Told SiriusXM to Pound Sand

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Messages
28,049
Location
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Well, it took me long enough, but I caught onto their shenanigans. When I got the G37, I was on a renewal of every three months. Last year, they bugged me relentlessly to go to an annual renewal, which would save me a little bit. Sure, I finally gave in, though I did tell them it's exceedingly silly for them to hound me to pay less, when I was a happy subscriber for four years already. Well, now I find out why they do this.

Fortunately for me, this year, my credit card was replaced, thanks to expiry, and they ended up having to call me. This time, "my" annual plan would have saved me nothing over even a monthly renewal, after doing a quick calculation in my head, and actually cost more, thanks to them adjusting plans and modifying the tier, with them bumping me up into a higher tier, just because the plan changed (I didn't have internet radio on my previous plan, but this renewal would give me internet radio, which I never asked for, and never had before). I told her that the online plan, right in front of me, showed me I should be getting a month free. Oh, she can correct that and give me the free month, she says. I told her to cancel. What if I were to be given three free months? Nope, cancel it. How about five free months, nope, cancel it. I had to be bumped up the totem pole, of course.

I told the next person to cancel, and she asked if the the free months aren't enough. I told her that this isn't an issue about pricing. They have a price for a product, and it's either worth it to me and I'm a customer, or it's not worth it, and I don't buy. Since I've been a customer for almost five years, I obviously was satisfied with the pricing. What it costs isn't the issue. I'm not even terribly upset with prices going up on occasion. That happens. What I'm upset with is that my annual plan, which I signed up for last year, is basically a legacy annual plan, on legacy rates. The annual plan price actually dropped, but I'm on last year's annual plan, so I don't get the rate drop, but am bumped up a tier instead? How can that be an annual plan?

I told her the issue is that they cannot leave well enough alone. They have to monkey with their plans constantly, and give the bare minimum of notification, and simply have credit card renewals, making a set of ideal circumstances for people to not be paying sufficient attention and have their plans and/or pricing altered in an unanticipated fashion. I told her I'm not interested in a bunch of months for free. I told her I still want to cancel, because we know exactly what's going to happen.

Within the next twelve months, I told her, we both know that the plans will be tinkered with once again. And then, twelve months from now, we know I'll be back on the telephone again, spending ten minutes to half an hour trying to determine what's changed and trying to wrangle a discount or getting onto the new plan or whatever. This, of course, absolutely defeats the purpose of an annual plan with annual renewal, and I want no part of it. I want my package to stay the same, with no mysterious new addons, with the same basic discount, and I want it every year, and I'm not concerned about inflationary adjustments.

The real kicker is that I couldn't go to their self-service online, since my account information was no longer valid because I was on a legacy plan. A year old annual plan is a legacy plan and doesn't let me do online self service to correct my credit card number or select a current plan? Good grief.
 
They scam so bad send you "past due" bills that are actually for service 1-2months in the future..
SHADY as ****
 
They will call back and offer you three months for $19.99. Every time my plan gets close to the opt-out date, i call and ...opt out. They try to get me to buy other plans but i tell them, no. I will only stay on if you offer the exact same plan as before. They oblige, i write down the opt-out date and 'the wheels on the bus go round and round'.
 
My last deal was five months for like $26.00 with a free month thrown in. It's an absolutely hassle to call them every 6 months (I am up again July 19th).

I have learned the best way to keep the phone call short is to say if you don't give me what I had last time I will cancel. The issue being is that they (as you said) are constantly changing their plans and they have to put you through to a supervisor to get your "old plan" since it essentially doesn't exist anymore.

It's definitely a benefit on road trips.
 
Last edited:
What wemay said. I had negotiated down to 1/2 price at opt out time for years, until I told them I wasn't interested in any of they're plans.
 
Get ready to be relentlessly hounded for the next 6 months. Calls, Junk Mail etc. I canceled service years ago on a car that I sold that had a built in Radio, this was when XM and Sirius were separate companies. The car I bought had Sirius instead of XM built in so I called XM to cancel. I was offered free months of service... um I don't own that car any longer. What about 6 months of free service... Yeah let me go ahead and get that set up for the next guy... What part of I don't own the radio anymore don't you understand. Long story short they finally canceled the account and then proceded to call and send me letters asking to reactivate service. Face Palm!
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
They scam so bad send you "past due" bills that are actually for service 1-2months in the future..

