Any SiriusXM subscribers here?

So our annual SiriusXM subscription ran out back at the first of the month. I had cancelled the CC they had on file for me so they couldn't do their auto renew thing. Just way too many things going on to deal with that now but they kept calling-- day and night.

Finally was able to speak to them when they called today (Sunday). The charge they were trying to hit me with was for $245 bucks for a one year renewal! Now if anyone uses Sirius they know enough to not ever pay their "default" rate. Whether it was worth renewing was questionable as we haven't used it that much so I just told them to go ahead and cancel.

Then the game begins...

Them: May I ask why you want to cancel?.
Me: I can't afford it
Them: Well, what if we could offer you a special rate?
Me: Like what?

At this point she started talking up a rate at about half price. I had looked at their website and saw they had a number of plans well below that price even.

Me: Well, that's still much I can't afford it. My wife said she saw an even lower rate. Something like $99?
Them: Oh, ok. Yes, we could offer you that. But we need to charge you for the period between now and the first of the month.
Me: Well then I guess it's not worth it.
Them: Ok, I can waive that too.

Bottom line was the rate for one year went from $245 to $99.

Call me a cheapskate, but I'm sure their business will survive even at this lower rate.

I would presume SiriusXM is in some Sirius trouble.
I cancelled my subscription a couple of years ago. They have a few niche channels, but the majority is music which can easily be found for free with many options.

I had to play those games with them last year too, though I did not get it down that low.

About a year ago ( under threat of cancellation) went from $230 year to $74 a year. Same service. They claimed it was as low as they could go. $5 a month plus $14 royalty fee.

We full time.

I have unlimited T-mobile data for $80/month. I use it to download/stream movies/TV shows/normal "phone" stuff.


We have Amazon Prime since we shop on-line a lot as a convenience (and bad habit).


We can stream all the music we want to the phone, thus to any bluetooth/audio device.


We did like Sirius on our new Jeep back in 2017 when we had the initial free year. Seems as if we only really enjoyed the comedy stations - and many of those segments we would turn off due to needless profanity (sorry, I'm old and would rather laugh at intellect than body parts).


We never saw the value in Sirius - but others do and they enjoy it immensely.

I've had the service off and on since 2008 in various vehicles but cancelled completely a couple of years ago because I got sick of the games. I really enjoy having it but spending 20 minutes on the phone basically arguing about the rate or my right to cancel was not my idea of fun. They obviously have expenses but I honestly believe that if they offered it to everyone at, say, $8 per month rather than jerk people around, more people would subscribe and they would still make good money.

Joezeppy said:

I've had the service off and on since 2008 in various vehicles but cancelled completely a couple of years ago because I got sick of the games. I really enjoy having it but spending 20 minutes on the phone basically arguing about the rate or my right to cancel was not my idea of fun. They obviously have expenses but I honestly believe that if they offered it to everyone at, say, $8 per month rather than jerk people around, more people would subscribe and they would still make good money.

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That's the truth, their game is so stupid. And if you have ever had it more than one subscription you would surely know their  game and would think they too would know where their conversation would be headed after declining their regular billing on renewal date. Frankly I refuse to give them a credit card to pay for the subscription because they will charge you the full price and you will spend untold time on the phone with them.

They say if you don't call and cancel its automatic renewal and you will have to pay full price between the time the cancel date and when you catch that they have overcharged you. So I tell them charge me the two bucks for a paper bill and send me a bill. Right now I pay 5 bucks a month and get it on truck my roku tv and stream it online both by phone and computer. No more trying to translate their broken English either...

We just cancelled our subscription.  We've negotiated lower rates in the past but I just don't think it's worth it.  Especially when we're really only using it about 4 months out of the year.  Half the time when I'm listening to a news story I'm interested in, we hit one of those areas.  You know, the area when the message appears, "acquiring signal".  Never fails.  Right at the crux of the message. 

The renewal dance is a joke, but we are willing to pay about $10/month for the service, even though we only use a couple channels.  There must be a lot of people who just pay the higher fee or they wouldn't bother paying for a department of people to offer discounts.

It's a lot like the medical business, where they bill for $1000 and accept insurance payments of only $100-$200. Or jewelry stores that list inflated prices and then offer 75% discounts.

I had service for probably 15 years.
Each year it was the same old dance about rates.
Each year I told them I hate playing games, don?t give me a rate 4 times higher than I can get if I call and threaten to cancel.

Finally got tired of this whole game and told them to cancel.
Just not worth the effort.

Bob

I'm not so busy I can't invest 20 minutes once a year, even though it's irritating.

Sirius/XM claims to have around 30M paid subscribers, so the service must have value for many.

We have three receivers, one in each car plus the motorhome. We suspend the motorhome service for the winter, and it comes back on May 1. I do have to sync the receiver, but that just takes a few minutes.

I haven?t listened to terrestrial radio in over a decade, and I can?t say that I?ve had any issues with Sirius customer service. The price goes up every couple of years, but so does everything else.

I have renewed my subscription with a plan for 6 months for $25.00. I found it on the Sirius website.  Never had to speak to and anyone.

HappyWanderer said:

We have three receivers, one in each car plus the motorhome. We suspend the motorhome service for the winter, and it comes back on May 1. I do have to sync the receiver, but that just takes a few minutes.

I haven?t listened to terrestrial radio in over a decade, and I can?t say that I?ve had any issues with Sirius customer service. The price goes up every couple of years, but so does everything else.

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We have one in each car plus on our phones and Alexa. We listen mostly when we're in the car, but also exercising, biking, for background music during dinner or when friends come over. We don't listen to a lot of channels, but the channels we do listen to we listen a lot.

BinaryBob said:

I would presume SiriusXM is in some Sirius trouble.

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Satellite radio has never been profitable since it was first introduced with two seperate providers, Sirius and XM Radio over 20 years ago.

A few years later both companies were teetering on bankruptcy, and the FCC waived their monopoly rule to allow them to merge and reduce their operating expenses.

Since then they are doing everything they can to keep their subscriber numbers up, as that is what's attracting the investment capital they need to continue operating.

Speaking of SXM. What's your favorite channel?  Ours is 50's on 5.

We keep Escape on around the house, unless we want something specific. But Willie's Roadhouse, Siriusly Sinatra, Symphony Hall and Bluegrass Junction are the others we normally use, though once in a while I find something on the Old Radio channel. 40s on 4 used to be good, but they moved it and made some changes.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

I'm not so busy I can't invest 20 minutes once a year, even though it's irritating.

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garyb1st said:

Half the time when I'm listening to a news story I'm interested in, we hit one of those areas.  You know, the area when the message appears, "acquiring signal".  Never fails.  Right at the crux of the message.

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Yes indeed. There's several of these dead spots on a route we take often to the nearest store of any size. About an hour's drive. I assume it must have something to do with the topography in the area but can't really see anything unique about that terrain.

Domo said:

We full time.

I have unlimited T-mobile data for $80/month. I use it to download/stream movies/TV shows/normal "phone" stuff.

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Have you had many instances in areas where you didn't have a sufficient data connection to stream?