Sirius XM Radio
reviews and complaints

I just had the WORST experience with Sirius. I am a long term Sirius users. 3 subscriptions, some 2-3 years old and 1 is 1 year old. Recently, a radio was stolen. When I called, I was told I could put the sub on hold AND get a new radio from for $10 when I decide. Period. No new activation fee, no radio swap fee.. simple. But at the time, we could not make the decision as we were on the way out of town, literally. In the meantime, Sirius sends me 2-3 times a week emails offering +2 months if I activate a new radio & no fees to reactivate. Now, I call to get that $10 radio, to replace the stolen one, and activate it on my on hold sub and I am told not only can I NOT get the +2 months bonus offer but I MUST PAY a $15 radio swap fee and I CANNOT get the $10 radio I was first offered as that requires at least a 3 month subscription despite me having an open sub. Now, not only does this contradict their emails, it contradicts their original customer support persons offer and claim to me, but I already have an account on hold that has a not used subscription tied to it. But, now I see clearly. They are going to take advantage of my misfortune, since the radio was stolen, and make some sort of money off me for my loss. Period. That is their goal. They will not honor the claims they made to me, they will not give me a break since the radio was stolen and not charge me the $15 radio swap fee nor give me the radio at $10 like they said you would. On top of that, the night before I waited on hold for 1 hour and got disconnected because their hours of operation ended - while I was on hold! No mention of hours in the dreadful recording, no mention of how long my wait time is like most modern hold phone services can do. So, here I am, trying to get a radio to replace my stolen one, conduct business with them, and they make it painfully hard on me. So, let me clue them in on the big picture. Their lack of desire to wave all the fees associated with activating a new radio to replace my STOLEN one (about $15), their lack of desire to give me the $10 radio at the $10 price and not force me to add a renew period on top of that since I already have one on hold for a radio, is going to cost them much more than what they could have saved by just helping me out and making it easy on me. In 2010 I have a year renew coming up... I will not renew. That means, they will loose 3 radio subs.. and 3 radio subs I have had for years and might have kept for years more. So, their desire now to not be flexible in their policy, to charge me petty fees now, will cost them so much more revenue in the future = hundreds if not thousands of dollars of years worth of possible renew sub fees on 3 radios. You know, I do not NEED a radio I pay for. It is a luxury, not a necessity, and even more so in these economic times. You would think they would work to keep me, but instead they push me away with petty fees, misinformantion, changing stories, inflexible requirements, and hoop jumping. Talk about not looking ahead or at the big picture.

I had XM service installed for a period of 3 years which was paid for in advance. We totally forgot the date it was supposed to expire and we had no intention to renew it. Today I have received a bill from XM for services provided beyond the 3 year period. When I called XM I was told that XM continues the service until I call and cancel. I didnt cancel my service but they discontinued it last month and by the way I didnt sign a contract with them either. I have read several other complaints on XM.
Is there room for a class action lawsuit against XM?

It seems as though corporate america comes up with these great ideas of looting people whereby they either have it in fine print someplace saying that you have to call and cancel oterwise they continue to render service that you dont need as it is either terrible or obsolete.

It was some of those great guys in wall street that brought this economy to its knees and guess what, they get million dollar bonuses!

What a rip off! I activated my radio and NEVER received a signal. I called and was told I was getting an "Airplane" signal, which of course never made it to me (after the 7th call, I was informed that there wasn't such a signal). I have called them over 12 times now and still haven't received the refund I am due. I was put on hold for a very long time only to have to repeat the story to yet another person, she ended up hanging up on me. I am still in the process of "getting a refund" and I will not give up until I get the refund. This has been going on for over a month now and I expect it to continue but they will get tired of me and I WILL get my money back. I would recommend to save yourself the troubles and don't get mixed up with XM!

I have been an XM subscriber for several years now and listen to XM via the car's receiver (both of my cars have it so I have a multiple user account) when on the road, or via the online service when at home or work. I have broadband connections and so the online service sounded relatively ok at the high speed rate. I was notified in February 2009 that on March 11, the online service would no longer be part of my package. However, if I agreed to sign on for another 3 years at this offer time, I could continue to receive online content. So I did and my credit card was billed.

