Complain about a product or service

Sirius Satellite Radio

Terry of Knightdale, NC November 4, 2009

I was cut off and have made 5 phone calls in total. I was charged for two additional years of service on a closed account in which my radio was stolen over 14 months ago. I have not used the service since and just got charged again. THey will not give me a refund and after going through several department transfers each call end up getting cut off before someone will help me.

Mark of Pleasant Garden, NC October 27, 2009

My 86 year old Mom purchased a new Ford Focus with a Sirius radio. The 1st 6 months of Sirius Radio service was free. They sent my Mom a letter telling her that her 6 month service would end November 6, 2009 and that a 1 yr subscription was 129.50. I called XM to see if I could add Mom's radio to my XM plan. They passed me around before one of the employees said that XM and Sirius were one company but their billing was not merged yet. So Mom wrote them a check for 129.50 and mailed it. Then she received another bill in the mail today stating that the 1 yr service was now 149.41 and that she owed another 19.91. Mom called Sirius and was given the run around. Mom then called me to find out what was going on. I called Sirius today (10/26/2009) and was told that the 1 yr subscription had increased and that Mom had to pay it. I told the girl that either they provide the service for the agreed upon price of 129.50 or they could cancel the subscription and refund Mom's 129.50 in full. The girl transferred me to a dial tone.

I called back waited another 15 minutes to speak to someone. It was very apparent that they are scripted to give people a hard time. I was again put on hold and the guy at Sirius would not agree to a refund. He put me on hold and again I was hung up on. I called back and waited another 15 minutes and was told that they had to transfer me to the cancelation department. This time I wait with the music-on-hold for another 15 minutes and was finally connected to a gentleman who willing to give Mom the original price of 129.50. By now I was done with their tactics and just wanted a refund. The guy told me he could not cancel the subscription until Nov 6th and that I would have to call back then to get a refund. I told the guy that I wanted the refund now and that he could cancel the remaining time left on Mom's 6 months of free Sirius.

I was put on hold for another 10 minutes before the guy said that he would send corporate the information to cancel the subscription and issue a check to Mom for 129.51. He said that the check would take 6-8 weeks to arrive. Now I'm wondering if the check will ever arrive. How can a company exist ripping off an 86 year old grandma? I told the guy that Sirius' sales tactics would catch up with them and he as well as the rest of his fellow workers would be looking for employment!!! If Sirius keeps up with these use car sales tactics, it will only be a matter of time before they go chapter 11.

David of Southside, AL October 16, 2009

I received a notice from a collection agency today regarding my former Sirius account. I called Sirius and they said they had made a mistake and that I had a zero balance. I purchased a new car car in Dec. 2007 that came with a free 6 month trial of Sirius Satellite Radio. At the end of the trial I purchased a 1 yr subscription in June 2008. I sold the car in Dec. 2008.

In June 2009 Sirius called and asked me to renew. I advised them that I had sold the car and to please cancel my account. Sirius called again in Sept 2009 and asked me to renew. I told them for the 2nd time that the car was sold and I now longer owned the satellite radio and to cancel my account. Upon receipt of the collection agency letter I called Sirius and they said they had made a mistake and that my account had been credited and I had a zero balance. Yet, they had still sent it to a collection agency. I had to write a validity dispute letter to the collection agency and I will have to spend money to send it certified mail. All this hassle over 25.69! that never was a valid debt.

Jodi of Lewiston, ID October 10, 2009

We bought our Sirius radio system 2 yeas ago with a 3 year subscription (prepaid) on our credit card. Last year at our 1st anniversary, they rebilled us again although we had already pd for service through Oct of 2011. Aster 3 days, many hours and trying to explain to people at the over seas call centers, they refunded part of the over charge.

Again, this year same thing but can not get them to remove the charge, saying we only pd for 1 year in 2007. BS - now to get chanells we used to recieve with our original subscription, we have to pay for the best of XM i.e. NCAA football and NBA. we honored our contract but now they say we have to pay more to get what we already paid for. I believe this is extorsion since Sirius and XM are the same company. It is a legalized monopoly.

My husband and I drive truck all over the US and this is the only way we get the games on game day, so we are stuck paying double and triple for service we already should have. We have called and called, been hung up on (many times) asked to speak with management, threatend with fcc and the BBB , still, nothing. How is this legal? Is there any kind of Class action suit filed to bar this type of corporate extorsion? We have over pd our account buy 175 and 202 dollars , for a total of 545.00 for so far, 2 years of service and still owe a balance?

Vicky of Leakesville, MS, MS October 10, 2009

I purchased the satellite service for my husband a year ago and purchased the one year prepaid plan. I received an email stating that this years subscription fee was due. I contacted them three times to cancel and each time I was transferred the the Cancellation department my call was ironically disconnected.

I finally received a call wanting to update my account information on Tuesday of this past week (10/06/09). The service rep was kind and assured me my account was cancelled and verified my debit card number and said that my account would be receiving a refund. However, they weren't so nice. My checking account was not refunded money but instead they debited 175.00 for a year's subscription.

I called Sirius this morning 10/10/09 and spoke with Alice (who wouldnt give me last name or employee ID number because they are not allowed to do that). She said that she had my account scheduled to cancel on 10/13/09 - a week after the date I told them to cancel. She said that a refund to my checking account would take 7-10 days. I told her that it can't take that long with technology today and she said that it had to be reviewed. I informed her that I would take care of it since I did not authorize the debit I would instruct my bank to refund my account since it wasn't authorized.

