Complain about a product or service

XM Satellite Radio

Gary of Jasper, FL January 27, 2010

I received a statement in October 2009 for 1 year. i PAID IT BY CHECK. In January they said they had been authorized to charge 45.72 for usroyalty fees. We were not notified before this charge was charged to our Sears credit card. My husband called sears and told them we didn't authorize it and to cancel this number and issue us another one. They did and the next time we received a bill there was a late fee of 15.00 added. They had transferred that amount to the new card. We again called the sears company that we will not pay this. XM radio said they had auto authority to do this because we gave them this number the first time we took out xm radio and we were not going to get the money back. 1/27/2010. I am sending this to you to clear the air. XM already has their money from sears, so they do not care. WHAT A COMPANY. How can this be cleared so our credit is blemished?

Dana of Lavinia, TN January 27, 2010

XM Radio debits your credit card a month in advance. I cancelled my account 12/22/2009 as I traded my auto 12/21/2009. After at least a dozen hour long phone calls and literally hundreds of emails, they finally cancelled my account 01/25/2010. They refuse to refund my account in full from 12/22/2009 to 01/25/2010 (which would actually be two months as this account is advance-pay). After multiple emails back and forth and multiple phone calls, I still do not have my money refunded. They refused to put a supervisor on the phone. They refused to give me their corporate attorney information. Then they hung up on me. I want to know what legal action I can initiate. I want to know what publicity I can initiate. I do not want anyone else dealing with what I have had to deal with. Do not give XM Radio your credit card or banking information!!!!!

Lynda of Rockville, MD January 26, 2010

I'm reading all the compliants about XM and their customer service and I have also found it very frustrating and cannot believe the poor customer service. I would love to know who to really talk to so I can get my money back. They have charged me for TWO lifetime subscriptions for one person. Now how on earth can someone use TWO lifetime subscriptions for ONE car. How dumb is this. I wish I never activated my radio....

Sam of Mason, OH January 25, 2010

In Nov. 2009 I ordered an XM Satellite Radio package for my vehicle. I purchased it as the result of an advertised "special rate deal" and was supposed to receive 16 months for the price of 12. When I received the contract, it was for only 12 months. I called to get it corrected but received no satisfaction. They supposedly record their sales transactions made via phone. I requested they go back and listen to the tape from my transaction. Again, I received no satisfaction.

Additionally, I specifically told them not to put my account on automatic renewal, as I do not do that. When the contract was nearing maturity they called my home and were told I would not be renewing the contract. It apparently renewed on an automatic basis and now they are billing me for 47.32 because they left the service on after being instructed not to, and automatically renewed it when they did not have authority to do so.

Now they are threatening to send it to a collection agency. I am furious with their dishonesty and trickery. They flat out lie to get business. I can't possibly be the only one this has happened to with this company. "unpaid invoice" sent to collection agency

J. of ARLINGTIN, VA January 20, 2010

I paid a lot of money for a lifetime subscription to XM radio and that included XM Radio Online. As of today, XM changed the terms of the contract and they now want me to pay 2.99 per month for the Online, Yikes!! What's with this company??

Craig of Leadville, CO January 19, 2010

I've had XM satellite radio for many years without any trouble until recently. I called to cancel my service back in October of 2009 due to the presence of too many commercials on the news stations. It truly has become comical. I, like a dummy, accepted a "special promotion" that would have provided me with their service until March 2010 for the low price of 19. In November I began receiving collection calls. I called one of their representatives in the Philippines and discovered that someone had signed me up for their lifetime subscription at the low price of 496. Their representative advised they had removed the lifetime subscription and all was well. I checked my bank account 2 days ago to discover they had helped themselves to the 496.

I spent several hours arguing with more of these inept people in the Philippines trying to get the money refunded. They refused to transfer me to someone who spoke english, they had no authority to fix the problem, and could generally care less about my problem. After another hour of searching the internet I found a number for their "executive department". The representative in the "executive department" took ownership of my problem and refunded the money. He then advised that the representatives in the Philippines have no real power to do anything other than listen to customer complaints. My original call to remove the lifetime subscription was a complete waste of time. Never again. Absolutely never again.

I cancelled my credit card to ensure these people can no longer help themselves to my money. XM is just another in a long list of large corporations who chose to destroy their customer base through outsourcing their call center. Meanwhile, upper management executives cannot figure-out why they're losing customers and their company is in bankruptcy. How bad do things need to become before these people wake-up? XM/Sirius started great. They had a great service. Clear Channel then filled many of their stations with commercials, XM raised their rates, outsourced their customer service, and now struggle to remain in business. Is there any wonder?

