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.