Sirius XM Radio
reviews and complaints

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.

A year ago I contacted XM/Sirius Radio to close my satellite radio account due to a rate increase and low usage. I was on hold for over 1 3/4 hours undergoing three agent referrals before I reached someone who would assist. That person apologized profusely and offered me an incredibly discounted rate - for the full following year if I would continue service. I stated that my credit card must be removed from auto-billing and the agent agreed. Last week - 13 months after I agreed extending service for a year I got a bill for two months of service - with no notice at the end of my paid service. I asked for service to be terminated immediately and was told that would happen with no charges. I just received a prorated invoice for $8.47. I am taking this issue to the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

When we bought our new vehicle, we received a free trail for XM Satellite Radio. We renewed a couple of times but, this last time we decided NOT to renew. Next thing we know, we are receiving a bill for $39.78. we do NOT owe this to them as we did NOT renew. Within a few weeks of the first bill they turned us into a collection agency that won't leave us alone. This is absolutely ridiculous to do this to people who have otherwise impeccable credit JUST because we decided not to renew. And, as we speak, we are STILL receiving requests for renewal from XM Satellite Radio... How absurd! This has gotten out of hand and we are tired of it. It's not about the money, but the principal. we are so sorry we ever accepted this free trial from them. feels like we are being scammed and if we don't comply, they try to ruin our good name. Beware to all of you thinking about this company.

Do not give them your credit card number. They will promise you the world to resubscribe then when you see your credit card bill it's way over what you authorized and the charges keep getting added to your card. You do not have any proof of what you agreed to and there is nothing you can do to stop it except cancele your card. Tell them to send you a statement and you will pay with a check then you have a copy of your agreement. They put you on hold till you give up and the custome service people are professional scam artist. I feel like I bought into the mob! I was a member of xm for 3 years and my problems started when it came time to renew.

Before you consider signing up with satellite radio, please read this.

When Sirius and XM merged, they increased their rates by 40%. They did this by passing on their royalties tax on to the customers.

We had fulfilled our commitment, and we decided to cancel. Let me tell you how difficult it is to cancel your radio service.

I called their 800 number, waited on hold for 15 minutes, they hung up on me.

I called them again, waited 12 minute on hold, and finally talked to a customer rep. I explained that I wanted to cancel. I thought after some discussion that I had cancelled my service. Two weeeks later I received a bill for 1, year service in the mail.

I wrote "please cancel my service" and sent it back to XM. Two weeks later I received a second bill. I wrote "please cancell my service" on the bill and sent it in. One month later I received another bill for 1, year of service. I called the 800 number to have the problem taken care of. I waited on hold for 15 minutes and they hung up on me. I tried again and after several minutes I reached a customer rep. She told me that I owed the a bill for 6, months but she would cancel my service. For all of these months I did not have a receiver connected so I was not using the service. They turned the bill in to a collection agency stating that I did not attempt to cancell the service.

XM / Sirius Probabily adopted the Hotel California song as there own. (You can check out any time you like, but you cannot ever leave.

Consider this before you subscribe to satellite radio, "Do I have the time to cancel my service when my comittment is up?"

I've been a subscriber to Sirius for 2 years. The programming has gotten progressively worse. So bad that I end up turning Sirius off and resorting to free commerical radio! HOW BAD IS THAT?

The problem is Sirius doesn't care about the customer. Everytime I call to ask for a customer satisfaction survey they say "it's on the way" and I never, ever get one!

I'm not planning to renew my subscription when it comes due at the end of the year. This is definately a company that will only respond when the $$$ goes away!

In December of 2007 I bought 2 Sirius Radios and a 1 year subscription for each. One of the radios was never used or installed. The other I used in my home and car and loved the programming.

Shortly before the year was up, I received what appeared to be a programming guide. It was slick print with pictures of Howard and Martha on the front. Somewhere in the middle of the programming guide was some fine print. Fine print always aroused my curiosity. It was so small I had to get a magnifying glass to read it. What it said was that the brochure was notice that if I did not cancel, my subscription would be renewed automatically for another year.

Obviously I did not want to renew both subscriptions, but I thought that hiding a formal notice inside of a program guide was un-ethical. So I called and cancelled both subscriptions. I would have renewed one of the radios if they had simply sent me a regular letter saying what the brocure said in microscopic print.

