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I would strongly recommend against trying out SiriusXM

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deonb

Active Member
Mar 4, 2013
4,062
4,363
Redmond, WA
Shortly after I picked up the Model S in February I subscribed to SiriusXM.

I figured it might not be as bad as everybody was saying and it may be novel to have. Yeah, I was wrong. The service is really is as awful as everybody makes it out to be. TuneIn and Slacker makes XM obsolete. I tried it out for 1 day and quit.

Here comes the fun part...

Since March I tried to cancel the service. I phoned them up in March to cancel, which they said they did, but then just ignored. They kept charging me. It was charged on a credit card that coincidentally was expiring in 2 months; I didn't want to go through cancelling again, so I just figured that once the card runs out they'll send me a few warnings, and then cancel the service.

Except, their "few warnings" is a phone call every few hours until they get hold of you. On the worse day (at that point) I have had 5 missed calls from them. I finally answered, and they complained about their bill, and I said I wanted to cancel (again). After running through their long script of retention strategies, they agreed fine, they'll cancel. But there was an outstanding balance, which I need to settle first... It was just a once-off thing.

Wary of them at this point, I gave them another credit card number that was about to expire. Sure enough, they charged the outstanding amount... and then promptly renewed the service again on my new credit card. I wasn’t going to deal with them again, so I figured this time I'll just ignore their calls until they give up.

Yeah, no. Of course the same thing happened, except their calls every few hours turned into hourly, then into every few minutes. Twice I would answer to just yell at them out of frustration. At one point I was in a meeting, they would call, I press "Don't answer", and they would immediately call back. In the scope of 30 minutes they called 8 times. I eventually was forced to leave the meeting to take the call.

Went through the same thing again, of course this time with a little bit more colorful language on my part, cancelled, and this time I was clever (or at least I thought so) - I asked them to send me a bill for the outstanding amount and I'll send them a check, so that they CAN'T automatically renew.

Except it didn’t work. The calls didn't stop. They would still call me a few times per day because of the outstanding amount. After answering and talking to them 3 times, and stating that THEY promised to send me a final bill, and I send them a check back, I finally had to ask to speak to the call center supervisor and threaten to sue them in order to leave me alone. Finally the calls stopped.

Aha! I beat the system. Hooray!

Or not... their bill for the check just arrived:

"By sending in a check or by filling in the payment information below, you are agreeing to the terms of our automatic renewal".
 
Because I disagree with the first few lines of your post, I wish they would fix the remainder of the points you make. It's just such atrocious business behavior to not treat customers better. Yea, they made few extra bucks off of you, but how many people won't subscribe and thus lose months or years of potential service to many customers.

While if one only ever listens to music then your comments about Slacker and Tune-in may be right (I disagree, but it's more opinion, I think the mixes on Slacker, for the most part, are repetitive and their library of selections is much smaller than XM), I'm a sports fan and the ability to listen to every Cardinals, Razorback and NFL game as well as National News channels and specialty music channels makes it worthwhile to me...but then I've never tried to cancel a subscription...

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Dispute the charge with the credit card company. Refuse to pay.

Yea, but bolster that with exact dates, times and names of whom you spoke with, and exactly what was said/promised. Write a letter, and make sure to CC everyone you can think of.
 
SiriusXM is the worst. Two years ago I stopped listening to their programming and I called to cancel. Their retention folks offered to discount the service more than 50%, if I stayed on, so I agreed. After receiving my Model S, I called to cancel, and their retention folks tried to make it appealing for me to renew. I told them I wouldn't take it for free, because the service was tied to a radio in a car I was selling. And that finally ended it. I asked them for confirmation of cancellation in writing. Good riddance.

Anyway, I'm much happier with Slacker in the Model S, and I don't lose signal near tall buildings or in parking garages.
 
Anyway, I'm much happier with Slacker in the Model S, and I don't lose signal near tall buildings or in parking garages.
Interestingly, that's another reason I love XM...I live in an area, and regularly drive through areas, where 3G coverage is terrible. But I can get XM anywhere with the rare building or bridge blocking the signal. Even at my home the 3G signal is so poor that I can't consistently tune Slacker.
 
