks and the best that i got from them was that there was a "technical problem" that they were still "working on". Finally, Onstar called last week to inform us that they were still working on the problem!
So, Onstar calls me today about 6:00 pm and informs me that the source of the problem was that they had implemented a new software system and that was the source of the problem. They said that the problem had been resolved and that they could now download my minutes.
Crimson Pearl stays in the garage when not being driven, and would need to be outside so the satellite could "see" the car. They told me that when I had the car outside, to call Onstar and ask for the "Technical Department". So I pulled Crimson Pearl outside and called Onstar.
They were able to download the minutes and now when I check the minutes, it indicates that my 200 minutes are now available. I made a "test" call and it appears to function properly, as it did prior to June of this year.
I thought I would share this with everyone as it might be helpful or informative to someone else.
