Sirius XM Radio
Reviews and Complaints

My advice is to NEVER try to do business with Sirius Radio. These people are not just incompetent but dishonest. We cancelled our service with them five months ago, letting it expire by the end of the year. Instead, they tried to renew it, and when we refused the charge, they turned our account over to a collection agency.

Now we get nasty harassing calls every week. The collection agency tells us we have to call Sirius. We have called many times Sirius to no avail. Dealing with these people is a nightmare. Do yourself a favor and stay away at all costs!

02/09/11
I have been a Sirius radio listener since its inception but I must say
your auto renew policy is the worst policy I have ever had to deal with. I own my own software company and lease cars with Sirius radios. Each time it comes time to renew for another year I have the same argument with your staff with regards to the billing. On my last vehicle lease, I contacted your company and told them the lease was up and end the subscription. They continued billing me and sent me to collections for something I in no way was responsible for even though I had cancelled by subscription. I fought that and won.
Today I called to renew a subscription on my current vehicle lease for 2 years via check instead of credit card and told the girl on the phone that at the end of the two years end my subscription as the car will no longer be mine. She said she could not do that and that I must pay with a credit card. I refused and she finally accepted that I would be mailing in a check to cover the two years of service. Then I looked online and found that I am seriously being overcharged for being a loyal customer. I found that there is a rate of $77.00 per year yet the rate I was quoted for 2 years was $301.32. How can this be? I will not mail my check into your billing department until I hear back from you regarding the huge difference in costs for my subscription.
She proceeded to tell me that at the end of two years I must contact you to cancel my subscription. To that I say, are you kidding me? What a racket you are running if this is truly policy and I refuse to believe that there is nothing that cannot be done to rectify this bait and switch billing practice.

I look forward to your thoughts on the matter.

02/15/11
Dear Ms.

Thank you for contacting SIRIUS XM regarding the SIRIUS XM's policies. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

We are also sorry to learn of the negative experience you have had with SIRIUS Customer Care. Please note, our most important goal at SIRIUS is to ensure that we are doing everything we can to resolve your issue. We apologize for the dissatisfaction which has resulted from speaking with a previous representative.

Although, we are unable to release information regarding this previous agent, please know that this issue will be dealt with internally. We do thank you for bringing this situation to our attention and we will consider your comments when dealing with this issue.

The rate for an annual subscription of the SIRIUS Everything package is for $142.45 plus the US Music Royalty Fee and applicable taxes. We regret the confusion this causes. We checked your account, and we've seen that it was placed under the invoice payment option with a balance of $303.32. If paying by check or money order against invoices mail all payments to the address contained on your invoice and include your SIRIUS Account Number on your check or money order:

02/15/11
Thank you for your response. While I appreciate the response I do not see the value in what you are officering since speaking with a few friends that pay $77.00 annually for the same service. I will unfortunately be terminating my Sirius service with your organization. I will contact your department and have the service discontinued even though I am not under any contract to do so since it came with my leased vehicle. Your customer service and billing practices have chased away a long time listener.
02/15/11
Thank you for your recent email to SIRIUS XM regarding cancelling your subscription.

We are sad to learn of your decision to cancel your subscription. To cancel your subscription, we ask that you contact the number we provided on our previous email to contact our Cancellation Department. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes. Please note, if your service is cancelled before the end of the subscription term, a $75.00 cancellation fee applies to the first year of the service for all subscriptions of one year or more.

We hope you are enjoying SIRIUS XM 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.sirius.com

Thank you,

02/15/11
I called to cancel my service and low and behold guess what I was offered? $77.00 a year to keep my account open. Why does it take a customer getting angry and jumping through hoops of fire and rings of steel for you people to provide customer service? This is the most absurd thing I have ever dealt with with regards to payment for services.

Very simply stated - I had an Acura TSX that I was paying $75/quarter for radio and traffic. Let's ignore for a moment that this is a completely redicuous amount of money for crappy radio quality and traffic for the Navigation that wasn't even close to being accurate.

Long story short - I sold the Acura, and received a bill for the renewal. I ignored it, and was happy not to be paying it anymore.

So, do you think that XM called me to tell me that I needed to pay it? Nope, they auto renewed and when I didn't pay they sent me to EOCC for collection. WTF?

Oh well ... I paid the collection agency. Then I promptly called XM/Sirius and cancelled my other two radios. I hope that $75 was worth it.

I have been a loyal XM radio listener for years. Now, I am mad as *** and will do all that I can punish XM Radio for treating me this way. Here is my horror situation in a capsule.

