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I sent the following letter to XM Radio, requesting removal of a charge they applied that I did not authorize. Not only did I send it to the email address XM says to send to on their website (listercare@xmradio.com), but I looked up who the senior management was at XM/Sirius (CEO, COO, Sales/Mktg SVP, etc.) and found that the logic XM/Sirius uses in their email system is first letter of first name followed by entire last name and sent the letter to both @xmradio.com and @siriusradio.com for each name. The @xmradio.com emails were returned unsent, but the @siriusradio.com went through! This morning I received a call from XM Corporate indicating they got my email and completely removed the charge from my account and sent an email confirmation to me as proof (upon my request. I figured I'd post this to help the MANY people I see are having similar issues and feel there's no possible solution. The execs you can send emails to include: mkarmazin@siriusradio.com, sgreenstein@siriusradio.com, jmeyer@siriusradio.com and daltman@siriusradio.com. Here's the letter I sent:
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To Whom It May Concern:
Three years ago I signed up (over the phone) for a 3-year subscription for both of my cars (radio ID's: XXXXX and XXXXX), paying in advance. My 3 year commitment expired and I was debating on whether to renew, but had not decided yet. Today I received 2 invoices for $34.05, indicating a past due amount. I called your customer service to understand what the charge was for and was told that because I did not call to cancel my 3-year subscription, it automatically renewed and was shut off because of non-payment. I was told that it was my responsibility to go to your website to understand the terms and conditions, which indicate I needed to call to cancel.
I am disputing the charge and would like it removed from my account and not sent to collection, in that I never signed, nor agreed to, an automatic renewal. I signed for a 3-year plan and expected that at the end of my commitment, I would not have service if I did not renew, no different than a magazine subscription.
I asked to get escalated to a supervisor (Will -employee #47809), who told me that he was the furthest I could escalate to and that I should've gone on your website to be familiar with a term and condition that required me to physically call to cancel my subscription. When I asked told him how people would be expected to do that if they did not have internet or a working computer, he told me I/they would need to go to the library to access your website. When I asked for a call back from his manager, he told me it was unlikely I'd get a call.
I am outraged that this has happened and planned to re-subscribe in due time, but have serious doubt about it now, learning that this is how you treat a customer who had faith to sign and pay for 3 years in advance. I would greatly appreciate it if you would acknowledge removal of this charge, in that I do not want to have to deal with collection disputes and other time-consuming/costly effort to defend myself. After Googling to see if there was anyone who had this same problem, and how they got it resolved, I was appalled to find this is a BIG issue and not uncommon. Please prove them wrong and waive this charge.
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I hope this has been helpful to you! Good luck!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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Xm/Siruis Radio- St. Louis, Missouri
I have been having issues with one of my Xm radios for over 3months. I have been a very loyal customer for over 5 years. I was finally told by listener care that they would replace the radio at a COST to me(Free shipping-WOW!)
I spend a huge/ large amount with them yearly, and is all they can say!
I was told that there was no one to speak to- I told them I was going to contact their offices and the Ceo of the company!
It will be going out to all today or tomorrow-
I was lead to beleive that the customer always right ----BUT----
oh.. and if we dont make any sense on the phones its because
A: We are sooooo tired of explaining the SAME thing to 500 pissed off people who just argue with us and expect us to bend company policies. As if we have an "erase bill" or "refund all the money" button we can just click to make all your problems magically go away.
B: We are all REALLY high. or drunk. or tweaked the [censor] out. some of us havn't slept in 2 or 3 days. We may place you on hold to go snort some crystal meth in the bathrooms.
C: You people are RUDE. You call cussing and hollering. as if thats going to get you anywhere. AHAHA. We just hang up on you or transfer you to the spanish department. We sooo do not have to put up with your [censor].