After March 11, I went to the XM online site and went to my favorite music station. This time, the music sounded horrible and realized that I was listening to it at the lower data rate. When I went to switch to the higher rate (as before), I was told that the higher rate required additional fees! I was not told of this in the original offer and the quality of the lower data rate is unacceptable.

Got contacted in the mail about Serius XM's plans to charge an additional $2.99 for internet streaming, but good news, should I go along with pre-paying for one two or three years, I can continue to enjoy the service I have had at the locked in price, no additional $2.99 a month. So I went for it and took on two years. I go online tonight, and the player is blank except for my presets, with which I am able to access some programing. I decide to get to the player through the internet rather than with my favorites link, thinking that may resolve it, and I do get to the player and it still has the raggedy, corrupted graphics, but all stations are there, only the quality isn't the same as it used to be. I go to the settings and I see:

SETTINGS
Choose your listening experience: Basic Online Listening - 32k Premium Online Listening - 128k
Choose your listening experience: Your package does not include premium online listening. Upgrade now.

The upgrade costs $2.99 a month. I can't help but feel deceived. I had at my disposal the higher bit rate stream prior to the letter, and felt I was going along with the offer to preserve the service I had enjoyed for years. As a matter of fact, the letter said that, "Your current XM Radio Online listening privileges will be available at no charge until your next renewal date." Shoddy, shoddy bait and switch, shame on you XM. There was no mention that I would be eligible for only the inferior stream if I took them up on their offer. Lies of ommision won't help their business flourish. It's telling that the 32K bit "basic" stream isn't even offered on their web site. It's sad that that the poor quality internet streaming is reserved for their loyal customers.

XM/SIRIUS radio steals money and time from their subscribers by overcharging accounts and not responding appropriately to customer complaints.

After hours of time on the phone and many, many emails during a 9-month timeframe, XM/SIRIUS still insists that I owe them money when in fact they have been overcharing me all along. Their "customer care" representatives now respond to my complaints by
”accidentally disconnecting” me, thus forcing me to start all over from scratch and never actually resolving my complaint.

Do you think I'm the only XM/SIRIUS customer with this problem? Hardly! Google this and check out the vast numbers of consumers with similar problems who have written about it online and just imagine how many more people there are who have not bothered to write about this problem.

How are consumers supposed to fight back against a giant such as XM/SIRIUS radio? I for one am giving up as I have no more time or patience to deal with them. My options are to pay them the money I do not owe them and be done with this matter or dispute the charges and chance the XM/SIRIUS will submit my unpaid bill to collections. This option of course would damage my credit and take me even more time to sort out.

My choice is to pay them money… money I do not owe them! If you ask me that means they are stealing my money.

How many other XM/SIRIUS customers have made this same choice I have made and how much money is XM/SIRIUS collecting from customers who do not owe them this money. How many people’s credit scores have been affected by bad billing behaviors of major companies such as XM/SIRIUS? And who is going to stand up for the individual consumer?

Is say that XM/SIRIUS Radio are thieves and bullies and I understand why they are on the verge of bankruptcy because of their bad business practices with their customers!

I had a one year subscription and they don't tell you they autorenew and continue to charge you. I called to cancel it three months early and was told I could not get a refund (lie). Instead they sold me another radio ($20) to finish out my contract. At the end of that, they auto renewed it. I called again and complained and was told "sorry for the mistake, you owe us nothing and you account has been cancelled." Then I got a bill from them for $20. They charged me for an extra month. When I called yet again, they said it was part of the contract and I owed it. I told them I was told by their person I did not owe it they said that couldn't possibly be true. So Iasked to have a copy of the audio tape (for "quality purposes") I was told I could not have it for legal reasons. Now they are turning me over to collections. Lies and scams!

Complaint #1: When my first XM plan expired, the credit card I used was billed without my consent or knowledge.

Complaint #2: When I cancelled the plan for a vehicle I no longer owned, XM never refunded the pre-paid amount. Instead, XM did cancel the service for the second vehicle on the plan which was also pre-paid, never refunding that amount.