Considering the new economic realities, my XM Satellite Radio yearly subscription was on the list of things to cancel. My renewal date was 12/06/2010 - Fees of approximately $160 are collected in advance/charged to your credit card. On 10/04/2010 I called XM at [protected] and talked to xxx, one of their representatives. Explained to him why I was calling and asked him to do two things for me. 1) To remove my credit card # from their database (had been set up for automatic updates); and, (2) to cancel my account immediately. I told him I did not plan to renew my subscription for the foreseeable future due to economic hardship. He was polite and complied with my requests. We ended the call by giving me confirmation # for the cancellation (which I still have in my records). As expected, early in December 2010 my XM Radio service became unavailable.

Surprisingly, on January 24, 2011, I received an email from XM Radio stating I had till February 2011 to take care of the balance in my account (fees for an additional year of subscription). I immediately called XM customer service again at [protected] and this time was connected to yyy. I explained the content of their email and the reason for my surprise. I gave her my cancellation confirmation number from the previous conversation in November 2010. She could not find the number. I explained that as far as I was concerned my account had been closed. If not, would she please close it now? yyy gave me confirmation # for the cancellation and our conversation ended. I was happy that the matter was finally taken care off.

Much to my surprise, on the evening of 01/28/2011, I got a call from XM radio (XYZ this time) wanting to know when I would take care of the balance in my account. I expressed my surprise and asked I could review the background with him. He said, did I mind if our conversation was recorded -- so that he could play it back for his managers - he suggested that the reason for my out of ordinary experience was that I had not gone through the right channels for the cancellation. I agreed and proceeded to review the background - albeit that I was getting very angry having to spend so much time with this simple request. XYZ said for me to stay on line while he had his manager listen to the recording of our conversation. Then the manager will come on the line to resolve the issue. Five to ten minutes later a women's voice came on to ask me if I was ready to settle my balance! Does anyone to know how to cancel an XM radio account? I am mad as *** and will do all that I can punish XM Radio for treating me this way.

I got a Siriux radio for Xmas. I got it installed the next month in my Toyota and set up my subscription online. I paid for the year in full, around $200 on Jan 15th. Feb 4th rolls along and I see a new charge of $300. I call up and they said I called on Feb 3rd and added another radio for a "Subaru". I don't own a Subaru. Someone called and verified my name, address and phone number, and added the "Subaru" radio. No idea how this happened. After about an hour on the phone, I convinced them to refund the $300 and cancel the "Subaru" radio. I then added a password, so everytime I call (or someone else tries to), they have to verify my name, address, phone number and the password. Scary that I don't know how this person got my info, but it seems to be cleared up. I'd like to hear any stories out there that are similar to mine.
Thanks,
JD. Boston, MA

XM promised me free on-line listening when I signed up & they re-neged on that promise.
I have been trying to cancel my subscription for almost TWO WEEKS now. You can sign-up
on-line & activate a radio on-line. They maintain your credit card info online (which you
don't authorize & can't delete) They refuse to cancel subscriptions on-line so I guess refunds
for un-used time is out of the question. Now it's how to stop them from automatically re-newing
and ANOTHER hassle. They have absolutely useless people in customer service and nobody
answers the phone they tell you to call.

DO NOT GET XM / Sirus Radio or you will regret it sooner or later.

I was billed $177.33 after my complimentary service ran out after purchase of a new car. I was not notified or given any choices as to services and have not had any service from the time of billing. I only notice now because I am going over year end receipts for taxes. The charge was made 05/18/2010 and was unnoticed until now. I spoke to sirius "listener care rep", I asked for service to include the 10 months I was not connected and they refused saying it is my fault for not noticing.
I spoke to my mastercard rep and they said it happens all the time but cannot help me because of long period that has passed. Buyer be ware ... I will never deal with any company that has rigid inflexible consumer policies

Wanted to cancell xm Radio. Called and was offered a half price fee. Received bill and it was wrong.Returned call and spoke to another person.Told again same price. Told by two different people what my rate would be. Recieved two bills with different rate. Called a third time and spent another hour on phone given a totally different amount. So sick of these people not getting things right. I will definitely be cancelling my contract at the end of it, ...oh and make sure it is not a day late or you get stuck with another huge bill. Too bad they have such a monopoly! XM YOU SUCK ON CONSUMER CARE!

