I rarely use the word “never” as in “I will never do …” because I think God’s sense of humor compels us to do what it is we like to say we will never do. That said, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever sign up for SiriusXM service again.
And now for the story… We bought our car in 2009 and it came with a free year of SiriusXM satellite radio service. My wife liked the service much more than I did. She liked that she could choose to listen to the different decades of music. My music listening has subsided a great deal and I really only listen to podcasts and audio books these days. February 2010 rolled around and our Sirius service was cut off. That was fine with me, but my wife was enjoying listening to it on her way to & from work. I called and negotiated a plan for what I can only assume was $150. This plan, without a way to opt out, would automatically renew the following year.
Shortly after I renewed, my wife fell ill again, and guess what? The satellite radio, if turned on, was only ever turned on accidentally. Fast forward now to February 2011. SiriusXM sent me letters via the postal service, as well as e-mail stating things such as “your subscription is about to run out”, “renew now”, etc. I figured that when I didn’t renew, they would simply cancel my service, but they did not. Instead, they renewed my subscription, which I did not want, and billed me. During this time I had more important things to deal with, such as my wife had a heart attack & multiple strokes and was hospitalized through the entire month of March, and part of April. And now I was taking care of her full-time at home as well as working when I could.
I found a moment to cancel my account. I knew there was going to be trouble when I could find no way of cancelling online, they made me call them. Of course, their “customer service department” is some Asian call center on the other side of the globe with the agents using phoney English names along with bad accents. I told them that I wanted to cancel my account, and they countered with a $25 for 5 months “special” since I was such a “good customer”. I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of calling them again in 5 months, and I didn’t want their service. I repeated, “No, I just want to cancel.” They said OK, pro-rated my bill and stated that I owed them $25 for the past two months of their service, of which I didn’t use. I told the SiriusXM agent that I hadn’t used the service in at least six months, didn’t authorize them to auto-renew my account, and that I wanted to speak to her manager. A “manager” came on the line after about a 5 minute hold time. I again stated that I didn’t feel like I should have to pay $25 for a service I didn’t use. He said that they had no way of telling if I had used the service or not. I then told him that I had been offered their $25 for 5 months deal, and now they want to charge me $25 for 2 months! To which he replied, “you’re not eligible for that deal.” I then tried to obtain some sympathy and compassion from them and told him that my wife had suffered a stroke & a heart attack, and had been in the hospital February & March. He had the nerve to say, “I am sorry about your wife, but this is a business.” At that point in time I could no longer argue with these people, I had to go take care of my wife. I did yell “I can’t argue with you anymore. I’m not paying it. I have to go take care of my wife.” I was actually very explicit about what I had to do to help her.
After I calmed down, I wrote their customer service via the supplied web form and more or less told them the above. The following day I posted a message to their twitter account, with no response. I figured that they wouldn’t like the PR. Oh well, bad PR is still PR, right? The same day I received a response from the customer service form:
Dear Mr. Miller,
Thank you for contacting SiriusXM regarding your billing concern. We are here to assist.
We are sorry to learn about the conditions of your wife. We have reviewed your account and our records indicate that your 1-year Mostly music service for the receiver with ESN xxx renewed on 2/18/11. We have sent invoice bills on 2/18/11 and on 3/18/11 to inform you about the status of your account and your outstanding balance. However, we didn’t receive any response until 4/15/11 when you deactivated the service. You were offered a 5-month promotion to keep your service active but according to the notes, you declined the offer. Your account has a past due balance of $25.96 for the service from 2/18/11 to 4/15/11.
If your subscription is cancelled, you will still be responsible for payment of all outstanding balances accrued through the cancellation date, including any fees described herein.
Please note that as per Terms and Conditions, your subscription will continue for the length of the initial term you select on your plan (“Subscription Term”) and at the end of your prepaid subscription term, it will automatically renew for another prepaid period of the same length unless you choose to cancel prior to that renewal, or your service is cancelled, terminated, or discontinued by you or by us, or you select a different plan. Your account will automatically be charged (or you will be billed, as applicable) at the rates in effect at the time of renewal. Please visit http://www.siriusxm.com/pdf/siriusxm_customeragreement_eng.pdf
We are committed to providing you with the best in listener care. If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this email.
And you can always manage your account online 24/7 by clicking
http://www.siriusxm.com/
Thank you,
Ervin
SiriusXM Email Listener Care Team
1-866-635-2349
Well Ervin, thanks for the compassion there buddy. Hey, on 3/18/11, I was in the hospital with my wife because she was recovering from multiple strokes & a heart attack. Do you really think checking my mail and contacting SiriusXM was a top priority for me? If so, you’re an idiot. Since I waited 5 days to decide to actually pay you, why don’t you make it even worse and charge me a $5 late fee TODAY April 19th, the day I decided to be done with you forever. And now, Ervin, my wife has had another series of strokes and is back in the hospital. I’d love another short one sentence of compassion rather than being a human being and offering to wave the $30.96 fee for a service that hadn’t been used most of the year.
So, let’s sum things up:
- SiriusXM plans auto-renew without an option to opt out of auto-renew.
- SiriusXM’s best “listener care” is to not give a damn about one’s circumstances. After all, they’re a business.
- If you don’t want SiriusXM’s $25 for 5 months deal, they will charge you $25 for 2 months instead, and then 5 days later charge you another $5 late fee.
SiriusXM is a bankrupt & heartless company who’s service is past their time. Stream radio through your mobile phone instead. Think about it, any company that won’t wave $25 to avoid bad PR doesn’t deserve your money.
UPDATE APRIL 20th, 2011:
After this blog post went live, I replied to Erwin’s heartless note:
Hey, on 3/18/11, I was in the hospital with my wife because she was recovering from multiple strokes & a heart attack. Do you really think checking my mail and contacting SiriusXM was a top priority for me? If so, you’re an idiot.
At 9:31pm, April 19th, I received the following reply:
Dear Mr. Miller,
Thank you for contacting SiriusXM. Please keep in mind that your concern is a priority and we value you as a customer. All of our customers are appreciated and each subscriber plays an active role in the growth of SiriusXM. This issue will be forwarded to the relevant department and your concerns will be investigated. This will, hopefully, further enhance the service which we provide.
We hope you are enjoying SiriusXM’s 100% commercial-free music and entertainment programming. We are committed to providing you with the best in listener care. If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this email.
And you can always manage your account online 24/7 by clicking
http://www.siriusxm.com/
Thank you,
Radian
SiriusXM Email Listener Care Team
1-866-635-2349
I also believe that they attempted to call me this afternoon, but I don’t talk to people on the phone while in my wife’s hospital room. We’ll see what happens from here, but since they already have my money, I doubt anything satisfactory to me will occur.
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