scribblings from a deist transhumanist libertarian minarchist citizen soldier

XM satellite radio – worst customer service ever

Posted by Trevor in Uncategorized on Aug 1st, 2005 | View Comments |

I have had XM Satellite radio for about two years. Every few months, they randomly shut my service off. Recently, due to my upcoming deployment to Iraq, I asked them to schedule an automatic shut off of the service on a certain date. Sounds simple, but not for the people at XM.

It took about half an hour to (I thought) get my request across to them. Finally, I felt reasonably confident that the semi-literate customer service rep I was talking too understood what I wanted. The date I requested was about two months from the day of the conversation.

The next day, my radio was deactivated. When this happens, the only channel that can be heard is the preview channel. Since I’m a big fan of talk radio and I commute a long distance twice daily, this is very frustrating. It destroys my routine, and makes a long drive even longer.

I spent several hours over the next week trying to get my radio turned back on. Keep in mind that I’ve been having similar problems for two years, where my service is erroneously shut off and I have to call five or six times to get it turned back on again. Each time, it’s like I’ve never called before. XM seems to lack any coherence at all when it comes to basic help desk policies. They don’t generate a case ID when you call in and they have no idea what the concept of case notes involves. They can’t tell me who I’ve talked to and about half of them speak garbled English that’s nearly impossible to comprehend.

It’s also infuriating to have to repeat mind numbing crap like your home address, phone number and penis size every time you get transferred to another phone rep.

Anyhow, after 10 days and wasted hours of phone time, one of the reps I was speaking asked me for my radio ID. I gave it to him and he mentioned that the radio they had been trying to reactivate was not a match. Idiots.

Buyer beware: if you’re considering purchasing XM satellite radio, I highly recommend against it, unless they have a show that you simply must listen too which isn’t available elsewhere.

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US CITIZEN

AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE ! A FRICKIN JOKE ! FILIPINO GARBAGE . ESPECIALLY KATHY ID NUMBER 45216 IN MANILLA

John

Its so sad - BUT TRUE! I've experienced the exact same problems - the cust. support are completely inept and incapable of doing anything but trying to convince you to upgrade your service or add more radios to your account. In addition they do make you repeat the same information about 10 times in a single phone conversation. Not to mention their reps are rude foreigners who could careless about why your calling or what you need! Bottom line, the customer service is the worst I've ever experienced, EVER!! The service is to damn expensive for them to treat their customers like crap!

Gabriel

I agree. The customer service reps are illiterate an obnoxious. I just got my radio turned of and have had no response since. I feel ripped off. One would think that a company as XM would have developed some respect for subscribers that they depend entirely of, but instead they treat you as if they where doing you a favor. And don’t get me started about that stupid voice recognition software that asks you for your account number.

Trevor

It would be worth talking a look at the lineup for Sirius radio. They have both conservative and liberal talk channels, as well as one that they advertise as being in the center.

They don't have Larry Elder, who I like to listen too. XM does. Neither one has the best host I am aware of - Neal Boortz. All you need to listen to him is an Internet connection though.

Toni

I was just thinking about getting this service since I'm moving to a new state and I also like talk radio. But the talk radio there is lacking. Darn.