My complaint is pretty much the same as everyone else's. These people refuse to let anyone cancel their service. As long as they have a valid credit card number, they keep charging you over and over again, and there is NO way to get a refund from them. the only way that I finally got away was that my Amex was lost and my number was changed from the one they had; when they tried to renew without my permission, the card was denied and they began a calling campaign to "update my customer profile"...this is what they tell you and then they casually mention that your credit card number seems to have changed and "why don't I take care of that for you now". Then, when I finally told the guy NO, I wasn't giving him a credit card because I didn't want the service any longer, he said that my service had been renewed on 12/21/10 (about 10 days prior to the call) and I had a balance of $159 and some odd cents. These people are prohibited from telling the truth, that they couldn't care less what your "customer profile" is...they only want to get credit card numbers so that they can continue their scams. And get this...it's January 10...it's only been two weeks since my "account renewed", but I had to go through 5 different levels of Gestapo high pressure sales people before they would allow me to only pay for one month...of something I never bought in the first place. While I was going through the loop of knee-busters, I was searching online for their corporate office. Their office is on Avenue of the Americas in NYC and their President, Mel Karmazin, made more than $43 MILLION in 2009...the 2010 annual report is not out yet, but I'll bet he made more in 2010! And his assistant, Dana Altman, made in excess of $2.3 million in 2009. I called her, but she hasn't called back...why would she? I'm just a customer...I'm all for free markets and capitalism, etc, but these people are making their $43 million salaries off the backs of people who did NOT BUY THE SERVICE...they need to be in prison! If Sirius stole from you, also, call Mel or Dana at [protected] or show up at the office at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, 36th Floor, New York city. This behavior must stop!

When Sirius rep could not find a credit that was supposed to apply to the cost of my upcoming year subscription, I repeatedly said, "do not bill; cancel. I don't want the service."

I was billed anyway and have no service.
To have the charge removed, my credit card issuer requires me to make a police report and fill out other forms.
I cancelled that card and am awaiting another. Plus I filed a complaint on-line with the FTC.

My cell phone registers over 60 minutes trying to talk to Sirius customer"care." I really like the music & news in my car, especially the Met opera, but I have never had to deal with such negligent, yes, malignent, vendor.

lin in Boulder

We've had XM radio service in my wife's car since March 2005. She liked the service so much that she set up automatic renewal on a credit card each year. We never really paid any attention to the billing statement until this past June (2010) when the statement indicated that they could not bill the credit card on file because it had expired. We decided to scrutinize the bill closely and realized XM had begun charging a "music royalty fee", something we hadn't noticed in the past...of course, this was our fault. I contacted XM's listener care dept about the charge and was told it could not be waived. My wife decided she no longer wanted XM service so we politely canceled.

Within a week we received another bill from XM, which we disregarded because we had canceled the service earlier and determined that this bill may have been generated before the cancellation could take affect or maybe XM was giving us another chance to change our minds. In the meantime XM still had not turned off service to our radio. A third bill arrived about a month later showing an adjustment (credit) on our account but also an outstanding balance of $69.09. I contacted XM again and explained to the foriegn accented person that we had canceled the service in June. The person explained that service to our radio was still being provided and that we were responsible for paying for that service. I told them I was not paying for something I had canceled and that I had no control over when THEY turned off that service. The foreign XM rep indicated agreement and said they would dismiss the outstanding balance. Service to the XM radio finally quit in late august.

Sept 15, 2010 - A fourth bill arrived with the same $69.09 balance. We again contacted XM listener care dept and spoke to "Marie" who passed us on to "Monica" in the retention dept. Monica was very understanding and apologetic and promptly agreed to dismiss the 69.09 balance and told us to disregard any further bills.

Dec 23, 2010 (Today) - I received a call from a person indicating that they worked for a collection agency which had been hired by XM to collect the $73.49 outstanding balance I owed (not sure were the extra $4.40 came from). I explained to the caller that this had been resolved several months ago and that XM had agreed to dismiss the remaining balance. She indicated that the balance had NOT been dismissed and expected payment NOW. I had no details handy of the conversations we'd had with XM previously but explained that the service had been canceled in June and that I was not paying her or XM anything.

I, AGAIN, contacted XM listener care and spoke to "Angel", another person with a thick foreign accent. I explained everything once again and after being placed on hold for 20 minutes while she "looked up my account" was told that there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to her supervisor and was placed on hold for another 15-20 minutes. When "Angel" came back on the phone I was told that the supervisor was not available to speak but said there was nothing they could do. Again, I insisted on speaking to someone who could resolve this issue and again I sat on hold for 15-20 minutes. Miraculously, when "Angel" came back on the phone she indicated that they had resolved everything; the outstanding balance, the collection calls, etc...

Based on what I've read on this site while sitting on hold waiting for her to get back to me...I have no doubt that "Angel" told me everything has been taken care of just to get rid of me and I'll continue to receive calls collectors and/or bills until I finally pay...maybe even after!

The truth is...we like satellite radio and have had no complaints about what we received for our subscription. Driving coast-to-coast knowing you don't have to search for something to listen to is great! But after the way XM handled this simple cancellation I'll never go back to them. BTW...I have Sirius service in my other vehicle and when it's subscription is up I will cancel it as well! Hopefully I wont have the same problems then...but I'm not counting on it!

