Avoid XM Radio

As we're getting settled in to our new location, I thought I'd blog about some of the financial and credit issues surrounding the moving process.

But there's one thing that immediately rose to the top of our list of headaches: XM Radio.

My wife wanted to cancel her subscription, since she'll have virtually no commute at our new address, and our satellite TV system provides Sirius radio content. She thought she might renew her XM Radio service at some point in the future, if we move to a location where she'll be doing more driving.

After her experience trying to get the service cancelled, we'll never have anything to do with them again. Of course they make it very difficult to cancel; a lot of services do that. I've blogged here before about how MBNA and other credit card companies make it impossible to cancel useless "credit protection plans" they con their customers into. No way to cancel online, 45 minute hold times, etc.

Except even after all that, XM managed to not cancel the account. After three weeks of calling and being hung up on by XM operators, we finally got a person whose phone connection didn't magically drop the second we said the word "cancel."

After she read the script about all the wonderful things they'd do to keep us on as customers, my wife insisted that she still wanted to cancel. Then the operator said that the system was down, and they were unable to do cancellations. Why not say that at the beginning of the conversation? Why withhold that detail until the end of a 15-minute phone call? (60 minutes if you count being on hold)

Then she called back and asked for a supervisor. She was given to a girl who sounded about 16, said stuff like "yeah, what do you want?" and generally convinced us that we were not transferred to a supervisor at all. My wife's writing the company now, but I'm convinced, based in part on this unsatisfactory BBB report, that she'll get no response. All we wanted to do is cancel!

Comments

[Jeff Michael]

Interesting; an AOL customer had an amazingly difficult time cancelling and recorded the call:

http://insignificantthoughts.com/2006/06/15/what-a-week/

The audio was uploaded onto the net and pretty soon was everywhere, including the Opie & Anthony show on XM Satellite Radio. So Opie & Anthony went on the air at XM to decry AOL for making it so difficult to cancel service. Obviously, I found that ironic.

[James Kieren]

I am a new subscriber, I am very carful about my cards and numbers. I use Paypal for everything and becaused I was rushed I purchased my one year XM Radio sub. over the phone. I learn now that XM's call centers are in Pannama and Jamaica, after I payed for the sub. my card started to be used in Jamaica. What are the odds for two things happening same place same time. XM has to know they have problem I am going to file against XM radio and the partent company, my lawyer will demand that the subscriber base is part of the discovery, can we say class action law suit. there are millions of XM subscribers if you have had this problem with your card look to see if it was the same time you subscribed to XM.

Love to hear what is out there...

James

[David]

I had the same problem - each time I tried to cancel I was transferred to another 'service representative' who handled discontinuation. Amazingly, each time that transfer was supposed to happen the line went dead.

I was finally able to get connected by asking for the 'service representative's name and employee ID before saying I wanted to cancel then explaining her name would be in my letter to BBB if I became disconnected again.

[Steve G]

OMG what a fiasco, everything I have read here just happened to me. I was soooo flustered!!! They did offer me a new radio tho, but since converting over to Sirius what good is that!!!

NEVER AGAIN!!!

[Chrystia]

I Work at an XM call center for billing. And yes we do have to transfer you to another department if you are canceling, and it's their job to try and keep you as a customer. The only reason hold times are so long is because we have MILLIONS of ppl calling all the time and it's not like we can sit there and get to every person right when they call in. We don't have that much man power. My call center is suppose to have 255 ppl in it. We probably don't have 100. You can't yell, cuss, or get fustrated with us when we say we can't do something. If we aren't allowed, we aren't going to. Because we are graded on calls and we will get in trouble for doing things. So you need to think about how hard we have it as a rep versus what you think. You need to see what its like before you go around saying things like that. And yes there are alot of us who don't do our job, but it's because of the customers.

[Jeff Michael]

Chrystia,
When we called XM, no one "yelled or cussed"; yeah, we got frustrated, but we were perfectly polite. I've worked the phones too, and I know people are just doing their jobs.