Dan of Ambler, PA January 18, 2010

Yoohoo! This is the last time I am going to say this! I do not owe [these] folks a dime! As stated to numerous collectors, including the very rude dame who tried to coerce me into paying you money I do not owe. I should have reported her.

About 2 years ago, I received a call from one of the XM salespeople offering me a one year deal for about 170 for a year. I accepted that deal along with the additional deal he offered that for a sum of 199, I would get both my XM receivers for a year with no other billings until my contract was up. XM would not automatically renew my agreement and charge my credit card without my consent.

When my contract was up, I no longer used my XM and saw no need to re-authorize the charges. It was at some point later, I noticed XM was charging me 40 a quarter for the second radio. When a salesperson called me to renew again; I brought that to the attention of the salesperson and they said they would correct the error. I expected to see a credit of the 40 charged me each quarter that would not the deal I agreed to with the original salesperson. I did expect to see the 20 charged to my card.

With regard to the fact that XM elected to continue sending the signal to my receiver, as some scheme to keep me as a customer--that is/was an internal marketing decision to which I was not a party. [They] cannot even attempt to collect this, and should be fined by the FTC for violating the law. If [they] send me something I did not order, (whether I used it or not is not material to the issue) it is against the law to attempt to collect money [they] would have collected had I ordered same.

Therefore, [they] are hereby noticed I do not owe this money. I further notice [them] to remove any deleterious comments [they] might have sent to any credit reporting companies or others requesting such comment. And further command [them] to cease and desist any efforts in this matter. By way of copy, I am sending this to the FTC for any actions they deem appropriate for these scurrilous activities.

Deborah of Klamath Falls, PE January 12, 2010

I purchased a new car in May of 2008 with a free 3 month XM Radio subscription. I called XM Radio and subscribed to a one year contract which I prepaid with a check via mail. Over year later I received an email stating they didn't have a card number to bill for services. I placed several phone calls to XM and spoke with foreigners who were very difficult to understand and was never able to resolve this overcharge. Several months later I received a letter stating my account has been placed with EOS CCA collections. When I called them they told me they couldn't help me, they show that balance due. So to avoid having my credit rating affected by this, I will pay the 36.80 due, but I WILL NEVER DEAL WITH XM RADIO AGAIN!

Angie of Livingston, TX January 12, 2010

I purchased a one year subscription to XM Satellite Radio. One month later, I traded vehicles and transferred the balance to the new vehicle which came with a 3 month trial period. I received the service for the right amount of time. I was contacted by email and regular mail to renew my subscription but decided not to at this time.

Today, I received a letter from a collection agency named EOS CCA for XM Satellite Radio for a past due balance. I contacted XM who claims my account is zero but they would be happy to renew my subscription. I asked about the collection agency and XM manager said they had no knowledge of the company and suggested this could be a scam.

I believe the scam is XM SATELLITE RADIO's attempt to make people believe they have a past due balance which prompts you to call them where they try to sell you their product. In the future, I will stick to my MP3 player and cd's but am done with XM Satellite Radio and their services.

TERRI of WOODSTOCK, GA January 10, 2010

I had a car that had XM installed when I bought it with a free trial. I renewed after the trial, but when I sold the car in 1-2009, I called to cancel the service. The operator talked me into buying a 60 radio for the bargain price of 10. I questioned her at length about the radio and came to the understanding that it was a plug and play radio that would require no installation. Of course, that was not the case and after trying to activate the radio, which it appeared didn't activate, I resolved to let the service lapse. Again, of course, the service doesn't lapse, they presume to roll your service over. I received a bill yesterday for 38.77. I called in and explained the situation and also that I am unfortunately unemployed and requested that the bill be dropped. To my amazement, the request was denied by both a flunkie and a supervisor. I don't recall receiving any other bill before the current one although they said the billing was for the last quarter. Hmmmmmm . . . why wouldn't I have received a bill? As far as I knew, the service ended and was shut off. I'm so sick of auto-renewing crap. It's such a trap - how are you supposed to remember that it's an auto-renewing situation 3+ years after the fact. And of course, when at first I went to the cancellations dept, they magically offered to give me a better rate if I stayed. Come on people - just give us the better rates up front. Howard Stern is certainly rich enough by now . . .

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