I subscribed to sirius radio for a promotional deal of 5 months for 19.99. The day I subscribed I told the service representative to cancel my subscription when the offer ended. They confirmed my request and told me it will be canceled when it was over. Well, 5 months later, I received a phone call from sirius satellite asking me if I wanted to continue my subscription, and again, I replied "no". They were supposed to cancel it but never did! Well, it's two months later, and they're calling me asking for payment of my continued services. I spoke with a customer rep, and he told me they can't cancel my subscription until I pay them. I then spoke with a supervisor named george davis, id # 8364i, and he argued me down saying there's nothing in the computer about me cancelling my subscription, and that I need to pay or they won't cancel it. I'm so tired of the harassments from this company, calling my phone everyday, all day. I refuse to pay for a service that I cancelled several times. This company is a rip off, and I would never refer them to anyone! Can someone please help me with this matter.

Sirius is a RIP OFF! Their customer service passes you around like a hot fir cracker. They have a strict strategic sales pitch, Lifetime subscription 1st. Which makes no sense if you are smart. They want you to pay 499.99 + a music royality fee of 76.50. But a lifetime subscription doesn't transfer to another vehicle if you sell your car and if your radio breaks you have to pay to replace it. They bill your credit card automatically after you complete your intial subscription hoping that you will forget to cancel. The use homebased agents to handle their calls, that are not trained, that send you in a complete circles. No supervisors will have come to the phone because their really aren't any. The best strategy to handle their customer service, is to threaten to cancel your service, they will transfer you to a department that will bargin with you on a cheaper price. Now is it fair that some customers pay 142.45 for an annual subscription then others who state they want to cancel can get an annual subscription for 77.70. or 5 months for 20 dollars. All of the customer service representatives will tell you something different everytime you call. They make false deals to sign you up and then bill you something that you didn't agree to later. They call you while you are at work, and they use agents with strong accents so you can't understand what they are saying.

I called XM Customer Care to ask why my service was not available. I was told my service would not be restored until the scheduled maintenance was completed and my account status could be verified. I have been an XM subscriber for more than three years. I pay for a full year subscription each year. Bill was due 11/03. The check cleared my account on 11/01. I spoke to two XM customer representatives who told me they had the ability to restore my service but, chose not to do so until they could verify the status of my account (after scheduled maintenance). I intend to change my status to CANCELED as soon as they get their system up and running. What would have been the harm in restoring my service until my status could have been verified? Good customer care would give the customer the benefit of the doubt and restore the service until maintenance is complete. X-FAN

Sirius does not understand customer service and should be shut down. I just got off a 30 minute call, most if it on hold, just to cancel my service. They put the hard sell on me with a "one time offer" which I said OK to but only if it cancelled after one year and I did not get billed again. They said their system cannot do this (you mean would not?) so I cancelled altogether. They make you call them for everything so they can hard sell you. I feel like I just dealt with a used car salesman. Good riddance!

On Sept 23 an Unknown event (not my request) caused my subscription to change to a Lifetime subscription. A $600 charge was posted to my account. In the process of correcting it, they 'needed' to restart my annual subscription by charging me and setting my annual start date to Sept 25. If they hadn't done this Lifetime subscription screw-up I would have renewed in November a full two months away. So I get a second charge - this for around $180. THEN I hear that refunds may take up to 10 business days. No problem! Like I have $600 to lend them for two weeks, and it's no problem to pay my $180 now instead of in November. They of course "appreciate my understanding, and understand my aggravation". When did I offer my "understanding"?! Sure they do. What kind of 'system' is this? Is this legal?

Beginning in the summer of 2010, I observed that my reception on Sirius radio was not as advertised. At 15 minute intervals on the channels I listen to, they run commercials. I listen mostly to NPR 133 and they run the most obnoxious and loud commercials for other Sirius radio channels, such as 202, 124, 139, 146 and 209. These loud commercials are worse than anything currently on regular FM or even AM radio. I am cancelling both my receiver subscriptions and going back to listening to regular FM radio and recorded podcasts. Don't subscribe to Sirius/XM radio if you think it will be commercial free, because they apparently have the right to jump into Fresh Air, Tell me More, Radio Times and other favorite shows with trash commercials whenever they want. They are probably doing the same thing on other channels.

After spending hours on the phone, on hold, being hung up on, having to call back repeately, problems with my radio account are still not solved. The 'customer service' people just about have me in tears of frustration once again.

In the short time I have had the radio, which came with my car, I have had to call to get things straigtened out on a average of every 2-3 months. The representatives don't seem to be trained on the product at all, as they often aren't familiar with what XM or Nav Traffic mean. I've been told that my radio signal was cancelled because I called in and cancelled my account--when I had not made any such call or email; that my radio was not capable of Nav Traffic when I had already had it for 6 months; and that my bill was past due when it was actually overpaid.

Why would a company with a good product like XM Radio and Nav Traffic not pay for better customer service, or do something to make it better? I really don't understand that.

In my next car I won't pay for a satellite radio. It is not worth the frustration and hours--2-3 hours per incident--that it takes to keep it working.