I worked as a rep for sirius. They had us work in a specific department called Saves. you know this department as customer satisfaction. when you call to cancel your subscription, you are speaking to someone whose sole purpose is to keep you subscribed. why? because each rep is paid commission based on the percentage of subscriptions they retain! a rep must have over a 50% Saves Rate in order to receive their commission check. I can personally testify that representatives WILL PURPOSELY KEEP YOU SUBSCRIBED, EVEN IF YOU WANT TO CANCEL just so they will receive their commission. I HAVE ALSO SEEN EMPLOYEES TAKE DOWN CREDIT CARD NUMBERS AND MAIL CUSTOMERS RADIOS THAT THE DO NOT WANT TO ORDER just so they will have radio sales. The company gives away daily prizes such as gift certificates and even nintendo ds systems to reps that sell the most radios. Also, when you call Sirius you are NOT speaking to s sirius employee. You are speaking to an employee of Stream Global Services, and outsourcing company. Also, any employee can take a supervisor call. Thats right people, WE HAD NO SUPERVISORS ON THE FLOOR. Kids as young as 17 have full access to your account with absolutely no supervision. If you ask to speak to a supervisor we just place you on hold for about 10 mins, play our gameboys we won from stealing your credit card info, and ask one of the people who sit next to us to take the call. While you are on hold we [censor] about how stupid you are and how you didnt read the fine print, which we have all had drilled into our heads.
"Your subscription will continue until you cancel and you will be automatically charged on renewal for the term you select at our then current rates."
this is a verbal contract. you agree to it when you sign up for service over the phone. most people don't understand what it means, but they don't want to say anything because they are in a hurry or don't want to sound stupid.
The contract states that you give Sirius your credit card info and they will charge it based on the subscription you choose. If you choose monthly, they charge it once a month. If you choose a 3 year plan, they charge it every 3 years. There is NO way to opt out of Automatic Renewal. The contract is the same as Netflix, or a cell phone or cable bill. If you cancel your services within the first year you WILL be billed a $75 cancellation fee. NO EXCEPTIONS. If your credit card expires and you do not renew it you still receive service for 3 months. After the 3 month grace period the service will shut off and a bill for the past 3 months will go to collections. at that point the employees at Sirius can no longer access your account. it becomes shut off to us. it gets turned over to another company called CCS Financial. You have to call them and pay the bill or it will ruin your credit!
A few years ago I purchased a new car which came with a satellite radio & it came with a complementarily 6 month trial subscription, after the 6 month trial subscription ended- I then purchased to a 2 year subscription with Sirius Satellite Radio. Incidentally the credit card I used had been canceled due to unrelated fraudulent charges, so the credit card # Sirius KEPT on file with my account was useless. After my 2 year subscription ended, Sirius called me continuously-ENDLESSLY asking me to give them an active credit card # & I CONTINUOUSLY REFUSED & I DIRECTLY TOLD ALL OF THOSE HARASSING IGNORANT SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES THAT I-DO-NOT-WANT-TO-RENEW-MY-SUBSCRIPTION & I-AM-NOT-GIVING-YOU-MY-NEW-CREDIT-CARD#. MY-PREPAID-SUBSCRIPTION-IS-OVER! They continued to call & I finally just ignored their calls & then a couple months later received a bill from a collection agency-ITS INSANE- I called the collection agency & they were NO help & insisted that it is "my" debt! After a half hour of arguing, they told me to contact Sirius &/OR write a letter to their collection agency disputing the debt. I'VE WASTED A LOT OF MY TIME & I AM DISTGUSTED with the aggravation this company has caused me. Below is a copy of the letter that I wrote to the collection agency disputing the charge, however if this doesn’t resolve my dilemma then I have no idea what I could do next!
October 26, 2010
"To whom it may concern,
I recently received a collection notice from your agency regarding a "bill" from Sirius Satellite Radio which is considerably a fraudulent statement. I discontinued my service when my contract ended & refused to update my credit card information because I WANTED TO DISCONTINUE MY SERVICE AFTER MY CONTRACT HAD EXPIRED! I spoke to a Sirius Satellite Radio customer service representative a few months ago & FIRMLY stated I did NOT want to continue service! I WAS COMPLETELY UNAWARE THAT Sirius Satellite Radio WAS CONTINUING MY SERVICE REGARDLESS OF MY REQUEST TO END MY BUSINESS WITH Sirius Satellite Radio! I WAS NOT AWARE THEY WERE "BILLING" ME & APPARENTLY HOLDING ME RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYMENTS UNTIL I RECEIVED THIS COLLECTION NOTICE FROM YOUR AGENCY.
