Sirius/XM - what a scam

[OldGuyNewJeep]

I'm going to preface this rant by saying I've been a subscriber since before Howard Stern joined, and am no stranger to the craptastic "support" from this company.

Reception blows! Not just in my Wrangler, but also in my GMC Yukon. (It was quite good in my Ford, and with my aftermarket setup before that.)

OK, even with spotty reception in some areas, it's better than FM, so I've been taking the good with the bad for many years.

Well, I just logged in to my only account to associate my new Wrangler trial with my ID. I noticed two things right away 1) My GMC trial was ending and they were going to auto-renew me for $341!!!, 2) they had my current credit card on file - I just got this card like 3 weeks ago. How the hell did they get it? Maybe via FCA as part of my Wrangler trial activations? WTF?

OK, so where's the button to delete payment on file. Ha! There is none! You have to call, of course.

So, I call. I get a nice girl who asks why I want to cancel and I say it's too expensive and that reception blows. Before she could offer, I said I wasn't interested in tech support or refreshing my signal. So, she transfers me to the department that can process the cancellation. I'm 99% sure I was transferred offshore...

Hard sales pitch, yada, yada, yada. Nope, cancel it. And then? "How about if i cut the price in half for the ext year?"

WTF is that? I asked why they'd be willing to do that after just telling me what a good value it was at $341, and got nothing but a regurgitation of the offer. (I wish my cable company would cut my bill in half for threatening to cancel.)

TL;DR - called to cancel and left paying $10/mo instead of $20/mo. (I think it's worth exactly $10/mo, but no more than that. I only listen to like 6 stations.)

Sponsored

 

[UNC Rubicon]

DIRECTV did the same crap to me. They wouldn't budge on their price gouging until I told them to stuff it. Then they decided they wanted to cut my bill by 75%. I told them to get bent. If they wanted my business they wouldn't have waited until I cancelled. F the dance you have to do to not get screwed.

 

[Blkjak]

DIRECTV did the same crap to me. They wouldn't budge on their price gouging until I told them to stuff it. Then they decided they wanted to cut my bill by 75%. I told them to get bent. If they wanted my business they wouldn't have waited until I cancelled. F the dance you have to do to not get screwed.

I hear you ... if your a DirecTV customer of 20 years you pay out the ass for NFL Sunday Ticket .. but if your a new subscriber, here enjoy Sunday Ticket for free .. unfortunately it is the new business model for most companies because apparently the old one of customer/company loyalty and and appreciation is outdated and not as profitable

 

[Capt-Zoom]

With sirius xm I usually wait a month after I cancel and then check in with them. THey usually charge me $35 for 6 months including the use of their streaming service on my phone.

 

[NavyVet1959]

I've had it on a couple of cars that I've bought over the years, but only because that feature came with a particular package that I had to get in order to get other features that I actually wanted. They send me the $35 for 6 month emails periodically and the only time I ever took them up on it was once when I was on a road trip and I could not find any local stations worth listening to while on the highway. Periodically, they will send me an email informing me that they are turning on my service for a 7 day trial to try to entice me into reactivating my service. Unless this just happens to be when I'm on a road trip, I don't even use it. It's not uncommon for me to go a week or two without driving that car.

 

[smithrd65]

Well in all my vehicles I don't have any issues with XM.
I guess it's the area. San Antonio TX it's just great.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Sirius/XM is a waste of the radio spectrum. I'd consider paying for it if they were still ad free. I do like the ability to listen to NFL games but frankly I can listen in while my wife watches the games over my phone with Sunday Ticket. There are too many other, much cheaper, options out there for me to be bothered with them.

 

[the_webers_inc]

Been playing the price game with Sirius XM for 4 years now. Have a reminder setup on my calendar to call in and get the price dropped at the renewal anniversary date. Annoying but the only way to get it for what I'm willing to pay.

 

[Rhinebeck01]

Been playing the price game with Sirius XM for 4 years now. Have a reminder setup on my calendar to call in and get the price dropped at the renewal anniversary date. Annoying but the only way to get it for what I'm willing to pay.

I do the same... Also, I NEVER give SiriusXM my charge card #. I tell them bill me and then I go to their website, my account and do a one time payment only, charge card transaction.

By law, SiriusXM is not allowed to charge New York State residences the $2.00 billing fee. They still try to, but I tell them the law says no. You can also tell the rep you are not ok with the $2.00 billing fee and they will waive it if you are adamant about not paying the $2.00

You don't want SiriusXM to have your charge card number!

 

[NavyVet1959]

You don't want SiriusXM to have your charge card number!

As far as I'm concerned, you don't want booking.com to have it either. I signed up on their site to reserve a hotel for a trip and within a very short time, I was receiving fraud alerts from my credit card company for fraudulent charges and I had to cancel the card. Their security had obviously been compromised and even after I pointed it out to them, they failed to admit it.

Discover card used to have a feature where you could get a pseudo credit card number so that you could use it with individual companies that you might not trust. I canceled that card quite awhile back because I never used it, so I don't know if they still have it.

 

[Killed by Death]

Bank of America has a "Safe Shop" feature which allows customers to create one time use card numbers. I pay Sirius then delete the number so auto-renew charge gets rejected I think I paid $74 for the year last time I renewed.

 

[SM1]

Last time, I let mine lapse (changed credit cards, so it couldn't auto-renew). About 2 weeks later, I got a 6 months for $30 or 12 months for $60 offer. Took the $60 (which came out to right around $70 with fees/taxes). But I agree with all of you, the game is stupid. They should reward long-term customers, not take advantage of the fact that not all of us will fight with them to get the best deal.

 

[Firstwave]

Better keep an close eye on your credit card statement because 6 or 8 months after I canceled they started charging my card again.

Sponsored