Sirius XM Radio
reviews and complaints

I have been using XM Radio for about 2 1/2 years now and love the service but be forewarned about their billing practices. A few months ago I called them about the monthly jump from $14.95 to $17.24. They initially told me that it was a weighted amount and can fluctuate up and down. I had no idea what the were talking about and said fine...as long as it settles down to the $14.95 per month again...no

It stuck at $17.24 and I called them. Finally they said that it's a royalty music fee that they passed on to consumers. I said fine and decided to downgrade my service to just a music only subscription for $12.87. After reviewing my bank records, they charged me $12.87 but never credited me the $17.24 they charged the previous day. (Fraudulant)

After the inconvenience of calling them back and being on hold for 15 min, I told them the issue. They didn't seem surprised and was more a matter of fact about it. They told me that they would "credit" my account for the $17.24, but I caught on quick and said Noooo, I want you to refund the initial fee to my bank account and not the XM account.

Be very careful in dealing with these guys. I know they were in bankruptcy for some time and now their tactics to pump their bottom line seem to be more and more desperate.

Read their cancellation policy carefully before trying to send an email or letter to terminate service. I'm still a customer, but I had to say something about it. Why does such a large company use shister style tactics... which only kills customer service and eventually customers.

I purchased a new vehicle in 2006 and paid for a 3-year service contract with XM Radio though the dealership. Initially decided not to renew in 2009 after the 36-month obligation was completed. Without my consent or approval the service continued for 2 months and I then received a bill for $38.00.

Called their customer service and explained that I was being billed for a service that I did not request. Also mentioned that I was now considering a renewal of my service but that would not happen until they either removed the charges or provided me with a copy of a binding contract under my signature that allowed an automatic continuation of service. After some hesitation, the bogus charges were removed. That took 2-3 weeks.

I then renewed the service by phone. (Never give these crooks your credit card or bank account information.) In renewing, I made it emphatically clear that I was authorizing only a three year obligation and that I would not allow an automatic extension unless I specifically approved it at that time. The agent acknowledged and concurred. Also, I required the agent to give me the total cost-plus taxes and fees. Then I wrote the figure down just in case I needed it in the future. Sure enough I did. Surprise! I received a statement that included an additional unmentioned fee of $56.00 Music Royalty fee. Again, I called their customer service: had a short discussion and demanded a supervisor. Same song, same verse as before. Believe I mentioned The FCC and my State Attorney General and once again the bogus charges were removed.

Unfortunately, I cannot take my business elsewhere to get satellite service so I will pay these unsavory merchants for another 3 years service so I can listen to Fox/CNN while I travel.

What can we do about companies like this?
1. Never trust them
2. Never ever let them have your credit card, personal, or SSN information
3. Pay by check or, better yet, Money order.
4. Never accept their sham service and bogus billing
5. Always report them to the FCC and your state Attorney General if they persist in illegal billing
6. Never use profanity, be firm, tough and threaten the agents with personal accountability and liability (always get their name before starting the conversation)
7. Follow through, always!
8. Never let an unauthorized charge on a credit card or billing statement go unchallenged.
9. Demand a copy of the contractual document that supports their billing if they continue to demand payment. Never pay until this is provided.

I have used this technique repeatedly and found it generally works, particularly with corporations that are licensed or incorporated in the US. If everyone, who is a potential victim, would get aggressive, these collective crooks might clean up their act.

Have you ever thought that some products out there should come with health advisory labels, like tobbaco and alcohol products do? Well, if for some reason they decide that we the public should be informed about what kind of health threats any certain product or service could potentiatly pose to our health, those SIRIUS satellite radios would definetely come labeled with something like 'WARNING! DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT IF YOU SUFFER FROM HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HEART PROBLEMS OR MIGRAINES, BECAUSE THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO AGGRAVATE ANY OF THESE CONDITIONS!'.

That would be truth in advertisement, but before that day comes, for your health, please stay away from SIRIUS. I got it as a gift about 2 years ago. I had heard it somewhere and I liked one particular channel they had, which played world music. Never mind that about 30% of the time all I got was an 'acquiring signal' message, when the antenna lost the signal, but that was probably due to its location. I was still willing to keep it, because I loved the kind of music they played so much. Then, one day they decided to do away with the channel I liked. They now call it 'world music channel', and what do they play? The Rolling Stones, 24/7. Not in my world. So I decided to give up on the whole thing, but they just wouldn't let me. They pestered me via e-mail, and on the phone, and then one day they finally told me that my radio station was back, playing world music. Great!, I thought, so I renewed my subscription, only to turn it on and what did I get? The Rolling Stones. 24/7. I was tired of sending them e-mails that only got automatically generated responses, and calling their customer service reps got me nowhere, so I sent a letter to their Customer Service VP. And I am very sure he received it. That got me no place, which is next to nowhere, and now I am here, warning you, reader, to either wait for the advisory label to come some day, or to listen to my advice, and DO NOT GET SIRIUS!

