[boatdrvrpro]

Stopping my XM subscription was the worst experience I have ever had in 'my life as a consumer'. This made car salesmen and Nigerian bankers look like saints or amatuers.

Disclaimer: I have no further interest in slamming this corporation but if you are considering using this service BE AWARE. And I believe that the concept and product have merit; I enjoyed news and music out at sea for years and about four years of music on the Wing. Howsumever...

First some facts about the only satellite radio service. You pay in advance. It may be monthly or yearly or even 'lifetime.' OK, no problem there. If you read some fine print (terms of service?) they will automatically renew your service regardless of your payment status. I question the legality of this. Now the real deal: They do not want you to cancel. On the website you can manage your account EXCEPT for the part about cancelling part or all of your service. So you call the 800 number and spend a lot of time with the menus and waiting for a person in a foreign country. This person will never be able to cancel your account. They will tell you to hold (some more). About 15 minutes later you are cut off. Start over! Eventually you may get to one of these special people and get the 'hard sell' speil. I was cut off at least three times after explaining that I just wanted to cancel my account.

A couple of years ago I removed my credit card info from their site. OK I had to cancel the card to do that. So with the option of paper billing I felt more in control. When the paper bill came I wrote 'cancel' and sent it back. This was after 3 phone attempts as described above.

Then, after about three months from my initial attempt to cancel, I began to get annoying phone calls around 8 PM from 'a representative who wanted to get my account back on track.' I had good cop, bad cop, and nice lady. The latter once told me the account was closed and gave a reference number. Next comes a call from a collection agency. Tough talk here. They confirm my address and say I can dispute the bill, which was now for 3 months service at the high rate. Dang! I got the letter from the (in house) collection agency and explained my dispute in writing.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I had googled xm complaints and had a virtual earful of the same BS treatment I had received. One of the comments said to contact the Attorney Generals Office in NY. This I did and downloaded a complaint form which I sent in. The site also said that over 2000 similar complaints had been settled through their office this year.

All was quiet until the other day when I get a call from a 'corporate relations 'person who was as nice as the church piano lady and now my account is cancelled and my name is removed from the hit list with the collection agency. He was able to speak like a rational person and I told him that XM should really examine their corporate ethics. He 'appreciated my input.'

Let's hope this is not the new normal for business in Amerika.

 

[Zville]

Glad you finally got it worked out. You might want to check your credit reports to make sure that delinquency "stuff" is not there. If it is you might want to get back in touch with that corporate relations person and get them to remove it. Good luck.

 

[wing-renter]

Why would you want to cancel XM? I have 3 accounts and one of them is for my Wing. I can't imagine crossing the USA without it.

 

[kwthom]

<...>All was quiet until the other day when I get a call from a 'corporate relations 'person who was as nice as the church piano lady and now my account is cancelled and my name is removed from the hit list with the collection agency. He was able to speak like a rational person and I told him that XM should really examine their corporate ethics. He 'appreciated my input.'

Let's hope this is not the new normal for business in Amerika.

Hiya Rodger!

Sadly, for Sirius/XM, it is. Their business model is being encroached upon by portable media players, and 'unlimited' data plans which provide digital entertainment via your cell phone...

Yeah, they are hurting, and letting too many people get away is bad business.

Considered buying a new car not long ago; one thought was if the vehicle came with Sirius/XM, I was going to refuse to activate the service, just to keep that from happening.

Glad it all worked out!

 

[Ira02gw]

Why would you want to cancel XM? I have 3 accounts and one of them is for my Wing. I can't imagine crossing the USA without it.

Why does the OP have to justify why he wants to close the account to you, to XM, or to whomever. What is important is the lack of quality customer service these customers are providing.

 

[Remphoto]

Another xm trick is to quote a special introductory price then add on $15 worth of other charges they dont mention.

Thank goodness for Pandora internet radio and other free/lowcost smartphone applications!

 

[LVWolfman]

Why would you want to cancel XM? I have 3 accounts and one of them is for my Wing. I can't imagine crossing the USA without it.

And I once had 5 accounts. Big deal. With many thousands of MP3s in my collection, including every Top 40, Top 100 or in some cases top 500 Billboard songs for every year from about 1946 through 1989, I have plenty of music for my iPod, iPhone or my Android phone.

When I have 3G/4G internet available which is 99% of the time, add in services like Pandora, Spotify or Rhapsody for commercial free music (not even promos for upcoming shows like XM does).

Then you have internet stations like IHeartRadio and radio apps like ooTunes and others that give you access to the internet radio channels like Sky.FM, Live365, 1.FM and many others as well as almost every local AM/FM station in the country.