The following month I was charged about $300 for renewing both of the subscriptions. I spent hours and days trying to get someone to correct the billing. Finally, I gave up and disputed the charge with my credit card company.

Fast forward to May 2010. I received a letter for Sirius XM offering 5 months for $20 to re-activate my old radio. I was hesitant after the last experience, but I liked the programming and I thought it would be nice to have Sirius out by the pool. After all, XM merged with them, things must have been straightened out by now.

On June 7th, I called to take them up on the offer. The connection was so bad they hung up on me. I called again, but the operator told me that I could only have semi-annual billing, not quarterly as was described in bold faced microscopic print at the bottom of the letter I received. He transferred me to customer service, but after 20 minutes they never answered. So I decided to give it one more try. That was a regrettable mistake.

Charles was very co-operative and said that it would be a quarterly charge of $38.85 and that the other operator didn't know what he was talking about. He told me that there was a message on my receiver channel 184 that would go away sometime between 5 and 20 minutes.

About 45 minutes later I called customer service and waited and waited only to be told that Charles didn't know what he was talking about. Supposedly, that message is there all the time so you always know what number to call for customer service.

A few days later I logged into my on-line account and discovered that Charles had signed me up for semi-annual billing, which I emphatically told him I did not want.

So I went to my Sirius radio and tuned to channel 184 expecting to see a customer service phone number, but it wasn't there.

I attempted several times to reach customer service, but they just don't answer the phone. I sent two emails that received no reply. By then, I was determined to cancel the service and eat the $23.05 I had just paid. I would gladly pay $23.05 to be rid of this company.

I was determined to cancel, so I went through the robotic operator that can't understand anything that I said and after about 30 minutes an operator came on the line and told me she could not accept my cancellation because she is in the activation department. She assured me that she would personally talk to customer service and personally send me a confirmation of my cancellation. In fact, all she did was transfer me to customer service and they knew nothing about why I was calling. When I asked if the previous operator had explained why I was calling, she said, "no" and hung up on me. That was another 38 minutes!

So now I have given up on calling and emails. I am first going to file a complaint with the FTC and then send a letter to both customer service and the legal department requesting cancellation. If I am billed again, I will simply dispute the charges with the credit card company.

I don't understand why a company with such an outstanding product is so hell-bent on turning happy customers into unhappy customers through what I believe are sleazy and underhanded billing practices and unbelievably poor customer service.

Mission accomplished: after just 10 days I want to cancel a good product and forfeit the money I paid for 5 months of service. WTF? Woe be the day I ever got involved with this company.

I had an annual subscription to Sirius from March 2009 through Feb 2010. On Feb. 6th, 2010 I called Sirius and cancelled my renewal so I would not be billed for another year. This part was sucessful. However, the phone clerk put a wrong date or something into their system and they charged me a $75 cancellation fee. I was never notified of this charge until I received a collection notice from EOS CCA saying I now owed them $80 as Sirius had assigned the debt to them. I immediately called Sirius to figure out what was wrong. The call center worker explained that their system showed I had indeed called on the above date and that they had made an entry error that resulted in an early termination fee. He then went on to say that he couldn't do anything about it and I had to call the collection agency to correct their error. Fine, I have now tried several times, spending over three hours on the phone, to contact EOS CCA to find out how they can correct Sirius' error and remove the negative credit report from my credit score. I cannot get anyone on the phone. I tried to then e-mail Sirius customer service, surely if I explained all of the situation and they could check the computer records they could resolve the issue. I received a response back that was more of the same "sorry, our fault, but we aren't going to do anything more because it is in collections, too bad" How can a company function like this, do they not have a single person working there that can think that maybe they should correct this issue instead of continuing to make me be further inconvenienced. Never, Never, Never have any dealings with this company, they have zero customer service.

I had a horrible experience with sirius - it started last friday when I was on hold to speak with a representative for 30 minutes. I tried calling again today and was put on hold by a representative for 20+ minutes - I was surprised when the phone rang and I got a new rep who had no idea why I was calling. Needless to say I was not happy. I was calling to activate a free radio subcription for my mom that was activated w/o her knowledge by the dealership she bought it from and she lost out on the free 6 month trial. I wanted to actually get the free trial, but was told by sirius that was not an option. I have been a long time sirius subscriber and they just lost out on a potential customer along w/ leaving a horrible impression on an already active user.