Complaint #3: When I called several times to resolve the issue, I am told either "there's nothing we can do" or "you were sent a refund" but no further information such as when the refund was allegedly sent or a check number or any credit card refund data.

On or around 12/18/2008 I called xm radio to renew my subscription (I purchased in 2006). I wanted to upgrade my subscription to the plus package in order to get Howard Sterns. I was informed there was a lifetime membership for $499. I purchased that package. I was then informed about a special. A free xm radio with the purchase of 3 months prepaid service and to continue for 1 year. I agreed and signed up. Everything seemed to be great.
I kept looking for the HS show and the NBA channel and could not find them. I called customer service. They said that they needed to reboot my radio (why wasn't this done at the time I purchased the lifetime membership.) I then updated my e-mail address with your company and had my online password reset. I received and e-mail confirming that the radio had been shipped on 12/19/2008. I was excited, it was to be for my wife car.
I was waiting for the radio and figured due to high mail traffic during the holidays that it was taking longer than normal(Whatever normal is). On or around 1/11/2009 I called xm and informed you that I didn't receive my radio(this was after 10 minutes of waiting on the phone to speak to a person and another 10 or 15 minutes talking to someone in order to be transferred). I was then transferred to another department where I waited 25 minutes to speak to someone and another 10 or 15 minutes with that person. I was told that I (I emphasize I) needed to call UPS and find out the tracking status.
I call UPS who I speak to immediately and they inform me the package has been shipped and received. I have not received the package. UPS said they delivered it to 230 east 7th avenue. I live at 203 east 7th avenue(I received my original invoice at 203 east 7th avenue for my main service in November-It is funny that when people want to be paid they know where to send the bill). They told me I needed to contact the sender and they needed to file a claim.
I'm on my 4th phone call to xm (another 5 or 10 minutes waiting to speak to someone only for them to transfer me to another department again). This time I only waited 40 minutes to speak to a live person. This person told me they send out another radio. They corrected my address and e-mail in there system, they said. I was very patient having spent 2 hours on the phone. I was confident it would be taken care of promptly.
On or around the end of January, beginning of February I placed another call to xm satelite radio listener care(what a crock) to let them know that I hadn't got my radio yet. Listener care told me that they were going to transfer me to a different dept(here we go again). They asked if my address was 230 east 7th avenue(wrong address again), It is 203 east 7th avenue. They also ask me if my e-mail is [protected]@cox.net(this had been updated 2 calls ago) it is [protected]@cox.net. I then inform them that I will not sit on the phone and wait any longer and to have someone call me as soon as it is taken care of. I was told that within 72 hours I will receive a call updating me on the situation. I did receive a call and was given the shipping dept. # and told to call in order to check on my order(customer service at its best). I inform this person I'm not going to spend another minute on the phone(free radio means free radio, My time is precious and I don't have time to sit on the phone for another 2 hours) that was the end of that conversation. On 2/24/2009 I call xm again! )= to be given the same run around that I had received twice before with no results what so ever. I was told again that I had to speak to a different dept. I once again told this person that was not going to happen and that I wanted a manager, supervisor (anyone that could get something done). I was told I would receive a call from someone in 24 hours. Today is 3/3/2009 and I haven't spoke to anybody until I called them today. By this time I just want to cancel the radio and get a full refund. I'm told that I have to be transferred to shipping at which point I tell that person all that has happened since December 2008 at which point I'm told that I will receive a refund of service and shipping for that radio. I'm told that I will receive confirmation by way of e-mail(you still had the wrong e-mail) I won't hold my breath for that one.
We really would've liked to received that radio, but after the customer service that we received I wanted to be done with it. Being that you have a monopoly on the market I guess you figure customer service isn't that important. You can bet if and when there is another satellite radio company I will be pulling my business from xm radio and I will let anyone that will listen know of the service I've received.

disappointed,

Mark Bergvall
ID. 5BLUC0WH
ACCT. # 1-[protected]
Address: 203 east 7th avenue (not 230)
Escondido, CA 92025
Phone #: 619.244.8703