Up here, they don't even send mail or bills. They just do the credit card renewal thing, setting up the minefield I described.

As wemay mentioned, I'm sure they will be calling back, or emailing me, or something. I told them to call back when they have a lifetime plan again. Sure, their product has its limitations and its advantages. I accept all of that. I legitimately like the product and was obviously willing to pay their prices. But, don't sell annual plans that change every six months. Maybe if they offer me one of their three year plans at a significant discount, I'll consider it, but I'm not playing games every year or every six months. I was better off on their three month plan.

They can't even keep their plan lengths consistent. I don't even recall a monthly plan when I started. I do, for sure, remember three month, annual, and lifetime plans. Now, they've got them as monthly or yearly plans, with two and three year plans, with one year and monthly only for the top tier. They don't even offer three month plans any longer.

And with their retention tactics, no wonder my online self service didn't work. They can't pester you to death when a mouse click allows you to cancel.
 
My father, somehow, managed to get a refund from them! They had Sirius in their 2008 wrangler and he would listen to stuff on it that we didn't get on TV (I believe races). My mom liked it a lot too.

The commercials on the regular music radio stations and during the NASCAR events got them mad. He spent a few hours on the phone, but did manage to get a refund ... somehow.
 
Worst company ever. The scammy mailings are bad enough, but the illiterate, half-conscious, marble-mouthed telemarketers are even worse. They were relentlessly going after me for months on end.

I used to hear about an illegal work-around to get the service back on newer cars without paying. I won't do it, but Sirius' bad customer service certainly made me think twice about it.
 
I've been doing the $25 for 6 months for a while now. They also have a 5 month for $20. They sometimes claim that they don't have that so I settle for the $25. I try to make it quick, it usually takes me 10 minutes on the phone with them. They will usually start with some $100 for a year and then their best offer is the $25 for 6 or $20 for 5. I tell them I've read about the deal online and if they don't want to offer it, they can just cancel it. Otherwise if you don't do that, you end up playing through their script which can take 20-30 minutes. Done it about 3 times so far and it works every time. I just put in my calendar to call before it expires. I did call once a day late, they do refund you whatever is due and it's pro-rated.
 
I was a Sirius subscriber from day one when it was available in my state ( they rolled out enrolling subscribers a few states at a time ), reached a zenith of five subscriptions, and am now down to only one XM sub in the wife's Torrent.

For all the reasons you describe. Billing shenanigans, and diminshed quality of the streams with all the compression to fit more dubious channels in the bandwidth. The one sub I have, I now have my calender flagged to call and cancel the day before it "auto" renews, and go through the ordeal of getting the deal I already have.

If I ever use the Solstice again, I'll probably get a sub for it just long enough to cover football season.

These companies are great when they start and are big money losers. I understand the need to have new subscribers, but screwing over old customers to entice new ones really rubs me the wrong way.
 
they(Sirius) used to offer a $500 "lifetime" subscription. I have an old Tuner, with one of these subs on it, and am tempted to replace the factory tuner in my car with it(if i can find the right interface equipment)

I am Currently paying around $250/yr for the tuner in my current car.
 
I've received like 5 letters in the last 4 months from them asking me to renew the trial subscription that came with my SRT. I have a USB key plugged in loaded with music, why do I want a pay for service?
 
Never sign up for pay radio or TV, ever. I only had the original 3 mos. service back in 05. It was terrible then. Paying for someone elses music won't work. They turn it on for a week every few months as a demo. I get so sick of the boring content and the commercials. They play a song I like then one that is ok then play total junk. I sometimes listen to the news channels but they have too many commercials. Sirius is as bad as pay TV only 2 times worse. I have "my music" on my mp3, and it's free and I don't have to constantly change channels. I blocked their emails and calls years ago.
 
Never had a problem with SiriusXM... they just don't offer the content I'm interested in... such as world music, Jpop, and world news outside of western media.
 
I ended up asking for free trial during a sales call and never provided credit card info as I did not have it. They were supposed to call me back. The xm radio has worked for 3 years straight. I don't use it much.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top