Sirius Satellite Radio Consumer Reviews - Page 3

This place is a horror show. No wonder they went into bankruptcy. It was the hassle of a lifetime just getting the radio installed up and running. The most frustrating thing was dealing with customer service. It was like getting an audience with the Pope just to speak with a representative I had to because they kept rejecting their own product code on the website hook-up.

The representative was, and I say this in all the charity I can muster, an absolute dolt. He had no idea of the product or plans available. There is an obvious culture of rudeness where he works. I can just imagine the working conditions this creature endures in that he feels that he has to take his work frustration out on paying customers. The experience rivaled Kafka- he asked me about rate plans and installation and was angry that I didn't know. He accused me of wasting his time and not reading numbers correctly. He "had it with stupid people" like myself.

After spending numerous hours and expense just installing their product I was desperate to see the project through. I asked for another representative I got silence and cut-off. I called again- going through the torment of their phone prompts again and waiting one hour for another representative I explained the situation to this representative. She listened, without acknowledgement to my ordeal, and asked what I wanted her to do. She was smug but at least was coherent. I asked for the radio to be activated and gave her my plan. At this point I just wanted the transaction over. I choose a year because I didn't want to deal with these people again.

Fast forward a year. The radio works and I really don't think about Sirius. I listen to Southern Gospel radio in the car and it just becomes a small part of my life. The radio suddenly goes out. I discover from Sirius web reviews that indeed, Sirius had called me twice about my account. They use an 800 number and leave NO message. I don't pick up 800 numbers thinking they are telemarketers. If these jerks just would have left a message I would have called back.

So today, I try and contact Sirius. No luck as usual. Cut-offs and prompts that just go to dead space. The web installation is no better. I've decided to not throw good money after bad. I'll buy an iPod adapter for my car and listen to tunes that way. It's obvious that this company just doesn't care. The reps have chips on their shoulders because they hate their jobs. Management can't take a customer base of millions and turn a profit.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- 9/29/09. 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 representative 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 have never posted a company complaint, but I am so disgusted with Sirius that I feel I must do something. I am with the crowd who are upset with Sirius not the few who have posted excuses for their poor practices. People who accept these excuses are the ones who allow companies like Sirius to continue.

Sirius does not make it clear that they will automatically renew the service and charge one's credit card without new approval. Maybe it's somewhere in the fine print, but what's wrong with a clear disclosure? With the efficiency of the Internet what's the big deal to email the customer at renewal time? I have other accounts that do this.

It is nearly impossible to cancel one's account with Sirius. One cannot cancel online although the account can be set up online. According to Sirius "Customer Care" this is due to "Security Reasons". I have a bridge to sell to anyone who believes this one. When one calls the 888 number, no menu choice leads one to cancellation. If one asks for Customer Care (which is prompted at the second repeat), one gets the same menu in a different order.

When an agent is finally reached from anyone of the menu choices (I tried all of them), the agent takes your information and then connects you to their "Customer Retention" line. I asked and was told the hold would be long, as much as 30 minutes! I went through the process twice and held for 11 minutes and 10 minutes respectively before giving up. I also called (as a test) into both the tech support and activation lines and assistance was immediately available without delay.

In my opinion, this is a most disreputable company. Even if the radio service is a good product (I didn't find it to be worth the extra cost) this is still not a company with which anyone should do business. All consumers need to start saying no to this type of business practice. Don't do business with Sirius, at some point you will regret it.

PENNSYLVANIA -- Last year for Christmas, my wife gave me a Sirius Sportster radio, home docking kit, everything I needed for the car, and a one-year subscription. I thought this was a wonderful gift as she knows my love of music. I got to use my radio for a few months when it stopped working (it would play for a few minutes and then say "acquiring signal".) I replaced the antenna and still the same. So I called and set up a return. They took me through the process of getting a new radio and then told me that it was on back order. My guess because they were inundated with people who had the same problem as me. I figured, okay, how long can this really take.

I called them to check on the status of the replacement radio after about a month. When I called, they had no record of the replacement order and transferred me around to 3 different people until they tracked it down. They then told me it would be another 30 days. So, I signed up for 6 months of the internet radio so I could at least get some use from my account. After a total of 6 months I finally received my replacement radio, including a whole new antenna, docking kit, etc. I hooked it up and was having the same problem.

I called Sirius and told them I wanted a refund or for them to send me a different radio. They told me that it was past the return point and all they could do is send me another of the same radio. By this point I was fuming. I decided to just stick with the internet radio and use up the balance of my pre-paid subscription. Last week I received a letter from a collection agency looking to collect $18.53 for Sirius.

I called Sirius to find that they were looking for payment of the internet radio that they said I never paid. I pulled up my Sirius account on their website while I had them on the phone and saw in my billing history it was paid 6 months before. My credit took a minor hit because of these people and I highly recommend that anyone thinking of Sirius look elsewhere. I don't know that XM is much better since they are now in bed with Sirius. I think I'll just stick with the iTunes Music Store and listening to my music in the car with my iPod.