But I refuse to believe hanging up on people who want to cancel is part of your job. I think the problem is with XM; they obviously have the wrong set of incentives in place if their call center reps are so quick to lie to keep a customer subscribed against his/her will.

But apart from that, I want to counsel you, in all seriousness, to find another job. You have no business being in customer service.

[Mark]

Just got hung up on. I wait on holf 21:24 to get a person who takes ALL my info.

Wait on hold another 18:54 to get a person ask me the same questions. I ask "Why is this a two part process, I just answered all of this.."

CLICK

[Kev]

You folks making threats of reporting stuff to the Better Business Bureau will be put on hold so they can laugh at you.

The BBB has no power no jurisdiction, and large companies are not members (since they charge based on the number of employees).

The BBB is nothing but a locally franchised business that sells memberships to local stores in their territory, and nothing more.

You want to act against a business, contact your state Attorney General's office.

[Chris]

My prepaid service is up on December 4th. Considering how poorly the merger has been handled, it is a no-brainier to not renew.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone today with XM trying to cancel my account... holy cow! Was that an irritating experience, you just cannot call and say, "I'd like to please cancel my service."

And the condescending nature of this new merger is something to be desired. Sirius says the music is the same but it isn't; content replays itself as often as a ClearChannel terrestrial station. Sirrius says that Outlaw Country = Nashville and Alt Nation = Ethel... BUT THEY AREN'T THE SAME AT ALL!

I had been a subscriber since 2003 but not any more. RIP satellite radio. You're doing the exact same things now which turned all of us off to terrestrial radio.

[Al]

I found the secret to cutting through the BS when you want to cancel: Don't give a reason. Just decline. It pulls them off the script and they don't know what to do. When I did it the first time, it got me transfered to the retention agent ASAP. Then when I declined to give him a reason, he just processed the cancellation and away I went. Time on phone about six minutes total, no time wasted debating it with a rep.

BTW, Chrystia? Nobody cares what you think. You work for $7 hour at some outsourced call center far away, facilitating the outsourcing of good jobs. Don't cry to us if we don't love you when you work for The Man.

[Dawn]

xm will bill the card you initially paid for our service with, without your knowledge. and tell you that you agreed to it, but won't provide the paperwork. When you cancel they will not cancel the account and send you to collections. When you call collections you will wait on hold for over and hour...I am sure they are hoping you hang up. Then when you get to the cancelation department they will hang up on you. Had a fever even told the rep I had been waiting for one hour. This is robbery if you ask me!

[Jill]

After hours of time on the phone and many, many emails during a 9-month timeframe, XM/SIRIUS still insists that I owe them money when in fact they have been overcharing me all along. Their "customer care" representatives now respond to my complaints by
”accidentally disconnecting” me, thus forcing me to start all over from scratch and never actually resolving my complaint.

How many other XM/SIRIUS customers have made the same choice I have made which is to pay them the money I do not owe them just to make the matter go away? And, how much money is XM/SIRIUS collecting from customers who do not really owe them money. How many people’s credit scores have been affected by bad billing behaviors of major companies such as XM/SIRIUS?

Is say that XM/SIRIUS Radio are thieves and bullies and I understand why they are on the verge of bankruptcy because of their bad business practices with their customers!

[Gregory Gauthier]

Same problem here. I actullay did cancel by e-mail which their terms of service do allow. I have the e-mail logs with the turn off dat. And know 4 months later I get a letter from a Collection Company of America. Give me a break.

[Renfield]

Let me add my own name to the list of those frustrated and dismayed at XM’s deceptive renewal / cancellation policy. After a 1 year free trial and 3 year renewal, two months ago I decided to cancel my service and assumed that no reply to their renewal letter would take care of things. (Thankfully, my credit card # had changed since my 3 year subscription was set up so I knew there was no way for them to “accidentally” charge me.)