I ordered Sirius radio told operator i only had $19.00 on debit card said thats ok will waive activation and only take 12.95 . They took $29.00 and overdrew my account and bounced two cheques for a grand total of $70.00 and will not correct mistake.

They ruined my chance of getting visa on my debit cause when they checked this mess THAT I HAD THEY DECLINED ME THEY PASS ME ALL AROUND AND THEN I GET CONVENIENTLY DISCONNECTED.

I signed up for a 3 month deal and was told it would go to monthly charges after the 3 month deal ran out. After the 3 month plan ran out I was charged432.58 for a 3 year plan. This over drafted my bank account and really screwed me over. Upon calling xm they apologized and said they would investigate the charge. They said I should get a refund within 72hrs and contacted within 24hrs about getting reimbursed for overdraft fees. They offered me a 5 month deal for $23 and after reading the stories here I am regretting saying yes. I have not heard from them about the overdraft fees but, if I don't receive a refund after the 72hrs I'll just dispute the charge and cancel my credit card.

XM radio worst ever customer service lenthy hold times lenthy customer service only to be told need to speak to someone else. Cancelled a sold car JUNE 25 BY THEIR RECORDS AND THEY STILL AS OF SEP 4 HAVE NOT CANCELLED THEY OFFER NO EXPLAINATION AS TO HOW THIS COULD HAPPEN. i HAVE ABOUT 3 HOURS TOTAL TRYING TO CANCEL A SOLD VEHICLE! IS IT CANCELLED NOW? iT WOULDNOT SURPRISE ME IF IT STILL DOES NOT GET RESOLVEDiTS TOO BAD THEY HAD ME AS A CUSTOMER BUT THERE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS BEYOND BELIEF. tELL ALL YOUR FRIEBDS WHEN YOU NEED TO CANCEL SERVICE CLEAR YOUR CALENDER IT WILL BE A LENGHY PROCESS OURS WAS OR MAYBE YOU WILL GET LUCKY AND IT MAY GET DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

As with all new Honda purchases I received 3 free months of Sirius Radio when I purchased my new Honda vehicle . I renewed the Sirius for 1 month (by check...thank goodness as I have read of numerous credit card charges continuing). I then called and cancelled. But a bill was sent charging me for extended service after I had cancelled. I have received calls every day for weeks after the cancellation from Sirius advising the service was to be turned off. I called customer service and advised again that the service should be cancelled immediately. I next received a billing from a collection agency. I called them as well and they are a typical collection agency that is only there to get the money. I can not allow my credit to be ruined by this lousy $49...but it infuriates me that they are scamming everyone as they have scammed me. I made many good faith efforts to contact them only to have them advise they have no record of my phone calls. When contacting them by email the response has been that they could not locate my account...when I had provided them (customer service agent Nehru-no last name) with all the account numbers. I pdf'd the billing and then never heard back from them. This has to be illegal and appears to be occurring to many many folk judging from all the complaints I have read online. I surely hope this kind of bad business practice can be stopped.

Start reading through the Sirius complaints, and you'll see they have a nice little scam going on.

My story is the same as others here. I canceled my account with Sirius (because I got a new car with an XM radio in it). I also canceled well in advance of my renew date, and got a collection notice for $34.25 seven months after I canceled. I got a ridiculous story, as apparently have many others, about agreeing to a paper invoice even though I didn't have the car with the Sirius radio in it any more. Now why would I do that? I asked what the $34.25 was for and they told me "service." Service? I always paid Sirius in yearly installments, and it cost a lot more than $34.25. I canceled in December and my renew date was March, so it couldn't have been a month I used after my renew date. No one could tell me anything that made sense. I talked to four different people at Sirius and each one kept telling me "but it says here that you agreed..."

If it said there that I was Queen of England, would that also be true then? Finally I threatened to cancel my XM account and was told - no kidding - that "we don't have anything to do with XM." WHOA! How did THAT inter-office memo get lost?

I also ended up paying the $34.25 in order to not mess up my pristine credit. I even sent a registered letter to Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius. Of course, I've heard nothing back, other than - not kidding again - a phone call from a Sirius rep "noticing that I'd canceled my account some time ago and would I be interested in a promotion?"

