Xm Cust Service... ARRRG
 

Long post warning....

So I have a xm unit in my boat. In june, I activated it on a 3 month plan, figuring I'm not going to use it after the boating season is over.

I call xm in August and ask that the radio be suspended, they say ok

I get a bill in November for 45 bucks for sept/oct/november. I call and explain the whole thing, they say no problem, they'll credit my account and deactivate the radio......

for the last week, I get a recorded message calling me, threatening to suspend service (this is what i wanted 6 months ago)

I have some time, so I call and after giving my account number and info to 2 different people, the guy asks if there's a reason for me wanting to cancel. wanting to beat him senseless, but remaining calm, I calmly explain that in IL, our lakes and rivers are frozen and I'm not using the boat. I also explain that I've called several times to recify this situation. the guy tells me he cant help me and I have to call cancellations. He gives me their number.

After calling them, and being on hold for 17 minutes and 43 seconds, a guy comes on the line (tryig to sound like a recording) stating that they are "upgrading thier system" and to call back in 2-3 hrs. I calmly state what I want to do, and he repeats himself.

What the hell do I do?

A lot of the drivers at my work have had the same problem with XM. Some trying to cancel or just waiting for their contract to expire are having problems getting their billing stopped. Some that called to cancel still are getting billed after their contract is up. Most have gotten the same type of runaround that you seem to be getting.

the easiest thing to do is tell XM to pound salt, and switch over to sirius. and when they ask why, tell them that their customer service is worse than what you could expect from a dead cockroach.

XM and Sirius have merged and likely have the same Customer Service philosophy / leadership.

Call your credit card company and continue to dispute the charge until they stop.

Good luck.

BTW: If you decide to keep the service, tell them you want the special $ 77.00 rate for 12 months. The code is Z_WINBACK. Every once in a while you will get a butthead but, most will give you that rate with no hassle. Took me 5 minutes with no hassle to get that rate for my wife on her birthday.

It sounds like a Sirius story.

Hey, at least you didn't get to talk to Ooba Jabba Jibbiday in India. You would probably end up with a 5 year contract on 6 different units.

The Zwinback code doesn't work anymore but if you call and ask for the $77 deal they may still give it to you. I've been searching for the last few days for up to date coupon odes and have found none to get around activation charges or any other deals.

I assume you do not have a unit in your boat that you can use in the car? I imagine it will be a nightmare trying to activate and cancel every single summer, be much easier to swap the receiver out into a car in the winter. I do know it is more of a hassle than it should be to do that, I own 3 receivers because I am too lazy to carry one back and forth between the house and cars, but any additional receiver is only like $7 a month.

On a side note I dropped Sirius about 5 year ago because they charged my card over a year after I canceled them for a full years service. I called the card and finally convinced them to take the charge off and vowed never to use Sirius again, now that they more or less bought XM here I am again stuck with them.

Just an FYI: I gave my brother-in-law this info Saturday morning just before they went back home. He got the $77.00 deal (I don't think he even mentioned ZWINBACK) over the cell phone and it was immediately activated...made their 12 hour drive a lot shorter.

Here is the #: 800-347-0600

If you go to the Sirius website, you can email them about your problem. I have done this once before after a frustrating phone call to an idiot Customer Service Represenative. The next day I recieved an email back taking care of the problem. Worked for me.........


.

I'll try that,

as far as taking the unit out of the boat, its hardwired to the cd deck. I do have units in my cars already, but after the programming change, I think i may cancel those as well.

Havent talked to anyone in india yet, but via the phone, I've traveled deep into mexico and deep into an urban ghetto...

we'll see what fun tonights phone call brings...

Another 16 minute phone call with both departments and we appear to be good to go, but this is not the 1st time i've assumed this....

When you re-activate in the summer use one of those one time use pre-paid visa/master card gift cards.

XM has been successfully renewed my subscription for the last two years using an expired credit card. They send me an email to update my credit card info but the charge still goes through. The CC # hasn't changed so if I don't dispute it Visa & XM doesn't care. I gotta have my XM so I don't really care either.

I have always received great customer service from Sirius, when I have had to call them.
I had to just a month ago because my bank blocked transactions from several states due to credit card fraud and Siruis was one of the companies that was affected.
I had no problem both times I called them, once to explain the situation so they wouldn't turn my service off, and then a couple days later to reactivate the payment plan.
I have a receiver in my truck that I switch between it and my Goldwing, plus one in my work shed that I listen to alot.

I listen to mostly "decades" music and Sirius Patriot radio so the merger doesn't bother me in the least little bit. No way I will ever go back to "regular" radio unless it is due to circumstances beyond my control!

low and behold, Another bill came tonight......

i just got a call from a friend i did a xm hookup for last year cause his xm stopped working.
it seems xm does not automatically bill your card, you need to redo it each year.

another good point for sirius they just charge the card. none of this if you dont call us, we stop service.