Just Don't Do It! Don't ever activate SiriusXM. They make it nearly impossible to cancel!

[jame_g]

Thinking of activating a SiriusXM account? Don't make that mistake. Trust me, eventually you'll regret it.

After being a customer for 5 years, and rarely needing to interact with them, I found out that their customer service was horrible when I decided it was time to make some changes to my service. I could not find the information I wanted on their website. The SiriusXM agents could not answer my questions about their plans or radios, and would hang up on me when I repeated my question because they avoided answering it.

So I gave up and decided I'd had enough and would cancel instead of paying for a plan I no longer wanted when I couldn't get adequate information on other radios or plans.

Well, SiriusXM tries to make it impossible to cancel. There's only one department that will do it, over the phone. You can't cancel on the website, they won't accept an e-mail request. They won't even do it when requested as part of a complaint about not being able to cancel because of their poor customer service.

When you contact the department necessary to cancel, you will end up on hold for over 30 minutes at a time. When you do finally reach someone and tell them that you want to cancel, they will hang up on you if you don't go for one of their plan to try to keep you. You will waste a lot of time trying to do this more than once.

The only way I was finally able to cancel was to call my credit card company and tell them that I wanted to block future bills from SiriusXM. They transferred me to the department that handled billing disputes. That department contacted SiriusXM with me on the line. Then I had to make my request so that they could record and witness it in order to prevent any future billings. Even then I was subjected to being placed on hold and transferred, and getting another sales pitch, but at least this time they (supposedly) finally listened.

My best advice: Don't activate a SiriusXM account, and don't give them any of your credit card or account information!

 

[JimmyMcGee]

Best Advice: Never buy anything from anyone. Entertainment companies, cable companies, Internet companies like your money and don't want to loose it so they make it difficult to cancel.

Second Best Advise: Learn to say no over And over and over again.

 

[Crash758]

I cancelled an account with Sirius about a month ago. Talked to one person and took about five minutes. Guess it depends on who you get when you call.

 

[JimmyMcGee]

I cancelled an account with Sirius about a month ago. Talked to one person and took about five minutes. Guess it depends on who you get when you call.

That's my experience with companies too. If you are getting nowhere hang up and call again. Different people have different personalities and these customer service people are... *gasp* ...people. Just like you have good and bad days so do they. I wouldn't hold that against a company.

 

[Mr Tony]

I had Sirius for 5 years and canceled last year. I was like the OP and never called them before. called and said I wanted to cancel. Got txfrd to a rep in less than 2 minutes. I told them why I wanted to cancel (didnt have a need for it anymore) and they offered me a package to stay. I declined and the receiver was shut off within an hour. The rep told me I could come back at any time if I wanted.

Very professional in my opinion.

Total time on phone...about 10 minutes

Like noted above, you get good reps and bad ones. I had a bad rep the other day when I called the bank about something. I hung up and called back and got a great rep. Its called "CSR Roulette"...it works really good

 

[dtanderson]

I had Sirius for 5 years and canceled last year. I was like the OP and never called them before. called and said I wanted to cancel. Got txfrd to a rep in less than 2 minutes. I told them why I wanted to cancel (didnt have a need for it anymore) and they offered me a package to stay. I declined and the receiver was shut off within an hour. The rep told me I could come back at any time if I wanted.

Very professional in my opinion.

Total time on phone...about 10 minutes

Same here, I just canceled my service yesterday. My experience was the same as yours. I have been with them for a long time also, right about the time Howard Stern went to Sirius.

 

[televisionarchives]

It was a major hassle for me to cancel. I don't miss them at all. Streaming audio on the phone is better anyway.

I remember all the hype behind Satellite Radio. Some people telling me it would be the end of AM and FM . I had heard that before . I knew better. Satellite Radio is going to have a very tough hall over the next few years.

 

[Mr Tony]

on a side note Sirius is throwing away money with the "please come back" mail they send me all the time. Its been over a year and the radio is in some landfill somewhere....I'm not coming back Sirius! No need to send me the 5 months for $20 things

 

[jame_g]

Why do they make it so difficult and nasty for some people, and yet it is apparently easy for others? How come I always had waits on hold over 30 minutes and others managed to get right through? I've found a lot of complaints similar to mine, so I know it's not isolated. It actually seems very prevalent from what I can tell. Something isn't right with this. Regardless, SiriusXM has pretty much lost my business permanently, and will get very negative feedback any time they come up in a discussion with anyone I know.

 

[JerseyMatt]

They must just hate you. For every person who whines about them, there's thousands who recommend them. They have 20 million subscribers, so I'm sure they're crying buckets about your very negative feedback.

