In December of 2007 I bought 2 Sirius Radios and a 1 year subscription for each. One of the radios was never used or installed. The other I used in my home and car and loved the programming.

Shortly before the year was up, I received what appeared to be a programming guide. It was slick print with pictures of Howard and Martha on the front. Somewhere in the middle of the programming guide was some fine print. Fine print always aroused my curiosity. It was so small I had to get a magnifying glass to read it. What it said was that the brochure was notice that if I did not cancel, my subscription would be renewed automatically for another year.

Obviously I did not want to renew both subscriptions, but I thought that hiding a formal notice inside of a program guide was un-ethical. So I called and cancelled both subscriptions. I would have renewed one of the radios if they had simply sent me a regular letter saying what the brocure said in microscopic print.

The following month I was charged about $300 for renewing both of the subscriptions. I spent hours and days trying to get someone to correct the billing. Finally, I gave up and disputed the charge with my credit card company.

Fast forward to May 2010. I received a letter for Sirius XM offering 5 months for $20 to re-activate my old radio. I was hesitant after the last experience, but I liked the programming and I thought it would be nice to have Sirius out by the pool. After all, XM merged with them, things must have been straightened out by now.

On June 7th, I called to take them up on the offer. The connection was so bad they hung up on me. I called again, but the operator told me that I could only have semi-annual billing, not quarterly as was described in bold faced microscopic print at the bottom of the letter I received. He transferred me to customer service, but after 20 minutes they never answered. So I decided to give it one more try. That was a regrettable mistake.

Charles was very co-operative and said that it would be a quarterly charge of $38.85 and that the other operator didn't know what he was talking about. He told me that there was a message on my receiver channel 184 that would go away sometime between 5 and 20 minutes.

About 45 minutes later I called customer service and waited and waited only to be told that Charles didn't know what he was talking about. Supposedly, that message is there all the time so you always know what number to call for customer service.


A few days later I logged into my on-line account and discovered that Charles had signed me up for semi-annual billing, which I emphatically told him I did not want.

So I went to my Sirius radio and tuned to channel 184 expecting to see a customer service phone number, but it wasn't there.

I attempted several times to reach customer service, but they just don't answer the phone. I sent two emails that received no reply. By then, I was determined to cancel the service and eat the $23.05 I had just paid. I would gladly pay $23.05 to be rid of this company.

I was determined to cancel, so I went through the robotic operator that can't understand anything that I said and after about 30 minutes an operator came on the line and told me she could not accept my cancellation because she is in the activation department. She assured me that she would personally talk to customer service and personally send me a confirmation of my cancellation. In fact, all she did was transfer me to customer service and they knew nothing about why I was calling. When I asked if the previous operator had explained why I was calling, she said, "no" and hung up on me. That was another 38 minutes!

So now I have given up on calling and emails. I am first going to file a complaint with the FTC and then send a letter to both customer service and the legal department requesting cancellation. If I am billed again, I will simply dispute the charges with the credit card company.

I don't understand why a company with such an outstanding product is so hell-bent on turning happy customers into unhappy customers through what I believe are sleazy and underhanded billing practices and unbelievably poor customer service.

Mission accomplished: after just 10 days I want to cancel a good product and forfeit the money I paid for 5 months of service. WTF? Woe be the day I ever got involved with this company.