While if one only ever listens to music then your comments about Slacker and Tune-in may be right (I disagree, but it's more opinion, I think the mixes on Slacker, for the most part, are repetitive and their library of selections is much smaller than XM), I'm a sports fan and the ability to listen to every Cardinals, Razorback and NFL game as well as National News channels and specialty music channels makes it worthwhile to me...but then I've never tried to cancel a subscription...

I agree slacker is repetitive. Tune-in however is not. And even Tune-In has a better audio quality than XM.

Either way, content is subjective. I'm sure XM has some stuff that you care about and I don't. I don't care about the Cardinals or any other basketball teams - I do listen to South African local cricket matches though, which XM doesn't carry, but Tune-in does.

But even if that wasn't the case, and XM has specific content you think you may care about, I would still not recommend subscribing to them to try it out.

Or at least, until you're very sure you want to have the service for life, use an anonymous burner debit card, blatantly lie about your name & address, and give them an ex's phone number.
 
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Sounds like AOL.....
One notice of cancellation in writing.
Always use AMEX (if you have one).
Get AMEX a copy of the cancellation letter and tell them to let loose the dogs. If there is one thing AMEX is absolutely the best at it is hammering on vendors.
 
HOLY CRAP!! I looked them up on Better Business Bureau and this one takes the cake of all companies I've ever searched for on there!! Usually I've seen a couple dozen, MAYBE a hundred complaints for a company once... but SiriusXM has 6987 complaints!!!! WOWW!! I've never seen so many complaints before for a company...this has got to be one of the most corrupt company's in existence!

http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/bu...companies/sirius-xm-radio-in-new-york-ny-9591

bbb_sirusxm.png


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Dispute the charge with the credit card company. Refuse to pay.

oh and this works. I do this every time I have an issue with something. I've never lost a dispute, ever. Credit card companies side with the customer 100% of the time unless the company can prove you wrong. It's kind of like that 'innocent until proven guilty' where you are the innocent one and they company that you are disputing has to prove you wrong.

so just call your credit company up and 1) dispute every single charge (you'll get ALL your money back). if you complain about the service that you didn't get what you paid for, you'll get every 100% back. also 2) ask if there is some sort of block you can place on them, or cancel your current card # and have them issue a new one but that's a hassle if you've got other automatic payments set up.
 
They are the worst. Every car I've had, I never gave a credit card because it's auto renewal. Most compnsies are doing that these days.

NEVER subscribe to XM period.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. STAY AWAY!
 
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Wow, I've had XM since 2004. I love it. My son loves the MLB stations. No, I've never asked to drop it. Maybe I should so I can negotiate a new lower rate!!!

When my wife and I went on our 5540 mile trip across the US in our S in May - June we listened to almost nothing but XM. Internet radio was usually real spotty. In some cities it would work for a bit, but driving long distance, internet just doesn't cut it. I did have a flash drive with some music on it, but the UI for listening to that in the S isn't all that great. The need to add support for play lists etc.

When I first got the service, XM and Sirius were separate. Once they joined, the selections did drop in quality a bit. I took that as due to the fact that the Sirius folks were foul enough to include a station just for Howard Stern. Maybe that's just the sort of folks they are and that would explain the Customer Service, or lack thereof... But that's just my opinion.
 
My previous car came with a free 6 month trial Sirius XM subscription. I didn't use it, but they kept hounding me to renew it. Constant mailings, phone calls, and they wouldn't stop despite me asking them to. Finally they called when I wasn't busy, and I decided to make a project of stringing them along as long as I possibly could. They tried every sales angle imaginable and I just kept answering in contradictory and/or vague terms. After about 15 minutes of this they hung up on me, and have never bothered me again!
 
When I first got the service, XM and Sirius were separate. Once they joined, the selections did drop in quality a bit. I took that as due to the fact that the Sirius folks were foul enough to include a station just for Howard Stern. Maybe that's just the sort of folks they are and that would explain the Customer Service, or lack thereof... But that's just my opinion.

