HomeThanks for screwing us Sirius / XM
I’ve been an XM subscriber for almost 5 years. I pay my bill on time each month. I bought a second radio for my girlfriend’s car. Everything was great. I was getting good service at a fair price. Then came the merger.
On July 28th, 2008 XM and Sirius officially completed the process of merging the two companies. The two companies claimed there would be a great cost benefit to satellite radio subscribers. Since then, they have raised the monthly price of secondary radios from $6.99 to $8.99, started charging $2.99/month for the “high quality” Internet stream, and still charge extra fees for “premium package” stations previously only offered on the “other” satellite radio providers system.
I kept my two XM radios, begrudgingly. I decided to give Pandora my money for high quality Internet streaming. Two years later the satellite reception quality has declined, dead spots all over, and with no word from the two companies Sirius XM if it will ever improve. The only communications I get from them is a sales spam asking me to buy more radios.
This week I purchased a brand new 2010 Ford F-150 SuperCrew – pretty much my dream truck. It came “Sirius Ready”. All the research I’ve done tells me there is absolutely no way to get XM service working in a Sirius Ready vehicle – at least with the built-in Sirius controls.
I spoke with Sirius XM customer service expecting they would be able to transfer my account to Sirius XM. She stated that even though the companies we merged they still operate completely independently and that I would need to call Sirius XM and sign up for a new account with them. Furthermore, I would be force to turn my girlfriends Sirius XM service into a “primary account” rather than the discounted secondary.
Fantastic. So the cost benefits the previous two companies were talking about were for them – not the consumer. I will now be required to pay Sirius XM for a primary, full price account, as well as paying Sirius XM for a primary, full price account.
How can this be legal? Aren’t these the types of things the FCC is supposed to be protecting the consumer from? If only there were some other satellite radio provider I could give my business to instead of Sirius XM. If only….<sigh>
