I once bought an XM radio and registered it online to my existing multi-radio account in less than 5 minutes. I learned quickly the radio didn't meet my needs and so I decided to remove it from my account - which had to be done via phone.

It took 30 minutes of badgering from the CSR to have *that* done...I can only imagine what it will be like when I close the entire account. Before learning about this number, that is....

I had the same experience trying to cancel/modify my XM subscription. Long, long periods on hold only to be disconnected before reaching the person with authority to cancel. On my third try with the initial customer service representative, I repeatedly asked to speak to a supervisor. II was then transferred to the "Cancellation Department." Given this incompetent level of customer service I was not optimistic that my instructions would be followed so i wrote a letter to the President of Operations & Sales confirming my instructions and advising that the letter was for the purpose of creating a record of the transaction in the event a charge back on my credit card account was necessary. Some weeks later I got an email from someone in Executive Escalations Relations confirming the correct status of my account. Predictably, the first charge to my card under the new account configuration was wrong. However, since they are now charging me less than the plan I switched to I'm not sure how to call this to their attention. I may reply to the email I received, advising that there is an error in my account, but since it is in my favor, they will have to call me to determine the nature of the problem. Naturally, if they call, they will experience multiple long periods on hold waiting for me to come to the phone. I would not be surprised if there are also several disconnects before they can get through to me. On the other hand, maybe I will just enjoy the discounted erroneous rate as compensation for the value of my time spent on the telephone. I love my XM radio, but with the incompetent management evidenced by XM/Sirius customer service, I am pessimistic about its survival.

When they jacked up the rates for internet and extra radios I canceled my subscription. The only response I got was 'deal with it' and 'pay up front'. To make it up to me they offered me $10 which was less than half of my bill. Almost wish I had that number when I canceled - maybe I would still be a customer.

Errr.. When my husband tried to cancel our Sirius subscription due to crappy programming, they gave us a couple of months free under the guise that the programming would improve, really it would we promise!

They're still around? I thought society eliminated them after the great awakening.

Don't be so sure you are completely cancelled and your auto-renew is done. While I don't believe I dealt with the XM Corporate Customer Service, I did recieve the same assurance that my account was cancelled - only to find a month later another auto-withdrawl from my account for XM Sat. Radio.

It took another call, over an hour on hold, being bounced around to different CSRs and several F-Bombs and other unsavory language before I finally got the thing cancelled and a refund to my account the next day.

I loved my satelite radio, but that company is crap. No wonder their stock is in the toilet!

XM customer service used to be US or Canada based, I think. Had to call yesterday and I spoke to someone in India. Nice fellow but was a script-reader rather than a CSR, if ya know what I mean.

The programming really has gone downhill. Too much frickin' talking now, for one. (I want to strangle Madison.)

@LindsayC: doctoral hilarity ensues: Same thing happened to me when I canceled my XM. They offered me a reduced rate (4.99 a month, I think) and when I turned that down, they gave me three months free. When I called to cancel at the end of the three months, they didn't offer me any more free service.

And I didn't find it that hard to cancel. Guess I just got lucky

@Sanveann: MLB 175 used to be the best sports talk channel I've ever heard, now it's all annoying New York radio guys with call in shows. No more Baseball Beat, no more Fantasy Focus. Awful.

This will be nice to have if they don't offer my "Do Not Call" request. Since I canceled last month, they have called at least 8 times, the first of which I answered and said I was happy with my decision to cancel service.

The past 3 days they have called 2x a day until I called last night to ask them to stop.

They don't take break-ups very well.

It'll improve soon. The call centers are just overwhelmed by customers trying to quit.

When they raised rates, I got the "pay and deal with it" attitude too. I even e-mailed the entire board of directors using an EECB, and got nothing. I wish the Government never let them merge now, I am paying more for less. Thanks Mel Karmazin!

I am about to cancel my second sub in the wife's car.. I'm ok with the switch since we were XM subs, but she wasn't finding the same stuff she used to like.

I have a SIRIUS radio in my car and just last week, the antenna broke. I didn't really fee like putting out the money for a new radio, so I called to cancel the service. I was connected within 30 seconds, explained my situation and then the biggest surprise.....

They offered to replace the radio for free; two days later, a new radio was sitting on my door.

They ain't all bad!

@Blueskylaw: The Great Awakening was postphoned indefinitely due to lack of attendance.

I got a new car haven't transfered service from my old car yet - and believe it or not, I miss it! Sure, I wasn't happy when Sirius changed around all the XM channels that I like, but it's still better than regular radio.....

I've had Sirius for years and have never had any issues with customer service.

Thank you for posting this number. I had to use the same number last month when I was trying to cancel the subscription for a broken XM radio. It took nearly 3 hours to get nowhere trying to use the regular "customer service" number, and only 5 minutes when I found this number via Digg comments. Not only was the CS rep polite and helpful, but he asked why I was calling there instead of the regular number, and when I told him how bad the other one was, he actually sounded concerned and thanked me for letting him know. With such lousy CS as this, I wonder if they'll even be around by the end of the year.

Same issue trying to cancel. They give no web or email-based methods leaving phone as the only option. After nearly 30 minutes on hold and giving all of my information to the first rep, I was told I was being transferred to the "cancellations department". I sat through 10 more minutes of promotional hold music and got a department that deals only in high-end installations. I made it clear that I wanted to talk with someone to cancel my account. 15 more minutes on hold gave me someone for whom I had to recount all of the information I had given the first rep.

This "cancellation department" rep, tried four different ways to upsell me, discount the service, etc. I kept restating what I asked for. I finally got what I asked for - cancellation at the end of my current 1-year term.

It should not be this difficult to deal with a company but as other comments show, xm does not want it to be a simple process to get out at the end of a contract period.