I have run into many of the problems noted on this and other threads on the net, including:

- long hold times (in my case, about 40 minutes)
- multiple transfers with no explanation as to why
- being told that my account is auto-renewing and I must pay an outstanding balance to cancel… representing the time elapsed from “auto-renewal” to now. I asked for documentation of what I signed agreeing to such and was told it was part of a Customer Service Agreement I received OVER THREE YEARS AGO (as if I’m going to remember the legalese at this point)
- I specifically went back and closely re-read the letter I received asking me to renew my subscription… there was zero mention of the auto-renewal policy and zero mention that I was required to call to cancel.
- By the time I did receive a follow-up letter that did advise I must call to cancel, my account already had an “outstanding balance” applied against it.

In my case, the outstanding balance is not large ($30) but the principle of this has me upset. My father is an attorney and advised there is nothing they can do if I ignore the bill, other than to possibly file a claim on my credit record which I can dispute in writing, and which will furthermore disappear in 4-5 years and make no difference if it’s one isolated incident.

Right now I am waiting for someone from XM’s Billing Dept. to call me back to discuss a dispute I have raised with the charge… which I estimate at a 0.00001% of success. (In fact, I’m now regretting giving them my latest phone # and hope I am not forced to subsequently change it.)

I really don’t need the mental stress of monitoring my credit report for their ding (so I can dispute it) and I am debating sending them a money order (NO credit card; NO check) for $30 to be done with it. For $300, $600, etc. I would fight them to the end of time but @ $30 I’m tempted to chalk it up as a life experience and move on.

The one thing that has me concerned is after reading some of the posts, I wouldn’t put it past XM to continue dunning me for the $30 even if I pay it. What I would do in that case is keep documentation of everything which I could use in the dispute if the b@@@@rds tried to ding my credit rating even after paying their bogus $30 outstanding balance.

Very, very disappointing, and the more I read up on this the more I realize it’s far from an isolated experience. I am shocked to see these kinds of practices committed by a company with nation-wide coverage and a monopolized market… more from a sense that I would assume the BBB, FCC, etc. would be on XM-Sirius like flies on you-know-what if such deceptive practices were exposed.

[Kevin]

I called XM today to cancel one of my 3 XM radios. I LOVED this service and had them for almost 5 years I would guess. I've bought units for friends and family for gifts. After the experience today I'll never use the service again. I was only going to cancel one unit because we sold the car it was used in. I was disconnected the moment I said "Cancel". I called again and after going through the run around this person said their "SYSTEM WAS DOWN" and couldn't do it for two hours and to call back. They couldn't take my order and execute it when the "system was back up" or call me back when it was.

Everything was looking very suspicious so I did a search online and saw these exact tactics repeated over and over again on various sites and message boards. I was *furious*. I called back immediately and guess what? Their system magically was back online after about 10 minutes. I was so disappointed in this unethical tactic that my blood started to boil and I decided to drop all three of my radios. This person proceeded to put the hard sell on these "promotions" for 50% off, 3 months of free service, etc. I got them to agree to refund the balance of my 1 year pre-paid subscription. I've read that even after cancellations, people have been been billed so I'll be watching out for that.

I'm so disappointed. Again, I LOVED XM. Spent hundreds of dollars in overpriced new car options to have it included, spent hundreds in having things like FM modulators installed for non XM car radios so I could play one of my portable units in them. Been getting others turned on to them for years as well. I gave my wife the first hand held unit when we were dating that she still liked to use at work. She was all for cancellation though after hearing about these practices. That's a hell of a way they treat customers for years of loyalty. Hey, I realize they have millions of customers and loyalty doesn't mean a thing to these giant corporations that are also under duress but still --you don't do this to people.

[jen]

I think that this Christa lady needs to check herself, it's bullshit just trying to do her job!!! Just wait it will happen to you and you will be the first one crying!!!