All of those are free or relatively cheap. (I think I pay Pandora $10 a year for not having to touch a button every four hours.)

So unless one is a Howard Stern, Nascar or Major League Baseball nut, or routinely travels where there is no cellular service, my question would be "Why would you WANT XM?)

 

[LVWolfman]

BTW, I'm certainly not knocking anyone who has XM/Sirius. I did enjoy the few channels I listened to, though the constant promos for other channels was rather annoying.

XM on the wing is great. Mount it, run power to it and plug it into AUX and your'e done. With the new wing with XM built-in (I hear) it is even easier.

I and more and more others prefer to use other sources and there is no issue with canceling when you sell the bike/car/truck.

 

[laen]

I subscribed to XM and paid for a year. I got a $44 discount. They charged me full price . I phoned/they gave me credit.But the credit was not against my Amex card but to my account. I phoned again and they credited my Amex. I like XM for the convience of the numerous stations-but their business practices are poor.

 

[loren]

If you do want xm service, a good trick is to use one of the temp, or throwaway credit cards. That way they can not bill you after the promo. Many people have reported they have a devil of a time getting XM to cancel them, and get billed anyhow.

I recently took advantage of the $10 for 6 months thing I saw on my Onstar monthly report. $10.42 for 6 months, and I wish them good luck in trying to charge that card at the end.

Walmart, or Walgreens sell the green dot cards. They work nicely for things you do not want rebilled after the trail, or special offer. You can load them with any amount you choose, spend the rest on gas and throw the card in the trashcan.

Some of the nicer credit cards also offer a virtual card number for one time use online.

 

[Stove Pipe]

When I have sold vehicles, I have never had a problem cancelling. Although, I have never just cancelled without a vehicle sale, maybe that's the trick? "Sold the Vehicle"

 

[svk1200gt]

Why would you want to cancel XM? I have 3 accounts and one of them is for my Wing. I can't imagine crossing the USA without it.

I plug in my i-pod and use Pandora Radioopcorn:

 

[Papa Phil]

I've got one thing to say about Sirius/xm. I love it!

 

[AccuEb]

Sirius v. XM

Sirius: Volvo cage came with lifetime...had 1 problem and resolved it by cell phone on the fly; pleasure & pleasent, great experience.
XM: F-ing nitwits, ripoff specialist. Problems all the time and no solutions. Att. Gen. office is the only way to go.
Same company...I don't think so. If I didn't rely so much on the weather add-on to xm, I'd rip it out!

 

[Rosy]

XM Radio

I have XM and love it, except I live in New England where the reseption is not so great with lots of trees, hills and mountains.
I found from reading past blogs about XM & SiriusXM that you NEVER-NEVER pay them with your credit card OR your personal check because they will charge your bank account without your permission. I go to Wal Mart and get a money order and pay the exact amount when billed so there is no way for them to charge my account. Works great with no hassels.
Good luck on getting them to stop your subscription, it will take forever to get it done.

Rosy
From NH

 

[good_w2]

I have XM and have always enjoyed it. I've found it not too difficult to cancel a subscription. Usually, when I sell a car I call them and cancel it. Seems easy enough except it may take a little while.

 

[hlothery]

I have Sirius in each car and XM on the bike. Can't imagine life without it. Never had a customer service problem, although I agree the phone wait is sometimes lengthy (no longer than my local cable company, however). Sorry for your experience.

 

[TexWalter]

XM/Sirius has a good product that is in my opinion overpriced and obscured by less than straight forward business practices. My experiences with two XM units back in the early to mid 2000 were quite similar to the OP. I'm free of them now and will never be using their service again.

 

[AlanS]

Had problems with them as well, I’am still using XM at the present time.
Bought a 09 XM/Navi came with x months free XM.
When the free period ran out they called an offered a year service at a dam good price, I took it. Bike was in storage when I got it back out and hit the XM restart date I notice I had lost weather and traffic. Traffic I did not really care about weather alerts I like. I called and asked to add weather to my account. They said it could not be added to a special rate plan. Had to move up to the standard rate then add. Did that as I was leaving for New England in a week and wanted weather.
XM is all right, but if I am paying that much for music, I don’t want adds for other channels, I don’t wan to listen DJs talk about how cool it was to meet the artist that just played, and some of the channels have commercials.
My plan is to just have weather when my audio package runs out and get a BikeMP3 player.
They were hinting that the weather data package may not be available without an audio package, will cross that bridge when I get there.
Will agree that it does not take much to block the signal, New England was spotty at best.

 

[GOJU RIDER]

Thanks all for the advice.I have been considering xm for awhile now,and will be cautious as how to approach it.

Barry