Comments on: Sirius XM sticks it to subscribers

Wasn't the Sirius XM merger supposed to lower costs and benefit subscribers? It doesn't seem to be working out that way.

[Eric_Awesome]

my wife and I have been XM customers for over 5 years but have been discussing canceling. we only have service in each of our cars and the 20 min drive to and from work, as well as only 3 channels we frequently listen to doesn't justify the cost. losing the online service was a real downer as we both had the service on through out the entire 8 hour work day. I am partial to the sports channels yet all the info can be found by browsing the web. it will be difficult to deal with losing the service at first but, as always, people adjust. also the $2 they charge to get a paper bill is silly.

[countryrxman]

What do you expect from a service that isn't needed

[Mike5291]

Wow this article totally doesn't reek of crass, wild conclusions and a mild amount of butthurt over the fact that they don't solely rely on advertising like certain other services or *cough* web sites.

I've had Sirius since late 2005 and it is a LIFE SAVER, especially in the car. I have a short commute to work, and if I get in the car at just the wrong time, I'll never hear a single song amidst the blob of commercials, and I can forget about any kind of talk radio. FM's rotation is HORRIBLE. It's the same 20 songs over and over. The only station on Sirius(that I listen to) that has a mild case of this is the shuffle station.

And for stations that do commercials like Howard's, they are 5-6 minute breaks, tops. Compare that to over 20 for your precious "free" radio. Also of note, if Howard feels like going on for a long period of time without taking a break, HE DOES. Compare that to FM, where when he would avoid the break, the PD would downright force him to cut his show off so we can hear about the latest dial-a-mattress.

I can't comment on the customer service as I've never had an issue that I've had to call about.

[minimalist]

Am I the only one who thinks XM Radio sounded like overcompressed 96 kbps mp3's?

I got a 3 month free subscription with my Honda and not only did the music not interest me but I got much better sound from my iPod hooked up to an aux. input. My guess is that XM choose quantity over quality when deciding whether they wanted higher quality music or more stations.

Its kind of odd that a blog that is always on going on about how mp3's are (supposedly) ruining fidelity would care one bit about a service that sounded this horrible.

[iceman721]

I have had Sirius since the early days (less than 1 million subscribers). Now post merger and over 18 million subscribers I am still around. I have a home radio, 2 car subscriptions & online service. I will likely drop off to 1 car subscription (mine) and internet to listen online to at home. I have some troubles picking up a signal on my home radio but never in my car unless my antenna has an obstructed view of the sky (getting gas). As a huge NFL fan Sirius NFL radio gives me the best content available on my sport of choice. I also like being able to listen to games in the car if I have not made it home yet. I can't do that on regular radio. While I doubt that anyone likes any type of price increase I still enjoy the extra premium content that my satellite radio provides. I have not had any issues with customer service and although my plan may change I will still remain a loyal subscriber. My local radio (Detroit metro area) is garbage and Sirius' musical content trumps whats available on local radio with ease. You obviously have to be a music lover or sports junkie (like me) IMO to find value in a Sirius subscription.

[Alex Alexzander]

I have XM. I use it to listen to CNBC and Bloomberg all day. Works great.

[GoingToAlpha]

It probably doesn't help that they don't bill people. I signed up and paid for 1 month of service back in December. Only billed for one month, never made another payment, still have service. I'm sure that's not really helping their bottom line.

[GoingToAlpha]

Also kinda p'd me off that they removed the Pittsburgh Weather/Traffic channel. Good thing theres a PGH traffic-cam app for the iPhone as the local traffic 24x7 station is only broadcast over antenna and isnt available as a FioS channel.

[NocturnalCT]

I got XM in my Acura RL back in 2005 (darn, that's a long time ago already). I drove to work then for about 30 minutes each way and it was nice to have the music and (buggy) traffic data delivered to my car. This was in the SF Bay Area where the view of the sky is generally good. Not too many dropouts in the signal. That changed quickly when I moved to Connecticut. Every tree you pass the radio goes silent. Not to mention the hills. Couple that with poor traffic coverage in this area and even closer to NYC and I let me subscription expire. Don't miss it really. I don't mind paying for radio in my car but now that I work from home and my milage is limited I demand that the service is reliable so that I do get something for my money on those rare occasions that I drive. It's just not there. Maybe I have a bad radio or poor antenna placement in my car, who knows.

[indylinuxblog]

They've lost me as a customer forever. These rate increases are a joke. Quit wasting money on losers like Howard Stern, and make good on your promise to cut fees.

[gqpenn2]

Personally I don't buy that anyone is cancelling their Sirius XM subscription over a $2 increase on secondary radios or that they started charging for internet radio. You can't afford an extra $2 per month for high quality programming? And for the people that are talking about poor signal, I would check your hardware. In the six years I've been with Sirius I've lived in Dallas, Austin, Miami and Nashville and have never had any issues with signal except under the occasional bridge.