I've been an XM sub for going on 10 years. Over those years I've added and deleted several radios, and I've never had a problem flat out cancelling a radio (I cancelled 5 radios in one shot during the month that Opie and Anthony were wrongfully suspended). I've never waited on hold more than 5 minutes. I've had one billing issue which was fixed (and I was compensated nicely for) with a 10 minute call. I don't see why people seem to have so much trouble. I will admit the company as a whole has gone downhill since the merger, and there is no question it is Sirius' fault. But there's no way you're going to tell me that they 'refuse' to cancel you. You say you want to cancel, they offer you a retention deal (5 for $20), you refuse it, they cancel you. Simple as that.

Oh, and FYI, they CAN'T hang up on you. Their terminals don't allow it. You have to hang up for them to end the call. Call centers are set up like that purposely to prevent what you claim happened.

 

[truckracer]

I have had sirius for over 5 years. No problems.

 

[Tac]

I have not had any trouble with Sirius when calling in either. I actually talked to them 2 weeks ago about my sub and the agent offered me 1 year of programing for $50.00. She then also informed me that next year when it runs out, call back in to see what promos they are running.

 

[Overland1]

Just got off the phone with the Sirius rep and cancelled my subscriptions (two in the Jeeps and one in the house); the rep was friendly and helpful, and the whole process was completed within a few minutes (after ~7 minutes on hold).

For what it is worth, I did not cancel because of being angry with Sirius; it is more that we do not use it much anymore. The receiver in the house has only a few hours of use on it, and we do not travel as much as we used to (wife is recently retired). Most of my travel is within 25 miles of home and in warm weather, I ride the motorcycle. Sirius has always been pretty helpful whenever I have called them.

Now, on the the actual broadcasting. Having worked in that field ("terrestrial" radio/TV before it was referred to as such), I tend to notice good radio and bad radio. Much of what determines good or bad broadcasting is dependent upon the show's host, but Sirius has a lot of control over other aspects. For example, the seemingly exponential growth of ads for wiener pills is more than somewhat apparent. The rise in the number of commercials in general is also quite apparent. When I started as a subscriber almost eight years ago, there were very few ads and programming on each channel remained on its assigned channels. Now, the Patriot (125) channel carries sports events that should be on a sports oriented channel. While listening to Andrew Wilkow on Saturday afternoon (a rerun from a previous day), he was cut off in the middle of a word by a promo... who is running the board over there (that was a common question when such happened on any station several years ago)? Had I done stuff like that, regardless of the reason, I would have been gone in short order - keeping a tight board meant a great deal as it often meant increased revenue.

As for the music channels, they do OK. I listened often to #6 (60's); bringing in Bruce (aka, "Cousin Brucie") Morrow was a stroke of genius, as he still sounds as good today as he did several decades ago. We were listening to his show when he was broadcasting from San Gennaro in NYC; my wife asked me if that sort of show made me miss the business, and I replied that it did, as we used to do frequent remote broadcasts from all sorts of places and had a blast doing them. Sirius' soul and Motown channels are also excellent.

I wish SiriusXM well and sincerely want them to succeed. Maybe someday I will return as a subscriber, if I have a need and their programming is improved.

 

[rogerpl]

I call to cancel, they give me great deal to stay. I want sat radio but gets harder to justify cost vs my usage.

 

[cave1376]

I just started a new one year subscription. When the operator asked me for a c.c. #, I told him I didn't have my c.c. with me and if I could pay by check. They sent me the bill by mail and I paid it using a check. Next year, if I decide not to renew my subscription, and I have the same issues , I won't send them a check.

 

[Rangers484]

Have had XM since 2004 and no issues with billing, cancelling radios, adding a radio, getting a deal when I think the price no longer is justified.

You tell them what you want, they tell you what they can do. You accept it or or cancel the subscription. Never waited on hold and never had the CSR refuse to cancel me or hang up.

 

[satjay]

Each time I go to cancel to renew they are pretty fast with a special price

 

[DJdish]

I had XM for 4 years until mid 2008, no problems, I cancelled because I was moving to Europe for undefinite time and it just did not make sense to keep my sub, of course the CSR offered me I think a 5 buck a month deal, but I declined explaining there was no cost benefit for me to just listen on internet and the CSR then cancelled my sub, no more questions aked or begging me to stay with them.
I enjoyed the Old Time Radio Classics, but no I´m not thinking of renewing my sub.

 

[Annie61]

I .
I enjoyed the Old Time Radio Classics, but no I´m not thinking of renewing my sub.

That is one of the main channels I just decided to sign up for internet only! I LOVE that channel. (along with a few music channels)
I couldn't figure out what type radio to get when I looked on line, then when I went to Best Buy no-one would help me. So my computer has speakers so I said the heck with it, I'll just do the internet radio. Obviously the music channels would probably sound much better coming out of a "real" radio. But I think the service is worth it.

 

[chiodo]

I cancelled Sirus and had no problems, I did have an issue once long ago when I cancelled XM (before merger) because I was pissed that they never honored my rebate, because, I didn't buy my radio from an authorized retailer. Anyhow my wife was able to buy an XM radio that has a lifetime subscription on it from a co-worker who didn't want it anymore, so that's in my truck now.