The reports of horrible customer service at XM are not an exaggeration. All I wanted to do is cancel ONE of my radios. After being put on queue for 45 minutes, I was finally able to cancel the radio. Here is the kicker: The lady tried to sell me a "replacement" radio, which I told her several times I did not need. Why would I call to cancel a radio just to get another? It then occurred to me that she was trying to sell me this to make more money for XM. Not only did the radio cost money (ok, not THAT much) I found out they get a commission for every account they sell. She then tried to sell me the "lifetime" plan which I never asked for. I mean, XM is trading at penny stock level and now you want me to buy $400 for a service that may not be here in a few years? XM will try their very best to sell you a POS radio and then charge you for it. I also believe that the call center is in Jamaica or somewhere outside the USA, but can not confirm that.

2 months ago I signed up for Sirius satellite radio with the basic plan. Once I hit the website to register, it told me it was billing me the 17 dollars for the service, plus some kind of activation fee. The total came out to $54.00.

The problem began when I checked my bank statement and realized that somehow, Sirius billed me twice! The total on my bank statement billed from Sirius was around $108. So I calmly called them, informed them of the situation. They wanted me to fax them a copy of my bank statement, which I did, and said that it should be cleared up in 3-5 business days.

2 weeks later, the issue had not been resolved, so I again called in. This time I informed the agent the case number, to which I was on hold for about 20 minutes. She came back and said her escalation department was looking into the case and the refund should be in my bank account within 3-5 business days.

2 weeks later (I'm not kidding) with nothing done, I called in again. At this point, I'm disgusted with the service of their billing department. I inform the agent the case number, he puts me on hold for about 10 minutes, comes back and says the refund should be there within 2-3 business days. Again?! This time, I don't take that for an answer and I tell him thats not going to cut it. He tells me he can't do anything about it, so I told him to get me someone that could and I want my money now or I will cancel the account altogether. After putting me on hold for about 20 minutes, he comes back and says his supervisor is busy and I can either wait on the phone or he would call me in about 15 minutes. I just hang up.

I will be calling in again this afternoon to get my money or cancelling my account. Satellite radio is nice when your in the middle of nowhere, but when you have an ipod, it's not necessarily needed.

Screw Sirius. Their billing is a joke and getting money back from them takes a miracle...I will never own another Sirius/XM radio ever again. I can deal with the FM stations, it's the same music/commercial/music format anyway...

Cancelled service 11/20/2008 with XM and my card as well.Recieved no charges for 3 months ; then this month we recieved a bill. I called my card company but they told me I had to contact XM to get my money back.
Tried to call XM ; but the number I have for them no longer works. Need a number or someway of getting my $13.95 back as I'm not paying for something I don't recieve.

Tom

First, let me define what, in my opinion, constitutes unethical behavior. My opinion is advertising specific attributes of a product and refusing to deliver that attribute.

I never got a chance to "enjoy" the programming. I checked out their website and wanted the "a la carte" programming for $6.99 per month. I bought the Starmate 5 (more radio than I needed/wanted) as the website said it supported "a la carte" packages as well as did the box the radio came in (I bought directly from Sirius). After receiving it I went on line to set up an account and activate it. When I came to the package options all the 'a la carte' programming was greyed out saying my radio did not support 'a la carte'. There were no monthly pay programs, the only two that were available were the full packages for a one year period.

I contacted Customer Service to try and ascertain the problem. After 8 reps and 1 1/2 hours on the phone the issue never go resolved. Two reps acknowledged this radio supported 'a la carte'. Every rep "hung up"--sending me to another rep who asked all the same information as previously--name, address, radio SID number, etc. I was completely disconnected once. One rep tried to "upsell" me to a life time plan. After getting all the info, one rep put me on hold and when he came back had no idea who he was talking to and asked for all the same info again. One rep said he didn't want to take the call and sent me some department who had no involvement in activation. Each time I spoke to a rep I told them that all I wanted was "a la carte" on a monthly plan; that's when they "hung up". Finally, one rep's supervisor told her to tell me to send the radio back, and transferred me to the returns department who gave me an RMA. Yeah, customer service sucked big time! The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and none seem to be conversant with the product (they all said my radio didn't support 'a la carte'.