[NWLB]

I didn't buy Sirius for the music, and still don't use any of those channels. I listen to Bloomberg, CNBC, NPR, CBC, etc. And I can't get any of those on my stereo. The channels I can get without SatRad are worse to listen too.

I've not been inclined to drop it. But the mobile TV from my wirelss provider does have my attention. And I have an MP3/USB jack in my stereo anyway.

[jachamp]

SiriusXM is a joke.They have conveniently not merged their billing systems so they still have two sets of books and are still treating both sides as different companies even though much of their content is now shared.

I have a GM car with XM and a Ford truck with Sirius and those guys just gave me the run-around when trying to activiate. They would not acknowledge me as having an active SiriusXM account, only an XM account.

Then to make matters worse...after agreeing to paying them for a full year of service, the first thing I notice is that many of the channels that used to be talk free now have pointless hosts. I mean seriously...does the Redneck comedy channel need to have a Nascar show when a few clicks up the dial is a Nascar channel?

The Sirius signal is much worse than the XM signal. I experience so many dropouts that I can almost predict when they will happen now but yes...I am rethinking renewing this service. I may not do it again next year. I hate local AM/FM so much that I am open to paying for satellite service (Clear Channel has destroyed our once pleasant local radio scene with their crappy DJ's and neocon commentary slants even on the pop stations) but I guess the next stop is for me to load up on podcasts and just listen only to my iPod.

[ifiredmyboss.com]

I dumped my Sirius stock and service a while back. I found that I was listening to my iPod through my radio more than the Sirius service.

[kyle5434]

I had Siruis service via a "Sirius-ready" Kenwood head unit for a while, but after they dumped one the channels I listened to the most (Revolution) I pretty much stopped listening. Plus I think they increased the audio compression during 3 years I had it, because by the end the music was sounding like 96 Kb/s MP3s - really crappy quality. So I dumped it late in 2007.

[skinman]

The XM merger may have brought higher fees, lower quality signal and the loss of the best stations , but how about that customer service, eh? Its way, way beyond pathetic now.

[QuercusMax]

Count me as another dissatisfied Sirius customer.

Two months after renewing my annual subscription I started getting notices from Sirius that listening over the internet was suddenly going to cost extra. While I understand (and don't like) rate increases, they are a fact of life. What was intolerable was that my annual subscription was advertised as including internet listening, but then suddenly that was taken away.

I then "renewed" my subscription prior to their deadline, but on the day after the internet listening went up in price, I lost that service, apparently due to a screw-up on their end. A call to customers service, a long wait, and the rep played dumb at first and then immediately fixed the problem.

It really burns me that Sirius abruptly took away something that I thought I had paid for. That seems like extortion to me. I like satellite radio but not the way Sirius treats their customers. Putting the squeeze on existing customers and destroying their goodwill is a recipe for going out of business.

[jonathan0766]

It was never an issue of whether the merger was a good idea for "consumers." The issue was: Sirius and XM were both going bankrupt (check out their balance sheets / income statements pre merger), and both were going to fail or be acquired by a major media player. They charged too little for their service from the beginning, given the costs of operating in space and acquiring scale / subscribers. The two companies were allowed to merge to end the competitive marketing efforts that were bleeding both dry as they killed eachother fighting over subscribers and content. The only alternative to the merger, would have been to let them sell themselves to big media - in which case rates would have went up anyway.

[rocktrr]

ITS THE OLD SCREW THE CONSUMER,,HOW DID THE GOVERNMENT ALLOW THIS MERGER,WHEN ALL IT IS DOING IS COSTING THE XM CUSTOMERS MORE MONEY,,FOR EVERYTHING,,,THE BOSSES OF THE COMPANY , SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP ON CHARGES,, THAT THEY ARE RUINING THE RADIO,,THAT HAD SO MUCH PROMISE ,, INTO THE ABYSS ..WHEN MY CONTRACT IS UP,,,I'M SAYING GOODBYE,,TO IT AND I HOPE EVERYONE WHO THOUGHT ABOUT THE SIRIUS MERGER AND ITS POTENTIAL,,SHOULD CALL THEM AND COMPLAIN ,,, WHICH I'M DOING ON A WEEKLY BASES..BUT I'M SURE OUR WORDS WILL FALL ON DEAF ADMINASTRATORS WHO ,WANT MORE MONEY IN THEIR BONUSES. AND HIGHER RATES IS NOT HE ANSWER... CIAO ROCK

[gsmiller88]

I am sooooo glad I never bought that XM radio.

[blish]

Where in the world is the FTC? Exactly how was this going to benefit subscribers?

We have XM in both of our vehicles, and had looked into getting it in the house until the recent changes. I don't know how we can make them understand that they are punching holes in their own hull, but that's what it amounts to.