I am VERY MAD and I made it known to her that I was angry. I dont know that I have ever spoken to anyone so rudely but how can these people so fraudulently take money from us. They have a nice little scam going on here. If they drop your calls to cancel then they add days to what they can charge you for "in use" and then when they take out the whole year in advance - and only authorize a partial refund to the account - in my case 162 is what Alice said would be refunded. At 13 per cancelling customer - wow that could be a very hefty little income for a company.

Can anyone tell me if all of us have the possibility of a class action law suit? How can they continue to withdraw money from our accounts without our authorization? I read the terms and it says the card number I gave them originally was for a one time debit to my account. Alice said that once they had our card number they could charge it for renewals or any fees they felt necessary. I do not see that anywhere but if that is the case, why did they email notices of please pay to my email account and why would they withdraw the amount after I told them to cancel and they had that conversation noted (for now anyway - I am sure that taped quality recording will disappear after I was rude to them).

Robert of Lexington, KY October 8, 2009

I attempted to cancel my subscription on 8/25 with XM Sirius using their web site e-mail form. The subscription continued with another billing to my credit card account. On 10/06 I called XM Sirius to again try to cancel my account and was repeatedly offerred "deals" to continue the service. I asked to speak to a supervisor but was told none was available - one would call me back within an hour or so. Of course, no one returned the call. Now my only recourse is to cancel my credit card account to prevent further billings.

Kathy of Carrollton, TX September 29, 2009

In the years I’ve subscribed to Sirius, paying in advance for service was always the standard. In 2008 I started having difficulty with my signal. It would cut in and out just a bit at first, then over several months it happened constantly. I made multiple calls to Sirius who would generate a “signal boost” in my zip code area. This would help somewhat, but eventually it would get so bad again I just shut my radio off. Even after spending 90.00 on a Sirius signal booster from Circuit City, the improvement was minimal at best. Sirius eventually said my radio was out of date and I needed to purchase new equipment. Since the last part of 2008, I quit using my Sirius all together, even though I had paid in advance for the service I was no longer using! When I received renewal information in 2009, I did not respond because I was not going to invest money in another year of poor service and excuses.

I spoke with a Sirius representative 4-5 weeks ago, explained my situation and he thanked me for my years of service. To my horror, last week I received a COLLECTION NOTICE in the mail for 31.12! The customer service rep didn’t bother to say anything about what they were doing on my account; he only wanted me to renew service!

I called Sirius and spoke with 2 customer service reps and a supervisor who would not escalate my call any further saying “managers above me don’t talk with customers”. They refused to do anything to correct the outstanding balance saying it was my fault that I did not call them to discontinue service; therefore I was charged for 2 additional months of service after my account expired. When I did not pay for the additional 2 months of service, they turned me over to a collection agency.

They said they didn’t need my approval to continue my service since this was “their policy” and I should have called to cancel. I refuse to pay for extortion! If they ruin my perfect credit, I will do my best to ruin them! Maybe they will stop defrauding people if we slap them with a class action suit! If you know of one that has been initiated, please let me know.

Bill of Oceanside, CA September 29, 2009

I was a faithful customer for over a year and when they had a mix up at billing instead of contacting me (they have my info on file) they sent a cancellation notice 3 weeks later that encouraged me to "Western Union" money transfer it to them or it was going to collections. Not a great way to treat a loyal customer. Their customer service personnel were no better. Refusing to help me or give me the name of her supervisor, nor transferring me to someone else. The call ended when she just hung up on me after getting in the last word. I am very dissatisfied and canceled my service.

Name of Somewhere in New England, NH September 25, 2009

I called to renew my subscription and told the CS rep tha I would only pay 10/month - make it happen. After speaking with a supervisor he gave me a plan for 12 months, plus one month free for total of 13 months, for 142.45. This was less than 11.00 so I accepted it. Today I see where Sirius has debited my account for 164.24 plus another 6.50 in a separate charge. I was miffed! I called Sirius and explained my case. The 6.50 was for one month of online access plus a 5.00 late charge that was rejected by my bank because a new card number had been issued. I told him to take the late fee off. Then I asked about the 164.24. He explained about the Music Royalty fee which I knew about but the guy never mentioned on the previous day. When I asked him if his training included not telling cistomers about the royalty fee he hemmed and hawed but basically said we were mailed a notice about it in June so I should have known it would be added. BS!

So I told him to cancel the subscription and refund everything except the 1.50 internet charge. He went away for a few minutes and came back to tell me that he was refunding 75.46 to me and that my 13 month subscription would remain in effect. That was a good deal! So I get 13 months of total Sirius package for about 88.78. There's hope for these guys after all. I hope by sharing me experience some of you readers may also be able to squeeze a deal like this out of Sirius. I've withheld my name above until I get the money back.

Jene of Palm Beach Gardens, FL September 22, 2009

I canceled my subscription in Feb 09. I prepaid my account. It is now september and they say I owe 13.84 for a automatic renewal fee. I told the lady on the phone that I do not owe anything, because I canceled before my subscription was up, and I prepaid in full. She said all she could do was take off 10, so I would owe 3.84. What a rip off.

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