I had a lifetime subscription to Sirius, it was $500 one time in 2005, when they merged with XM, I upgraded it to a XM lifetime subscription for $175 (don't even ask about these thieves), then they had a clause in the user agreement, that once a lifetime subscription is transferred to a vehicle, it can never be moved again. I protested loudly via, email, registered letters and phone calls to them, stating that they didn't inform me if this policy before taking my money to upgrade to the XM lifetime subscription... Then about a year later, the Model S arrived, and of course they didn't want to move the subscription. I emailed them the email trail from the go around I had with them last time, and they moved the subscription over for a one time charge of $75. The only reason I even have it is to listed to Howard Stern, who is quite talented, despite what some people think. I've paid them about $750 total since 2005 (I got the lifetime subscription about a year before Howard Stern went live in January of 2006), I also made $3,000 on Sirius stock after the run up when Howard announced he was moving to Sirius, so I look at it all as free, but these people are absolute crooks and thieves. The only way to best them is a lifetime subscription, then never buy anything from them ever again.. Each month that goes by, my average cost goes down, I'm in about 105 months now for $750, it's still over. $7/month, I suppose it beats the monthly cost. Luckily I made money on the Sirius stock, so I view it as all free :)
 
I learned with my first experience with XM (a trial period came with a previous car), that you never want to give them a phone number that you can't mute. They are the devil when it comes to torturing you with phone calls.
 
Spotify Premium and Bluetooth streaming is the way to go for music on the go... You can create your own playlists from just about any song ever written, never have to "buy" any music, listen commercial free, subscribe to other peoples' playlists, and sync your phone to listen without using mobile data service. Best music content and service I have ever used!!
 
Interesting discussion. I never ever use XM. My wife got it on a Chevy she bought new 7 or 8 years ago. 6 month trial. I figured when the 6 months ran out we'd just let it go. She got addicted to it. When the trial period ended I had to renew it. She almost panicked when she thought she wouldn't have the XM. So for me it's a no brainer. She wants it, she gets it. I had no idea they weren't an honorable business. I just renew it for whatever the max time period/cheapest per month is, and she's happy.
 
Had a 6 month trial on a Prius I bought last year. Didn't use it that much, so didn't buy in. Glad I didn't after reading this. I get a piece of junk mail from them every couple of months.

On a somewhat related note I had a Merrill Lynch account for about 10-12 years with a few mutual funds in it. I got tired of the lack of service coupled with an exorbitant annual fee, so, 3-4 years ago, I moved all the funds elsewhere, but had to liquidate a couple, leaving $0.04 in the account. I made a phone call at the time to close the account, but kept getting quarterly statements updating me on the care of my 4 cents. I made one more call with the rep telling me (somewhat sarcastically) that he would mail me a check for 4 cents. Whatever dude, just close the account. Now I get notifications telling me there's not enough money in my account for the annual fee and if I don't pay, the remaining money in my account will be debited and the account closed. I think "awesome, mission complete" , but that never happens and they keep sending me notices, trying to get me to cough up the annual fee. I suppose I'll have to call again at some point, but would rather spend my valuable time posting on internet forums.
 
Because I disagree with the first few lines of your post, I wish they would fix the remainder of the points you make. It's just such atrocious business behavior to not treat customers better. Yea, they made few extra bucks off of you, but how many people won't subscribe and thus lose months or years of potential service to many customers.

While if one only ever listens to music then your comments about Slacker and Tune-in may be right (I disagree, but it's more opinion, I think the mixes on Slacker, for the most part, are repetitive and their library of selections is much smaller than XM), I'm a sports fan and the ability to listen to every Cardinals, Razorback and NFL game as well as National News channels and specialty music channels makes it worthwhile to me...but then I've never tried to cancel a subscription...

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Yea, but bolster that with exact dates, times and names of whom you spoke with, and exactly what was said/promised. Write a letter, and make sure to CC everyone you can think of.


I totally agree with efusco. I already had Sirius in my Q7 so I transferred it over to my P85 after the purchase. It was pretty easy. I DO enjoy Slacker quite a bit but Sirius is great to me for CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN along with many other stations I listen to. They have many great channels that aren't options anywhere else.

I DO agree about their deplorable cancellation policies, etc. I remember there was a time when I was traveling and I was out of the country. I was living in Europe for the summer (3 months) so I told them to cancel it and I'd start it after I got back. It WAS a nightmare dealing with them on that. They kept calling me, sending bills, letters, etc. before it finally got resolved.

But just because their customer service is deplorable doesn't mean it's not worth having. A trick is call them up and they have these unadvertised specials all the time. For example, I was on a 5 month $25 plan. They also have a 1 year $80 plan which you prepay ahead of time. That's a pretty good deal.