At this moment - I loathe sirius's call center and customer service.

I called Sirius to see about getting our subscription fees reduced due to the fact that they were beyond unreasonable. The CSR talked me into getting a Lifetime subscription, which would lower the annual fee based on the numbers he gave me. We have two radios, one primary and one secondary. He told me that we could do 5 monthly installments to pay for the subscription. The primary radio was to be $84.00 and the secondary was to be $65.00 which would total $149.00 per month for the next five months. I thought I got all the details. He said that included all "taxes and fees". The subscription was non cancellable and non refundable which was fine. He also said it was non transferrable, and went on to explain that if we sold the car to someone the buyer wouldn't be able to take the subscription. Made sense. So, I agreed and gave them my debit card number. The first charge came in about 5 minutes later at $255.00! I immediately called and tried to get a resolution but of course was sent to a different CSR that said there were taxes and fees involved. I told her that the call was recorded by them and that she could go back and listen to what I was told. She said they could do a reverse debit, which would take 7-10 business days and the account would be closed, blah blah blah. I said nevermind, just tell me what my fees will be from here on out. The answer was $149, that the initial payment included all the fees. The next month I get hit with $174.00, and the three subsequent months were $194.00. I knew that there was nothing I could do after the second month so I just let it go. However, I am warning everyone to GET IT IN WRITING if you deal with Sirius. Also, back to the non transferrable thing, if you get a new vehicle (which everyone does eventually) the "non transferrable" thing doesn't apply to the buyer of your car. It applies to YOU! You cannot continue service with your existing radio without having to pay for another lifetime subscription if you trade or sell your car.

I have a 2005 Mercedes Benz that I purchased on 6/1/2006 and it came with one year of free Sirius radio everything. On 6/1 2007 I became a paying customer for this service. On May 28, 2009 I decided to go to mostly music on my radio which I did with a CS person over the phone and paid 1 year for my service which ran 6/1/2009 through 5/31/2010. In November of 2009 I looked at my account online and it was screwed up with my service dates so I called to get it straightened out. After talking to 3 CS people I finally asked for a supervisor. He apologized and told me he would fix the problem. In doing that he gave me a credit because I was so angry at the poor quality of their CS people. In April 2010 I started receiving emails and phone calls telling me my free service was ending on 5/15/2010. After numerous calls and about 3 frustrating hours over several weeks talking to their poor English speaking and understanding CS people and their supervisors my radio was cut off. I called the day the radio was cut off and again talked to 3 different CS people and 2 supervisors who tried to reactivate my radio to no success. The last supervisor still did not get it that I was a paying customer with a service paid through the end of May of 2010 with a Credit of $58.69 on my account that I could see online. About an hour after I told the last person I spoke with and had been on the phone with for 2 hours, my radio was activated again. I told the last person I spoke with that since she could not get the service activated then they had lost me forever and I would make sure as many people as possible knew what a nightmare they are to deal with. I even asked one young lady on the phone if she talked to a lot of angry customers and she said yes, every day. I called their corporate HQ in New York and a very rude operator answered the phone and told me repeatedly that I needed to call CS and refused to put me through to anyone in their corporate HQ. Obviously they know they have a problem and do everything to avoid dealing with it.

I now have a radio back but who knows when they will cut it off again. I am left with a credit on my account of $58.69 but do not trust them to give them a credit card number and work out the numbers so I am not going to renew with Sirius after spending 7 months trying to get my service dates and their screw up fixed.

I had an annual subscription to Sirius spanning from March 09 to Feb 10. On February 6th, 2010 I called Sirius to cancel my subscription, which they sucessfully did. However, they also charged me an early termination fee of $75 because the phone clerk didn't put the correct cancellation effective date. During this time I switched my cable provider and internet carrier to AT&T. I didn't receive any further notices until I was notified by EOS CCA (a collection agency) that Sirius had turned my unpaid account over to them and I now owed $80. I have tried to call Sirius, they said even though it was their error, they cannot do anything and I have to deal with the collection agency. I have tried for over three hours (on hold) to contact someone at the collection agency that can correct this, to no avail. This is what you have to look forward to with your dealings with Sirius. I thought maybe an e-mail to their customer service department that explained all of the situation, with the details, that they could correct their error without further wasted time being necessary on my part. Their reply back was the same "don't bother us, we don't want to deal with it, you aren't a customer" response that their phone center gave me. How can a company expect to stay in business treating people this way? Completely inexcusable.