I agree with all the complaints filed here, and am rather surprised at the handful of positive comments. I'll not deal with Sirius again and will be recommending to anyone considering the service not to buy it.

It conforts me to know that it's not just me (not personal) who has fallen into that enpty void in which XM Radio likes to call customer servise. For me, it started about two years ago when I replaced permenant type XM Radio with one of those Delphi XM 2 GO's. I thought it would be nice to be able to play XM in my house and my truck. I really liked the radio until it died, I replaced it (my cost) and it didn't make it as long as the first one. I will back up and say that this is going back almost 2 years since the 2nd radio died and I phoned XM and canceled it but continued with an XM radio in my wifes Jeep. A few days before Christmas (2008), I looked into buying anouther radio to stay in my truck. I got looking at my account on line and my profile still showed my XM 2 GO but had the radio i.d. removed. I called XM to see if we were still paying for it and found out I was and they could only pay me back for 30 days worth. That was not good enough for me so the woman from XM told me that her superviser would have to call me back and it would be 2 or 3 days. After over 3 weeks (past holiday, I will give them that) and I never heard a word. I sent 3 e-mails, 2 more times of calling and on the third call, I read them the riot act. The woman told me, once again, I was told someone would call in 2-3 days and I came un-glued. I was actually patched through to that womans superviser and I explained the situation and you will love their reason. I was told that I was offered a deal on a new radio and I said I would have to get back to them. I was then told that since I never called back that I must be happy with my service but also it was noted that the radio was cancelled because it didn't work. How can I be happy with a radio (an expensive one at that) that would not work. I asked to speak with her superviser but instead she did credit back part of what I spent so I finally just said screw it. I love the commercial free radio but be carefull with the provider. Check your bill very closely as I should have if I could. I never see the actual bill, if you are like most of us, your credit cards keep a ballance. I'm sure I'm not the only one, my wife pays the bills and assumes the add on toy's (XM is a toy for most of us) have the correct billing amount and has no idea of what they really cost.

I am a first time user of the Sirius satellite radio because it was given to me as a gift from my wife. She purchased the radio along with a $50 pre-paid gift card that was supposed to be applied to the first year contract price. I went online, created my account, activated the radio, and provided my credit card to pay the difference of the 1 yr contract. I check my account on the Sirius website and I see that the entire year contract was billed to my credit card, but the $50 pre-paid gift card is sitting in the account as a "credit" or negative balance.

I call customer service (obviously sub-contracted out of India) and ask for the $50 to be refunded back to my credit card. They told me the were unable to do this and that the $50 would be available if I wanted to purchase any other services or renew my contract next year.

This is unacceptable... I don't want any other products and I am not sure I would want another year of service. I called again. And same thing. I asked for a supervisor and I get disconnected.

I will keep trying to get my money back, but I see this as petty theift. The company obviously needs the $50 more than I do... I also contacted the Radio Shack where the radio and gift card were purchased and the manager said he would bring the issue up with his account manager from Siri.

My advice to everyone is don't bother with the pre-paid gift card. It really doesn't provide any value and just gives Sirius an easy way to unjustifiably KEEP you money.

A new frustrated customer, but not for long...

After the trial period for XM Radio in a new car expired I opted to pre-pay for one year of service. That service ended in Oct. 2008. In December I received an invoice for service post-dating that period. I called to let them know that I had not renewed my service and to have the bill canceled (the radio had already stopped receiving XM service). The three individuals I spoke with, including a "manager" stated that XM service automatically renewed. When I had originally signed up for the one year service plan over the phone I was not asked if I would want the service automatically renewed, nor was I notified that it would be. In addition, in the invoice I received covering the aut0-renewal, the monthly rate was increased 36%.

To top it off, when I called to complain about both the unauthorized auto-renewal and the increase in the fee, the people I spoke with were very uncooperative and boarder line combative. When I said that I had not seen anywhere in writing that the yearly plan I had pre-paid for would auto-renew, the manager challenged me to read to him over the phone every word of the billing and account information documents I had received from XM. The "manager" was not able to address either my questions or offer any solution other than for me to pay the disputed bill in question. He told me that someone who would be able to address the problem would call me back. It was by far the worst customer phone support experience I've had.