Once again, Sirius Satellite Radio HAS FAUDGULENTLY BILLED ME FOR SERVICE THAT I SPECIFICALLY DISCONTINUED WHILE SPEAKING TO A Sirius Satellite Radio customer service REPRESENTATIVE WHICH IS WHY I SENSIBLY DID NOT TO UP DATE MY CREDIT CARD INFORMATION.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: SINCE RECEIVING THIS COLLECTION NOTICE FROM YOUR AGENCY I HAVE CALLED Sirius Satellite Radio COUNTLESS TIMES ATTEMPTING TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE AND HAVE GOTTEN NOTHING EXCEPT "THE RUN AROUND". I’VE SPOKEN TO SEVERAL INCOMPETENT Sirius Satellite Radio REPRESENTATIVES WHO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THE OBVIOUS DEFINITION OF CUSTOMER RELATIONS/SERVICE IS! EACH TIME I CALLED, I WAS PUT ME ON HOLD SEVERAL TIMES FOR AN EXTREMELY LONG WAIT & YET WHEN EACH THE Sirius Satellite Radio REPRESENTATIVES TOOK ME OFF HOLD, THEY STILL HAD NO RELEVANT INFORMATION TO RELAY OR CONCLUDE MY SITUATION.
I HAVE PUT A COMPLAINT IN WITH A SUPERVISOR IN THE Sirius Satellite Radio CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT, WHO SAID HE IS FILING A CLAIM ON MY BEHALF (reference case ID# XXXXXXX), DIRECTING MY CLAIM TO THE Sirius Satellite Radio CORPORATE OFFICE TO REVIEW & THE SUPERVISOR ASSURED ME THAT THE CORPORATE OFFICE WOULD CONTACT ME WITHIN 48 HOURS. NOW ALMOST A WEEK LATER, I HAVE RECEIVED NO WORD FROM THE Sirius Satellite Radio CORPORATE OFFICE. I HAVE AGAIN CALLED Sirius Satellite Radio customer service SEVERAL MORE TIMES & I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED ANY RATIONAL ANSWERS WHATSOEVER!
THERE ARE SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THE FUNCTIONALITY OF Sirius Satellite Radio AS A CONSUMER CORPORATION.
I’M REQUESTING THIS UNJUST DEPBT BE REMOVED IMMEDIATELY!
I WILL FILE A COMPLAINT WITH EVERY VALID SOURCE & PROCEED WITH FURTHER ACTIONS UNTIL THIS MATTER IS RESOLVED APPROPRIATELY. Thank you for your time, "
I have had XM since it was introduced. I was also on auto billing but i had 3 to 4 radio's and they would bill me for radio's that were not up for renewal. I also found that sometimes they did not give the family plan discount. It is almost imposible to get your refund. They will never admit they were wrong and agree for a refund. NEVER NEVER leave a credit card on file with them. You will be charged for service you don't owe and will likely never get your refund. Also when you try to manage your account on line, it is imposible because the radio ID #'s are not there so you don't know which radio is up for renewal or when one expires. I don't think XM is worth the hassel. john m
Gerry you're a genious! I was in the exact same boat as you; subscribed a year, even instructed the sales rep at that time to take me off of automatic renewal (which they said was not a problem), then started seeing charges for $40 every 3 months after my subscription expired. I'd tried everything, 2 weeks of emails back and forth, calling several times and talking to managers, even seeing if my CC company could dispute for me (they couldn't). I was able to get a partial refund for what was left of my 3-month charge, but was still out ~$50. Emailed the list people you said with a similar letter, and had an XM rep call the very next business day and the charges fully refunded within 2 days. Thanks again! HIGHLY recommended to anyone who has had issues like this with XM!
I have the same issue, but was a loyal customer for at least 7 years to XM and it has been so long, cannot recall how long it really was. About 2 years ago, changed account to non-automatic draft, due to some oddities in bills and thoughts of overcharging. This was to be a non-automatic renewal, never did agree to that when I changed to being billed via mail. I decided to not have XM radio anymore due to the harder economic times and met with the same issues you have had. I e-mailed every one of the people above and hope that it helps.
Thanks
Merrilee