I paid for a 12 month subscription in Feb.2010. In Feb.2011 they sent me an e-mail stating they couldn't get my credit caard to authorize for another year. For good reason my bank got taken over by another bank so everything changed and I didn't authorize an automatic renewal anyway. I decided at that point I wasn't going to renew it anyway for they're crap they tried to pull. They left the service on and fianally turned the service off in May. Well today I get a $35 bill from a collection agency with Sirius Radio as the client. I called Sirius and asked WTH. They said it was for the 3 months I used. Cue atomic explosion! I told them I paid for 12 months and I was ticked because they tried to bill me for another year without my authorization and didn't plan on renewing it anyway. Well needless to say they won't do anything about it because they said I didn't call in to cancel it. I told them again I paid for 12 months and they should have turned it off at the end of that time. They said they couldn't turn it off...That I had to call...I said well 'Why is it off since May if you can't turn it off?' You know what he said back....cause you didn't pay. So I'm going to file a complaint with the Florida Attorney Generals Office on Monday.
Anyone else had this problem? I Googled it and got over 4 million results of complaints on them.

 

If you paid attention to what you signed up for, you would realize that all their contracts are auto renewing and you have to call up and cancel if you want to stop.

 

You won’t be the first one to file a complaint about Sirius, I had to a few years back. Absolutely the worst “customer service” I have ever had. When my subscription was over they called incessantly trying to get me to renew – they would not take NO for an answer and would call multiple times during a day despite my telling them to quit calling. Only a complaint to the FTC got them to stop. Good luck to you with these jerks.

 

I just had a major problem with sirius also. I called in May to cancel a radio for a truck I no longer owned, and was told my other radio was do to renew at the end of may. I told the repp that I would call at the end of the month with a new debt caard# since my old one was no good. I renewed the radio the last day of may for $91.17 for a year and the charge went through June 3rd. On June 6th a charge of $187.68 was charged by sirius and on June 8th another $187.68 charge. Wife noticed her checking account was low last wk and this is how we found the charges. I called sirius and asked what was going on and was told my radios auto renewed, I then asked what radios and told them I just renewed the only one I had on the account. I was told the radio for my 07 Durango and my 08 ram were renewed. I told sirius that was strange since I have not owned ether of those vehicles and the radios were canceled. I was then told "Oh yes I see they were canceled and I will issue a credit for them that you should get in 7-10 days". WTF? So later that day my wife calls and says her sirius wont work and the radio says call to subscribe. I then call sirius back and ask what is going on and was told that radio expired. I then said NO I just renewed it for $91.17 the last day of May. I was then told that renewal was for radio ID# blah blah. I then explained to the lady that I called in May 5th to cancel that radio since I no longer owned the truck and was then told "Yes I see that here and it was never canceled so let me that for you now sir". WTF again? I then asked about the only radio I owned and the lady said "I'll take care of that right now sir". So after a few minutes the lady says she renewed my wife's radio for $91.17 and I would be getting a credit for $91.17 in 7-10 days. WTF X3???? I then asked her if she just charged my account again and she said YES. I then went off the wall and asked what the hell the problem was with sirius and the lady asked me what I meant. I asked her if she could see any other credits for my account and she said yes I see 2 for $187.17 and the one I just gave for $91.17. I asked her if she saw a problem there and she asked again what I meant. I told her that totaled $466.53 of over charges that I wont be getting back for 7-10 days and if I was person who needed that money right away how would she feel. She then said "this kind of thing happens all the time here" WTF x4????? I then asked what if that caused me to have checks bounce do to their mistake and she said "we have a dept that can help you with that if you would like" OMG I felt like I was talking to a monkey. So after another 30 mins of going back over my account making sure the right radio was left and all the others were cancelled and also double checking my credit amounts I think I'm ok. Well ok will last until I have to add the radio next month that is still under the free 1 year from the dealer. I figure my whole time on the phone was a little over 5 hours. Why you ask, because my wife WANTED her sirius!!

 

I just got another year of sirius. I got 6 months $77 and 6 moths free. Then I told them I don't want auto renewal.

 

Thats what I got, with taxes and fees it comes to $91.17

 

Doesn't matter. A company should not be renewing someone's contract without their permission irregardless of what kind of stupid microprint rules they have. I have yet to have a problem with Sirius myself, luckily enough. The fact of the matter is that they should shut it off after the year's cutoff date and call or email to see if the person wants to renew.

 

I never gave them a credit card, and only used the free 1 year from when I bought the truck. I wasn't overly impressed with the service (100 channels and nothing on), and since I live in a large metro area, there are plenty of stations here to choose from.

They called a few times before the year was up offering deals and various packages to renew, but I just told them no each time. I never got screwed over like some of you guys with charges, but they did start blowing up my phone when the contract ran out. They were calling 20 times a day bugging the crap out of me. I started cussing them out and yelling each time they called and after about a week of getting an irate ex-customer on the line each time they called, they stopped.

As for the auto-renewal, oldjeep is right, as long as its in the initial contract, they can legally do it. Not the best business practice, and usually a clause that points to crappy service since they're hoping to catch a chuck of their customer base asleep at the wheel and get more money out of them before the customer is aware.

 

Everyone should call their credit card company ASAP if this happens to you.
Never use a debit card.
ALWAYS ask for a manger/supervisor ASAP if you are getting no where, and never lose your temper with the Customer service person. It gets you nothing except heart burn. As a matter of fact be really super sweet with them. It actually pissed them off even more.
Always wheel and deal on the price. Never accept their first offer on the renewal. Never do auto pay. On anything, ever.
Always read the fine print on contracts. This is why it is called fine print. Because everything is fine. For the credit card company that is.
Your credit can be damaged.

 

Sirius Canada is not so greedy and the service is great, you can have them automatically take out the money or pay monthly whatever they are pretty easy. So far I haven't had issues and they never charge me anything to add a vehicle or change a radio or anything like that.