Thanks to the consumerist for the Executive Contact information.

I don't know what most of you are talking about...Everytime I have called CS at Sirius, I have never had to wait on hold and they bent over backwards to help any of my issues...whether major or (usually) minor. Lastly, they did not raise the rates...they offered several tiered options with a variety of pricing plans. I have a lifetime subscription and the internet stream is still included. In fact, they added 4 more channels to the internet this week! Some people just like to complain....I guess.

My wife has XM in her car but wanted Sirius for Howard Stern. I was excited to hear about the merger because that meant that we could transfer the Sirius account to her XM radio and enjoy the same programming.

Boy was I dumb. Instead of gaining the efficiencies of one operation, they decided to use "Best of Sirius" and "Best of XM" on both sides to try and pull more money out of people.

How many more people would pay for multiple subscriptions if they just merged the two completely and allowed people to mingle their XM and Sirius accounts. I can't believe I'm the only one with an XM car radio who liked Sirius' programming or vice-versa.

Crybabies. Pricing on standard packages HAS NOT changed. Secondary subscriptions went up a little, but is still less expensive that buying two individual subscriptions. The MiRGE (new radio) can receive BOTH Sirius and XM. They also offer Ala Carte radios where you can pick and choose the channels you want to receive for a lower price. Programming has improved and continues to improve. Some channels that had been removed during the merger are strting to reappear. More internet radio channels are being offered.

Regular radio sucks. Enjoy your commercials. The price is so cheap for the service, it really is a no brainer.

I bought XM in like 2001 for 2 shows I couldn't get locally on a reliable basis. Both shows are now gone, a third that I found again (Bruce Williams) has been cut from 3 hours to 1.

I canceled the day of the merger and now enjoy 202 (the only thing left on XM) for the low low price of free. Thanks Syndication Underground.

I hope Mel Karmazin chokes to death on his passover cracker.

@rpm773: I never actually bought the radios but I do still receive the Sirius radio I get through dish network, and while it started out decent, over the last year it's become more and more crap.

First they cut the stoner rock and metal show they used to call "Contact High" that was hosted by the guys from High Times magazine, which was played on the metal station.

Then they cut old school punk station and replaced it with an all AC/DC all the time station, while I do like AC/DC, I don't think they warrant an entire station dedicated to playing them and covers of their tracks and their influences. I really miss the every Tuesday show they had that was hosted by Marky Ramone where he talked about all the old bands of his era and their influences and what their side projects where, he never really focused on The Ramones, but the scene as a whole.

Then the metal station started playing more and more pop-emo style bands to try to appeal to more lame high school kids I guess, and more recently has started to devote massive blocks of time to certain bands, like wrath week for the band Lamb Of God's new album, where they repeated the same stuff constantly, and now even worse have devoted an entire month to Metalica, a band that I can't stand...

The only thing they did right in the past 3 years I've been listening to them was to extend the really heavy black, death, grind and gore metal 2 hour block from Saturday nights to every night.

They keep giving me less and less reason to ever want to install a sat radio in my car, let alone continue to grab rips off of the tv card in the comp of interesting shows and interviews.

Unfortunately, living in the Midwest makes sat radio an absolute necessity, unless you enjoy the other two options: local yocals that fade in and out every 5 miles or absolute silence.
I've had XM for 4 years now and I'll admit I've become addicted. Its saved me on every long family drive when I can put in my headphones while the kids listen to "The Wheels on the Bus" for the millionth time.
Recently my recurring membership fee came up and I called them because the increased commercials and increased price made it unreasonable. I got offered 5 months of service for just $20 and I took it. Just when I was out, they pulled me back in!!

Good luck trying to cancel an auto renew with Sirius. Last year after canceling and removing the receiver from the car imagine my surprise at seeing a yearly renew fee on my credit card. After a heated discusion with a csr , being hungup on and then told by a csr supervisor that they had the right to bill my credit card when they felt it was necessary I told them once again to cancel the account. I called back 1 week later and the account still showed active I told them to cancel again, a charge back with my credit card company was started. The next day my credit card company called to let me know that Sirius had issued a refund for all but about 12 dollars ( a months billing ) and wanted to know if I wanted to do a charge back on the 12 dollar balance. To avoid any hits to my credit by a bogus report to a credit reporting service I bent over and took the 12 dollars in the XXX.
Sirius SUCKS. I did a eecb and did get a mid level a$$ kissing and an apology but refused to give them my new credit card number ( it was changed when I started the chargeback )for a 12 dollar refund and they would not send me a check. Beware and look at ripoffreports.com to see some nightmare stories I wished I had done that before giving them a credit card number.

Thanks for the phone number. I am within a couple of weeks of the end of a year prepaid sub. What is the best rate anyone has been offered when faced with cancel vs. renew?? They do not have my credit card, so there will be no auto-renew.

@eds70: 77 bucks for a year on xm. That's their "retention" rate.

@Rob Mattheu: I believe that this is due to the different satellites/different frequencies. A Sirius radio can't be "flashed" to all of a sudden receive XM frequencies. The 'best of' packages are pulled from their respective satellite and rebroadcast over the other bird. And there's not enough bandwidth to put all XM over Sirius and vice versa.

Until they make a universal radio capable of receiving both wavelengths, the 'best of' packages are the only way to hear the other company. The R&D on that mythical radio will probably be slow in coming though while they're getting the 'best of' revenue.

@Sanveann: I have to quit listening to Alt Nation when she is on.

Couldn't Sirius XM put shock collars on their DJ's for when they go on for far too long between music?

@golddog: Actually they do have a radio that can receive both Sirus and XM now, it's called the MiRGE. Unfortunately it's $250 right now, which is rather steep for me.