MICHIGAN -- I received a 1 year trial subscription for Sirius Radio with my 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee. A few weeks before the trial period ended Sirius sent me an offer to get internet radio free for one year if I renewed my subscription. I listen quite a bit and was planning to renew anyway. I renewed my subscription one week before the trial expired and got used ID and password for internet radio.

The day after the trial period ended my service was shut off. I paid for the renewal with a debit card so I checked my bank account and found that the transaction had net been processed nor was it pending. However, the internet radio was still working. I called customer support and they still had a record of my previous call to renew; the CS gave me the date I called and the last 4 digits of the debit card I used.

After giving me the price for 1 year of service (which had not changed) the CS asked if I wanted internet service added. I explained that I had already taken advantage of the one free year of service offer. I was asked to wait while the CS checked something. She told me that the only way I could get Sirius internet was to buy some sort of all inclusive package for an additional $50 dollars or so.

It's not so much the $50 as the fact that I thought I had been promised the service for a lower price; that they went ahead and shut my service off and tried to jack the price up when I tried to renew. I know everybody would like to make an extra dollar, but I don't like to be lied to. I told them not to renew. I'll be back with another review if they turn the service back on and bill my debit card.

TEXAS -- I am a very dissatisfied customer of your company and here is the short story. I purchased a 2012 Mustang for my wife in November 2012 it was a Christmas present for her. I had the car loaded with everything Ford offered including Sirius. The Sirius program came with the car and was to run for 12 months, in March of 2012 I purchased a 2012 Ford F150 STX for myself and it came with 6 months of Sirius.

Then fun started, immediately I begin getting calls for late payments for both account as well as bills through the mail, along with marketing material asking me to join, when I was already a customer. Each time I explained to your customer service people the situation and it would stop for a while then pick up.

In September of 2012 Sirius took 93.61 out of my account, I immediately ask to see any authorization given to Sirius to make withdrawals from my account. Verbal or written, that request has been made to your folks as resent as 4 weeks ago and I have yet to receive a copy of the authorization, that is illegal! Both of the accounts have now been canceled, without allowing the Mustang to receive its full 12 months of service.

What do I want? I want my 93.61 back or a copy of the authorization, I want the service to the Mustang restored for 6 months, and I want your people to stop calling me with threats of service termination for accounts that are no longer in service and I want your marketing department to stop sending me materials.

We have a group here in Texas called the PUC as well several consumer protection groups each of them will receive a copy of this letter. I am a very serious man, the kind of man who when he washes his hands he washes up to the elbow that means I follow through on everything I start, so don't just think I'm someone to blow off, I would recommend you take this letter and me very serious. You have 10 days to respond!!!

1100 CORPORATE OFFICE DR, MICHIGAN -- Hello, first let me start by saying we don't normally complain but this deserves to be heard!!! Six months ago we sold our car equipped with a Sirius Sat Radio. In the beginning we did enjoy the service for many years. We always paid yearly in advance.

So we called and cancelled. They said we had a refund of $113.00 coming since we only used a few months of the service this time around. They said it would be 8 weeks to process the request and to expect a check. So 8 weeks came and went no money. So we called again. They said "sorry we will put in another request for refund." Another you guessed it 8 weeks... Again nothing! Nada Zip! In the meantime we started getting bombarded with 3 to 4 calls a day trying to sign us back up for a service for a radio we don't have anymore. It got so bad we had to threaten them in order to get the calls to finally stop.

Meanwhile no refund again. This has been going on for 6 mos now. So we just called again this evening. Same run around. Seems no one can give us a straight answer. They even tried to tell us they may have put it back on a CC we cancelled two months before we called them the first time. We told them prove it... of course they can't! It's impossible! So we asked for a supervisor and they transferred the call to a bigger idiot than the last one. This guy promising he would put in another of many trouble tickets.

Here's the rub... They will just keep giving you the runaround till you just give up and they keep your hard earned money for FREE!! The worst part is they now have pissed us off so bad that we will never do business with them again. They have lost two loyal customers and we will tell everyone STAY AWAY!!! Imagine how much money they keep off hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting clients this way. It makes me sick!!! No honesty and no integrity... that sums up Sirius Radio! Just hot air!!!

IN AUGUST 2010 I bought 2 new Fords, an Explorer and a Mustang Convertible. Both came with 3 months "free" Sirius radio. Every three days from that date on I received, not one, but TWO "renewal notices" from Sirius. What a deluge of mail and a waste of trees and postage.

I finally called them to place an order for not ONE but TWO lifetime contracts. I then learned that there was no discount for TWO lifetime accounts for the same person and since one cannot drive 2 cars at once, I did not see any value whatsoever in paying $495 plus tax a grand TOTAL of $576.49 for 2 vehicles (2 times $576.49).