You don't often suspect large corporations like Sirius-XM of perpetrating a scam, but boys and girls, this is nothing but.

On 8/3/09 I called to cancel my Sirius service on a radio I purchased from Radio Shack and I was told it was done . I then said I wanted to pay for the next 6 mo. service on the other radio and was told it would be $78.58 and gave her my debt card number. On 8/10/09 they drafted $156.83 from my account? When I called Sirius to get the matter figured out I talked to three different people, gave them each my name, account number, verified my address and phone number with each of them and spent most of the next hour on hold. After all this time I finally get to speak to someone who is getting it straightened out but now I am told I will not get a credit for the difference of $78.25 but $62.41. When I asked why the difference they told me some bull about fees and I had to pay for the service to todays date since the person I talked to on 8/3 did not put any notes in the file. After talking to "Emma" a supervisor I got nowhere and decided after 1 hour and 15 minutes it was time to cut my losses and hung up. Since Sirius is the only "game" in town what choice do we consumers have but to sit on hold an continue to waste our time when we have a problem. I think their idea of "customer service" is "If we leave them on hold long enoug they will hange up" . I work customer service all day for a very large insurance company and if I put someone on hold for that long a time I have no doubt that I would not have a job the next day. Who is looking out for the consumer in situations as this?

I am jealous of the Sirius subscribers who have lucked out and have not had any problems with their Sirius equipment or subscriptions.
This luck group should be very thankful because if they ever have to deal with Sirius customer care, oh boy! They are just plain a__holes! I am not joking! We all know that with all the products we use regularly in this day and age ie. cell phones, computers, electronics, that we are going to have tech problems and have to call upon the associated customer care. That's fine, and it happens and I have had my ups and downs with different companies but Sirius takes the cake. I purchased a Stilleto 2 and one month after the warranty expired, for no reason at all, driving down the road, it just stops working. I call and they take me thru the steps of upgrading and resetting the device and so on. They tell me that its busted and I must buy a new one! This thing costs &350.00! It just breaks after a year and they tell you to buy a new one?! These boys at Sirius must be raking it in because $350.oo to me is decent chunk of cheese.
I love Howard Stern and the music but these jerks must think they can hold you prisoner! No way! Dont do it, Im telling you...

Why doesn't the escape channel ever feature songs (Either classical or others) by mario lanza. His great voice has never been been surpassed or even equaled since his death in 1958. His arias are sensational as is the rest of his repertoire and certainly would provide the level of enjoyment that your current escape listing provide and more. On listening to the 50s music channel again I have never heard any of his songs.

I was a loyal customer for 10 years with Sirius but due to the economic crunch I decided to cancel my monthly subscription with Sirius several months ago. Of course the retention department attempted to do everything possible to keep my account active. One final option they provided was that they could put my account on temporary hold for several months. This would eliminate a reactivation fee that is normally around $50 in the event I chose to reactivate my account. As a bonus they would provide me 1 month free when I reactivated. 4 months later I see a monthly subscription charge on my statement. I was surprised as I never requested the service to resume. I of course called to obtain reimbursement and official cancellation of the account. After roughly 30 minutes I was told sorry we'll reimburse you only less than half. Crazy as they offered me an additional 3 months of service if I stayed but they wouldn't reimburse $12.95? Finally after getting a manager involved the company decided it was best to reimburse the full amount.

Don't be fooled. If you want to close your account just close it completely. Don't take this bait and switch tactic. I had every intention of reactivating in better times but I'm not inclined to give them my business now in the future.

Sirius XM Radio Inc has to absolutely set the record for being the worst customer service program or record! While attempting to cancel the service after 4 years I was placed on hold for the confirmation of cancellation process. After 40 minutes the line disconnected. After calling in a second time and waiting 20 minutes to get the screener, I was given a "direct, no wait number" [protected]), upon which she hung up. Calling the direct number was only a 25 minute wait (we are up to 1hour 25 minutes) when a barely intelligible voice attempted to give me a free radio and when a supervisor was requested, put me into a dead hold for 40 minutes.