In the years I’ve subscribed to Sirius, paying in advance for service was always the standard. In 2008 I started having difficulty with my signal. It would cut in and out just a bit at first, then over several months it happened constantly. I made multiple calls to Sirius who would generate a “signal boost” in my zip code area. This would help somewhat, but eventually it would get so bad again I just shut my radio off. Even after spending $90.00 on a Sirius signal booster from Circuit City, the improvement was minimal at best. Sirius eventually said my radio was out of date and I needed to purchase new equipment. Since the last part of 2008, I quit using my Sirius all together, even though I had paid in advance for the service I was no longer using! When I received renewal information in 2009, I did not respond because I was not going to invest money in another year of poor service and excuses.

I spoke with a Sirius representative 4-5 weeks ago, explained my situation and he thanked me for my years of service. To my horror, last week I received a COLLECTION NOTICE in the mail for $31.12! The customer service rep didn’t bother to say anything about what they were doing on my account; he only wanted me to renew service!

I called Sirius and spoke with 2 customer service reps and a supervisor who would not escalate my call any further saying “managers above me don’t talk with customers”. They refused to do anything to correct the outstanding balance saying it was my fault that I did not call them to discontinue service; therefore I was charged for 2 additional months of service after my account expired. When I did not pay for the additional 2 months of service, they turned me over to a collection agency.

They said they didn’t need my approval to continue my service since this was “their policy” and I should have called to cancel. I asked them to either remove the charges or provided me with a copy of a binding contract under my signature that allowed an automatic continuation of service. Once again, they said they didn’t need a signed contract to continue my service.

I refuse to pay for extortion! If they ruin my perfect credit, I will do my best to ruin them! Maybe they will stop defrauding people if we slap them with a class action suit! If you know of one that has been initiated, please post it on this site.

I bought a new vehicle in Colorado and I live in Kansas. The new vehicle came with a Sirius radio component. I called this company at the above phone number 4 times to see if the previous owner still had an account and/or if I could start up an account in my name. The first 3 times I called, I couldn't hear the rep with all the loud noise in the background. The rep obviously couldn't hear me either as they kept saying things that I had not even said myself. The 4th call, I requested a manager and got "Adam" if that was his real name. When I attempted again to share the problems I'd been having and ask the questions I needed to ask, there was such terrible loud noise in the background, I once again couldn't hear. Finally, I asked if the call center I was connected to was in the United States and was told no, it was in Cairo, Eqypt. This is terrible service. Adam too started stating things to me that I had not even said. Sirius Radio, what is wrong with you?

I made a startling discovery as I was checking one of my credit card accounts this morning. A $767 charge from Sirius XM Radio. I started an account with them in 2003 after the trial period was up in a new vehicle I had purchased. I liked it enough that I eventually purchased a second tuner, which was billed on a month to month basis, and even purchased a 5 year subscription for the first radio. As time went on the subscription rate on the second radio kept increasing, but I continued the subscription anyway. This morning was the last straw, however, when they (Sirius XM) took it upon themselves to hit me with a charge for another 5 year subscription without even asking if I wanted it. Consequently, I decided to sever ties with Sirius XM completely, and I immediately called and canceled both subscriptions. Sirius XM has had a real problem with increased rates primarily because they insist on paying millions of dollars to broadcast inane programming from the likes of Howard stern Oprah, Martha Stewart, and the like. bottom line is, they spend money like a bunch of drunken sailors and then expect everyone else to pay for it. Well, I'm not gonna any more!

I've been getting a couple calls a day every day from [protected]. I got Sirius satellite radio free for six months in my new Volkswagen Eos. In February they started calling to remind me that my free subscription was going to run out. Now in March they keep calling but do not leave any messages. I created a custom voicemail for [protected] that asks them to remove me from their caller list and to stop calling me. So far it has not worked.

Googling [protected], I see that I'm not the only person that Sirius XM hounds with incessant phone calls. I blogged about this issue yesterday at http://www.davidlauri.com/blog/tag-Sirius.

I tried using the E-mail Customer Care form on http://www.sirius.com to let them know about this issue, but the e-mail address to which their web form is connected doesn't even work, e-mailing me this bounce message:
550 5.4.1 [protected]@siriusxm.com: Recipient address rejected: Access Denied