So after some consideration of telling Sirius to F Off, I decided to sign up for coverage for my Explorer for $495 plus taxes to total $576.49, which I DID (on record and tape recorded) on Nov 13th at 9:15 am EST...on my Amex card. So imagine my surprise when coming home from a busy day at work on Nov 17th, I have NO SIRIUS RADIO!!!

So I call the number annoyingly flashing on my screen in my lovely Ford Explorer, only to reach an idiot in Sirius customer service who advises I have no account... ** the "genius" cannot figure it out or help me, so finally I tell him to F Off and hang up. I get home and thinking I had just by chance gotten an idiot on the phone, I call again and get another idiot who after about 15 wasted minutes disconnects me by accident.

I call back again and ask for a supervisor...I get ** who although nice is unable to help me, tries to charge me even MORE MONEY $616 for the lifetime membership, asks me to hold while he gets his manager who when the: "manager" picks up he cannot hear me and hangs up. I have now wasted over an hour with these buffoons.

These folk are idiots who will NOT BE AROUND TO SERVICE YOUR ACCOUNT. RUN AND HIDE...DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. Use your ipod instead. These incompetent jerks will be GONE during this recession/depression and they deserve to GO UNDER. Idiots can't even process a lifetime membership. Good riddance, I will dance on the grave of your dead business!!!

We allowed the sat. service to terminate following the introductory offer from purchasing our 2010 Jetta TDI. My wife and I enjoyed the service however could not justify the cost considering the limited time spent in our car. A representative of Sirius called our home and solicited a promotional offer to reactivate.

The wife being in a wonderful mood that morning thought it would be a nice thing to do for our son and I to activate the service. She proceeded to set up an account and of course provided credit card information. She was then told to go out to the car for the activation portion.

During this process a problem was discovered and the service could not be activated due to possible technical problems. The representative then informed my wife she was being transferred to someone who could resolve the issue. After waiting on the phone for 2 hours (the credit card was already billed) a technician answered and quickly found account information was not entered correctly and told my wife she would be transferred to someone who could help.

After waiting on the phone another hour someone answered to which the wife explained her situation and considering all the problems would like to just drop the whole matter and cancel all orders. She was told that would be no problem and all billing were suspended and any payments processing would be canceled. Three days later the charges appear on our bank statement at which time I called Sirius. I offered the account number given to my wife by the Sirius representative and was told our name was not on that account and no charges were processed to that account.

I provided our credit card information to the person on the phone which enabled him to locate the account which our information was listed on. We were not the account holders: names, addresses, and personal information did not match however the representative refused to offer the account holders name. The only information that matched was our credit card information. I then proceeded to instruct the representative I would like to cancel the future billing and was told that was not possible as we are not the account holders.

To end this long story we eventually notified the bank contesting the charges and had to cancel our credit card and reissue. The excessive wait time to speak to someone coupled with the clear inability of Sirius reps to address possible fraud of poor performance is upsetting. This company knew the billing information was incorrect, knew the mistake was made on their part however refused to address the problem.

This company wilfully and knowingly allowed charges to be leveled against someone knowing they were not the account holders. Beware of situations such as this while the features offered by the company are nice it is nearly impossible to get something corrected as you are likely to wait on the phone for hours.

Run away from this company. I've been a customer of 5 years and have made numerous incidents of overbilling my credit card/checking account. Was always able to resolve problem until now. Paid by subscription of $97.98 on 8/21/10. Company took $397.00 out of my account (4 X 97.98).

Took 2 days, 12 phone calls and 4 hours to get anyone on the phone who would not disconnect me. On 8/23/10 @ 9:15 PM CT, spoke to a supervisor who agreed to refund my money plus $60.00 in overdraft charges. He told me it would be refunded within 3 days. On Thursday, 8/26, I spent several hours and many phone calls. I could not get anyone on the phone.

Finally, called the corporate NY office and spoke to Corporate Customer Care. Was told my refund would be expedited. On Friday, received refund for all my money PLUS $60.00 overdraft. Later that day, XM charged by account for $60.00. Called NY back and was told that they don't pay overdraft charges.

Finally, on 8/28 I called to cancel my subscription. Service was disconnected and was told I would receive refund of $62.16 in 7-10 days. I called on Fri. 9/3 to check on status, was told refund would be processed that day. No refund. Called on Sat. 9/4 - was told then that company doesn't process refunds from the 1st to the 5th as they do billing, but refund should be in my account by 9/7.

Today, 9/8 still no refund - called NY again. Now told refunds take 2 weeks to process. Asked to speak to supervisor was told there isn't one. I just want my money back - I love this product but this customer service is horrible. Called my local TV station's customer reporter who told me she has a "drawer full" of billing complaints on Sirius XM. Do not do business with them. I will be a walking talking advertisement against this company.