XM Weather in Canada

On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:14:15 -0700, Andrew Sarangan
wrote:

How does the vendor know which bank a credit card is drawn from, and
why does he even care?

However, vendors use zip codes to match the credit card to the mailing
address, so using a friend's address in the U.S. is not going to work
unless that friend is also willing to lend you his credit card.

I note that my old thread has come to life again. Here is what I have
discovered, as I posted to aviation.ca:


XM Weather in Canada - How To Get It Easily

Just in case you didn't want to read the whole thread about my
trial-and-error experience, here is how any pilot in Canada can easily
subscribe to XM Satellite Aviation Weather.

1. Purchase your XM receiver - I bought a Garmin 496 from vippilot.com
online. You can buy it in Canada. The radio or antenna will have an XM
radio ID printed on it which you will need when you subscribe. It is
probable that the store you buy it from will not know how you can
subscribe to weather in Canada. Just smile smugly to yourself.

2. DO NOT CALL XM CANADA. They do not offer weather, although they claim
they will some day. These instructions are for if you want it now.

3. Call XM USA and subscribe to their aviation weather. They have two
plans - if you want Canadian weather information you need the more
expensive one, for US$50 per month. They will want a US address - give
them any address in the US or just make one up - you will never need to
receive anything there. If you are desperate try something like "One
Speigel Drive, Chicago, 60609".

4. When they ask for your credit card, say you don't want to use a
credit card, and ask for billing by invoice. If you give them a Canadian
credit card at this point, they will immediately detect that it is not
from a US bank and will be unable to use it, probably due to arcane FCC
and CRTC rules about exactly who is allowed to pay attention to
particular photons of radiation bathing on them from the sky. Instead
they will set you up to receive a monthly invoice by mail, which you can
pay the old fashioned way. DO NOT WORRY, you don't need to receive this
invoice.

5. Confirm that your radio is activated. I had to bring mine out on the
porch, and after being on for 20 minutes or so, it picked up my
subscription and started loading the weather data. Woohoo!

6. OK now you are thinking, I don't want to futz around with paying
monthly bills by cheque, this isn't the 20th century! Well here comes
the tricky bit. Go to www.xmradio.com and create an online login for
your subscription. You enter your radio id and email, and now you can
view your account and billing information. Among other things you can
view all your invoices, so if you did want to pay by cheque, you could
just do it at this point without receiving anything by mail (see?)

The online site also offers an option to pay your invoice online. Click
this and you go to some US bank site, where you can enter a credit card
number. AT THIS POINT THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM!
Ain't capitalism grand? Or rather, ain't Accounts Receivable grand? I
used my plain vanilla Canadian Royal Bank Visa, which of course didn't
even match the bogus address I had provided. It still worked! They don't
care, they just want the money!

Not willing to believe this at first, I waited a couple of days to make
sure the charge went through, which was eventually confirmed.
Interestingly, this process has apparently set my account to bill my
credit card directly, rather than by invoice. I'll confirm this in the
coming months but for now, everything is copascetic.



randall g =%^) PPASEL+Night 1974 Cardinal RG
http://www.telemark.net/randallg
Lots of aerial photographs of British Columbia at:
http://www.telemark.net/randallg/photos.htm
Vancouver's famous Kat Kam: http://www.katkam.ca

Thank you!

John





randall g wrote:
On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:14:15 -0700, Andrew Sarangan
wrote:


How does the vendor know which bank a credit card is drawn from, and
why does he even care?

However, vendors use zip codes to match the credit card to the mailing
address, so using a friend's address in the U.S. is not going to work
unless that friend is also willing to lend you his credit card.


I note that my old thread has come to life again. Here is what I have
discovered, as I posted to aviation.ca:


XM Weather in Canada - How To Get It Easily

Just in case you didn't want to read the whole thread about my
trial-and-error experience, here is how any pilot in Canada can easily
subscribe to XM Satellite Aviation Weather.

1. Purchase your XM receiver - I bought a Garmin 496 from vippilot.com
online. You can buy it in Canada. The radio or antenna will have an XM
radio ID printed on it which you will need when you subscribe. It is
probable that the store you buy it from will not know how you can
subscribe to weather in Canada. Just smile smugly to yourself.

2. DO NOT CALL XM CANADA. They do not offer weather, although they claim
they will some day. These instructions are for if you want it now.

3. Call XM USA and subscribe to their aviation weather. They have two
plans - if you want Canadian weather information you need the more
expensive one, for US$50 per month. They will want a US address - give
them any address in the US or just make one up - you will never need to
receive anything there. If you are desperate try something like "One
Speigel Drive, Chicago, 60609".

4. When they ask for your credit card, say you don't want to use a
credit card, and ask for billing by invoice. If you give them a Canadian
credit card at this point, they will immediately detect that it is not
from a US bank and will be unable to use it, probably due to arcane FCC
and CRTC rules about exactly who is allowed to pay attention to
particular photons of radiation bathing on them from the sky. Instead
they will set you up to receive a monthly invoice by mail, which you can
pay the old fashioned way. DO NOT WORRY, you don't need to receive this
invoice.

5. Confirm that your radio is activated. I had to bring mine out on the
porch, and after being on for 20 minutes or so, it picked up my
subscription and started loading the weather data. Woohoo!

6. OK now you are thinking, I don't want to futz around with paying
monthly bills by cheque, this isn't the 20th century! Well here comes
the tricky bit. Go to www.xmradio.com and create an online login for
your subscription. You enter your radio id and email, and now you can
view your account and billing information. Among other things you can
view all your invoices, so if you did want to pay by cheque, you could
just do it at this point without receiving anything by mail (see?)

The online site also offers an option to pay your invoice online. Click
this and you go to some US bank site, where you can enter a credit card
number. AT THIS POINT THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM!
Ain't capitalism grand? Or rather, ain't Accounts Receivable grand? I
used my plain vanilla Canadian Royal Bank Visa, which of course didn't
even match the bogus address I had provided. It still worked! They don't
care, they just want the money!

Not willing to believe this at first, I waited a couple of days to make
sure the charge went through, which was eventually confirmed.
Interestingly, this process has apparently set my account to bill my
credit card directly, rather than by invoice. I'll confirm this in the
coming months but for now, everything is copascetic.



randall g =%^) PPASEL+Night 1974 Cardinal RG
http://www.telemark.net/randallg
Lots of aerial photographs of British Columbia at:
http://www.telemark.net/randallg/photos.htm
Vancouver's famous Kat Kam: http://www.katkam.ca

My understanding was you put it on your cc and use a US address. I think
it is some licensing thing they can't yet sell the product in Canada.

John

randall g wrote:

I just bought the Garmin 496 and I want to sign up for the aviation
weather service. Unfortunately I live in Canada. When I called to
subscribe they said they couldn't sign me up and I should contact XM
Canada. So I called them, and they do not offer this service at all,
although they rep thought they would someday.

I guess what I need to do is to provide a US address in order to
subscribe to XM USA. I suppose I could make one up, or hire a PO Box
somewhere in the US.

If you subscribe to XM Weather, do they actually send stuff to your
address? Is it important?

If you are a Canadian subscriber to XM Weather, how did you do it? Does
your Canadian credit card work, or do you need to use a card drawn on a
US bank?


randall g =%^) PPASEL+Night 1974 Cardinal RG
http://www.telemark.net/randallg
Lots of aerial photographs of British Columbia at:
http://www.telemark.net/randallg/photos.htm
Vancouver's famous Kat Kam: http://www.katkam.ca