Needless to say, I expect an billing problem and hope that the company goes out of business. I'm confident that the call center must enjoy reviewing the statistics of how long stupid people, like myself, will wait on the phone to talk to somebody that cares (obviously there is nobody in Sirius / XM that does)

I just want to share my honest opinion. I have been a Sirius Satellite Radio customer since 2003 and I have always paid $6.99 every month for my two additional radios on a 6 month basis. I guess Sirius has raised their prices to $8.99 every month for every additional radio after the first radio unless you prepay for 1 year then it is $6.99. I don't think it is worth the price increase at all. Over some time I have noticed on certain channels such as the rock station 'octane 20' 'lithium 24', 'hip hop nation 40', and 'the heat 50' is increasingly censoring their music. I singed up just to hear it the way the artist produced it and not hacked up like on air radio. I don't get it...price increases and censoring..and not to mention their customer service is horrible. Only today after I told them to cancel all three of my accounts because of the price increase they offered me $5.99 every month for a 6 month subscription each for my 2 additional radios. It makes no sence at all... if they would have left it at $6.99 for every month I would have not cared! But now they still take a loss. Anyways just wanted to say this.

XM/Sirus is advertising their new iPhone application for Online broadcasting. I recently renewed my contract in Feb. 2009 for a 3years which came with online listening service. To my surpise I can't get my iPhone to connect. I called XM customer service and at first was told yes it should work on my phone and then was corrected that because I have a LOCKED in RATE for 3 years they would have to change my contract and charge me 2.99 more a month, so they want to charge me for something I suppose to already have. RIP OFF... I told her to leave my contract alone I don't need it that bad.

It's sad when a company like XM Radio teaches their in employees to LIE! I brought there promo radio it was supposes to come with a home kit and for a one time fee of $69.00 with no another recurring fee. That was the 1 & 2 lie. From here it just got worse. I have a satellite radio that I have never listen to and never will. Their rep's claim a credit of $100.00 was sent to my credit card. My credit card company has not seen the credit nor have I. I know times are hard but to rip customers off who would without any scams or schemes do business with the XM because of the product is just sad. Something should be done about companies who take advantage of customer in this way. Lie, lie, lie and how about another order of lies because that’s what you are going to get with XM radio.

Buyer beware!
If you see a receiver you like to purchase and are considering the rebate as a buying point, please beware that sirius xm will not honor your rebate. Even if the rebate form is linked to the item you purchase, you see the item on the form, you give them everything they require and by the required date.. Be prepared for a loosing battle as they will not honor your rebate and tell you that you did not buy it from an approved retailer. Just beware, if you want the item.. Please don't even think about considering the bogus rebate offer. You're going to be highly frustrated and disappointed.

I purchased a Sirius Radio for home.When setting up the account on the phone, I gave them my credit card for 3 payments and an activation fee. I specifically indicated on there "recorded" conversation, that I would not be responsible for any further charges and did not want any other services. I paid for 2 years in advance, of which I have not used a year. I received a call a week ago needing an updated credit card number in order to continue the prepaid service. Come to find out, they were charging me 299.00 a month for auto radio services which I do not have. They cancelled these charges, supposedly, from January 09- May 09. The charges for the three months in 2008 will not be refunded, eventhough I did not authorize the service or have the equipment. They will not even issue credit for the unauthorized payments. Now I am receiving emails stating that the prepaid service will be discontinued in 48 hours if I do not provide an updated credit card number. They misused the initial credit card number; Fortunately, it expired at the beginning of the year and now they are going to disconnect a pre-paid service because I won't trust them with another creidt card number.

As XM & Sirius subscribers know these companies have merged. They changed the channel line up a few months ago to merge some Sirius channels to XM and vice versa. At that time I had three XM radios and one Sirius radio subscription. The Sirius radio is in my wife's Expedition. It came factory installed. We paid a full year subscription of Sirius at the time of purchase. *This was prior to the merger of the two companies.
When the subscription was about to run out they sent me a bill to continue service for the next year for apprx. $130. The merger was complete and the channel line up change had also been done. I figured I didn't owe the full $130 because I already had three other radios currently under subscription, this should be classified and discounted as an additional radio.
I phoned Sirius and told the CSR my reasoning. She put me thru to her supervisor. I explained again. The guy said, 'You are right. We get these calls all of the time. We have not yet merged our billing systems yet so there is nothing we can do." I asked him what it costs to add an additional radio to an account for a one year subscription. He said $88. I immediately logged on to my Internet Banking and sent Sirius a check for $88. I told the guy the check was on the way and I do not expect to get my service interrupted.
A month later the service was shut off. A couple weeks later Sirius called my cell phone to offer me this great deal to come back. Turns out it was around $80 for a year. I told the guy I dont want the service and to send me my $88 refund back. He said couldnt do that.
Today, apprx 2 months after solicitation I get a letter from a Collection Agency for $35. with Sirius radio as the creditor.
WTF! They recieved and still have $88 of my money and I havent had service in months. I will probably be filing a lawsuit against them Tuesday morning if this does not go my way tomorrow.
Anyone else having issues with them. Class Action sounds real good.