My Customer Service Experience

Sirius XM has been taking a beating lately in the area of customer service. Here is my personal experience:

Yesterday, January 31, 2011, I received a form letter notifying me that my XM subscription would be expiring on March 10, 2011 but that:

"you are enrolled in our convenient automatic-renewal program" . . . "the credit/debit card you provided will be charged the rate shown below . ."

Having read all of the negative comments recently, I was of course concerned. The subscription was for a leased vehicle. The lease just ended and the vehicle was turned in last week. Moreover, I had never given written authorization to automatically renew.

So, I first worked-myself-up into a good lather and then called the toll free # at "Listener Care." From everything I had read, I expected to be on hold for the better part of an hour.

Wrong!

Automated message center answered the call and requested basic info like phone # on account or Radio ID # or account #. Also requested reason for call such as billing, adding service, cancellation etc. Once I gave the requested account info, I was immediately connected with a live customer service rep (bit of a foreign accent but nowhere near as bad as Norton/Symantec).

I explained that lease had ended and car turned in. The rep asked if I had purchased or leased a new car and offered to simply transfer the service. I declined.

He then very promptly processed my cancellation request and provided a reference #.

I asked about the "automatic-renewal" noted in the form letter, advising that I had never provided that authorization. He was quite candid in saying that all accounts are set to automatically renew.

In any case, the entire process took less than 5 minutes. The customer service rep was courteous, knowledgeable and well informed. I was told that I would receive a pro-rated refund for the unused portion of my subscription.

I also inquired about current pricing and was given the following for a 3 year plan:

XM Everything: $401.45 + $43.36 Royalty

XM Everything + Best of Sirius: $526.69 + $43.36 Royalty

XM Radio Online as an add-on: $2.99/Month

Management needs to revisit the automatic-renewal policy; they have already run afoul of various state consumer laws on this issue. The automatic-renewal option should require the express written consent of the subscriber on a plain-language disclosure form.

Nevertheless, on a scale of 1 to 10:

I GIVE MY CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE WITH SIRIUS XM 10.

Charles . . the "timeout" function is set way too short, way-way too short!

I now find it necessary to first type my longer posts into a word document and then paste into the forum (so as not to lose everthing from being logged-out)

Worse yet, when you were timed-out in the past . . . simply logging back-in restored the post.

Now, logging in after timeout simply takes you to a blank page; tried refreshing the blank page several times to no avail; had to reload the url and of course the post didn't take.

Fortunately, I had saved it in word before hitting the submit reply button.

Having the forum protocol set-up in this manner is as frustrating to me as Sirius XM having automatic-renewal . . . and I am sure others have lost entire, well thought-out, posts due to this.

Time to revisit this aspect of the site . . .

You can click the "remember me" checkbox next to where you login and you will not timeout.

That said, I will look into the time out setting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SiriusBuzz

You can click the "remember me" checkbox next to where you login and you will not timeout.

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Excellent!

The timeout was set to 15 minutes. I upped it to 30.

Again, if you click remember me, you wont logout unless you clear your cookies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SiriusBuzz

The timeout was set to 15 minutes. I upped it to 30.

Again, if you click remember me, you wont logout unless you clear your cookies.

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I rate Sirius Buzz customer service a 10!

I do my best and always appreciate the feedback of my users. Keep em coming and I will keep ironing them out.

I am pleased to report my experience with Sirius Customer Service today was GREAT!! :thumbup: My call was to add Internet radio to my current sub. Simple enough, or so I thought. First, I was immediately put on with a Sirius tech (misconception #1) I thought I would be put in to a waiting hell. Not so. Second, I could understand him, well mostly, he was from Nova Scotia. :p (misconception #2) thought there would be a language issue. He was incredibly patient, helpful and cheerful as we went over possible reasons I wasn't receiving audio. I would have given up after an hour on the phone if it weren't for his encouragement we would find a solution. (misconception #3) I was treated more than just a number. We were eventually able to discern where the problem was and I am listening to Sirius Internet Radio as we speak. :clap: I rate Sirius Customer Service a 10.
Julie
P.S. Nova Scotia Steve said he loved his job at Sirius, and it showed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sirius Roadkill

Charles . . the "timeout" function is set way too short, way-way too short!

I now find it necessary to first type my longer posts into a word document and then paste into the forum (so as not to lose everthing from being logged-out)

Worse yet, when you were timed-out in the past . . . simply logging back-in restored the post.

Now, logging in after timeout simply takes you to a blank page; tried refreshing the blank page several times to no avail; had to reload the url and of course the post didn't take.

Fortunately, I had saved it in word before hitting the submit reply button.

Having the forum protocol set-up in this manner is as frustrating to me as Sirius XM having automatic-renewal . . . and I am sure others have lost entire, well thought-out, posts due to this.

Time to revisit this aspect of the site . . .

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I was just telling Lloyd about how many posts I've lost recently. What's the "timeout"? I can't be sure its happened to me, but man, I've lost several posts recently. I thought it was due to the new software and my "fat fingers".

NEVERMIND....... I read the rest.

There is another bug with the system IMO. If you click quick reply or reply with quote, type out your message, and then click "reply to thread" your post is wiped out and you are taken to a new reply page. This makes sense because, that is what that button is supposed to do. That said, users shouldn't be tempted to click that button in quick reply mode, instead "post quick reply" should be the bold action button. "Reply to Thread" should be hidden or disabled in quick reply mode.

I have reported this bug along with a few others and if it is not fixed soon, I will custom code the fix myself.

I have also noticed that, sometimes, when I click the "+ Reply to Thread" button I do not get a "title bar" in the window but rather just the same narrow dialogue box as if I had hit "reply" instead. Sometimes I do . . . and sometimes I don't. In some instances when I didn't get the "title bar" I just hit cancel and tried hitting "Reply to Thread" again until I got it . . . or exiting the forum, come back in and try again.

It's usually not a big deal. I just like to have the "title bar" when I post SB Trivia.

The new & improved timeout protocol is working like a champ however!

p.s. I think I may have solved the case of the mysterious julietoo line breaks . . . it's all those damn smileys!

That friggin jumping-jack guy is too tall for the font size so it causes irregular line spacing in her posts.

Actually, as I just scrolled back up I see that it did not cause a line break but rather just irregular line spacing . . . which I guess could only be cured if she increased the font size of her text to match the smiley . .. ooh-fah.

The reason for the line breaks was because I wasn't following to the end of the line, if that makes any sense. Not because of my overuse of the smileys. I'm Italian, how else am I to express myself, if I can't use smileys? :p

Julie :cool:

No one happens to have a direct number to the good people in Nova Scotia, do they? I used to have it, but now it appears to go to India/wherever, and I'm about fed up with those people.