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.

[Renegade Knight]

"So please explain why the merger was such a swell idea?"

Best odds that the merged company would survive. That's about it.

Plan B was to let one fail and hope enough subscribers switched to make the survivor profitable.

[inachu1]

Sirius and XM needs to be free and paid with advertisements.
Then once the subscription model is dead then I will buy a radio to listen to it.

[Red1332]

I was a long time subscriber to XM and I loved it, especially the holiday channels that would come on. I adored Fungus, and was dumbstruck when they took it off the air to replace it with some watered down 80's music and the occasional Ramons or Green Day track.
I finally decided to cancel about a month and a half ago after seeing they were going to start charging for the one thing I used daily, the internet radio. At that point it was just the last straw. I hated having to pay to listen to commercials, as well as the overall change in tone that had come to it. I specifically stayed away from Sirius for this reason, but discovered very quickly that XM's feel was gone once they started to shift the stations around.
The biggest reason I will never go back, though, is the trouble I went through trying to cancel. I was hung up on twice when trying to cancel. The third time I got a young man who argued with me over every detail I said, even going so far as to argue about whether I'd been truly hung up on. He wouldn't give me his name until I demanded it, and I spent 45 minutes repeating myself over and over again. When I finally got him to cancel, he stated he couldn't give me a refund for the services that hadn't been rendered yet, an outright lie that I called him on, having the email from customer service in my hand that I read off to him.
If they are that desperate for service they might put more time towards training their employees to not be such unbearable jerkwads on the phones.
One final insult added to injury, even with three email confirmations that my account has been closed they have tried to bill me 3 times in the past 2 months. I'm getting ready to cancel my credit card just to stop them from stealing money due to their disorganization.

[billowred]

Why are you hating on Howard Stern? He made that company. Unlike someone like you that no one cares weather you write for Cnet or fall off the planet.

[ferricoxide]

The only reason I had XM, in the first place, was my GPS used the XM traffic service. As the radio spectrum has become more and more ridiculously crowded, the ability to use an FM-modulator, to make my GPS's XM music service work with my radio, has gone away. So, I cancelled the music service. I'll likely be replacing my GPS with one that uses the terrestrial radio-based traffic services. That will pretty much end my XM use.

[RCHOBO]

Satellite radio was a poor business model with an outdated delivery system before it began. Why in the hell do you waste billions launching satellites and then spend the next decade having to recoup your investment? Absurd.

For music I will stick to my own programming skills on my mp3 player. When I want to hear Ron & Fez or Howard Stern I pay to have that streamed to my laptop, where there I can rip it and listen to it at my leisure in my car.

I have no intention of ever buying a junk satellite receiver, but if they ever make a decent app for the iPhone I'd consider going that route.

[buzzvader]

I was an XM guy for the last several years, but if it's true they're raising prices, forget it. I loved the music and listening online, but the merger was bad. It helped no one. The bad part is I still have six satellite XM radio systems I guess I won't be using. I loved the decades channels and Escape. It's hard to find terrestrial channels like that anymore.

[degreco]

Since I haven't seen other comments about this perhaps I am missing something, but my big disappointment with the XM/Sirius merger is that if you want to listen to certain programs on the "other" systemn, for instance I want MLB games added to my Sirius subscription, you have to buy (and install?) a new radio that retails for about $180!
Am I right about this and does anyone know if the new radio fits the auto cradle for the Sirius radio, or do I have to do a new installation if I get the new radio (which I am not)?

[fyrstorm71]

I'm was in the same boat, but for NHL on XM

[franksp]

i love my XM i hope its on forever (especially since i bought a lifetime membership) as far as serious goes SERIOUSLY it sucks as much as ever nrver liked it from the beginning just want my XM and tallk radio channel among others

[zzagfreakk]

i dont understand what all the uproar is about.... ive been with sirius for 3+ years and i think they are doing a great job overall!!!! it appears that some people are intent on spreading negative information and will not be happy until sirius/xm dies. these people must work for traditional radio and view sat. radio a major threat..... i love my sirius

[fyrstorm71]

I did too, 2 price increases in a row (regardless of the source of the price increase) and poor signal reception on all three of my radios and the frustration of not having internet feeds anymore all took the shine off Sirius. Going to miss Howard though, only reason I really got it in the first place.

[RgnKjnVA]

My wife subscribed me to Sirius about 5 years ago as we were Stern fans plus we were curious about this new-fangled satellite radio stuff. I found that I NEVER listened to Stern on Sirius, I was too busy enjoying having more than two rock stations at my disposal as well as music I wouldn't have even considered listening to previously that I found I enjoy. I was disappointed when my Sirius subscription expired a few months ago. I never received any notification this was about to occur nor any sort of attempt to retain me as a customer (Bad Business 101). Terrestrial radio here in the DC area is a wasteland. I can't even listen, it seems like most programming goes like this: 30 minutes of annoying commercials with 10 minutes of blithering idiot DJs leaving about 20 minutes to play the same songs you heard the last hour. INTOLERABLE! With the economy being what it is, I'm waiting until I can justify the price. Like it or not, it IS the best value even with slight price hikes. That's right, even a better value than FREE radio because their offering is simply unlistenable. How shameful is that?! However, I would STILL like to fire ALL DJs on Sirius/XM. They all suck. I'm spoiled from listening to Shoutcast all day at work (I refused to pay more to stream Sirius/XM online) which is just music...as it should be IMO.

[JayeDog949]

why raise rates when the merger was to provide lower rates..............the internet radio used to be free, not anymore.

[bille3]

I had XM from the beginning. When the merger was approved by the powers to be, subscribers were going to have a choice of up to 50 channels for one low price. That has never happened to XM subscriber's. I have called several times, Response? "Sirius has it now, but no date planned for XM subscribers. Would you like to add another radio?" I don't think they will make it.

The guys on MacBreak Weekly don't expect them to make it.

[feverboy777]

They've nickeled and dimed me to the point where I'm going to drop them at the end of the year. When the merger started out all the talk was that the price would go down that never happen , they want anther 14 bucks to listen to Howard Stern they can GFTS.

[vapula]

there is going to be even more things that are going to wan't you guy's to cry. from information that i am getting sirius xm will be adding an additional charge.........

[natura11]

Sirius dropped the ball with their web based radio. A great website with on-demand options to listen to live performances in the studios, shows, etc at your leisure (for example see the NPR music website which is free!) would be worth extra $. May sound strange but satellite radio is old technology, in a few years people will be listening to all radio via cell phones. Internet radio is the future and Sirius could have been leading the charge (and let the satellites float off into space). But, in my option the music programming is gotten worse, the website has no substance and paying extra (now close to $18/month with car) is the straw that will break my subscription's back...

[kites0852]

Today Sirius XM announced that subscribers would be assessed an additional $1.98 for first radio and $0.97 each additional radio on the account per month as royalty fees and to also pay for the ability some subscribers have to record music. Each subscriber will equally pay this fee regardless if they have a radio that can record or not.

Assuming there are 1,000,000 subscribers (last I heard this number was much higher) that means if each subscriber has one radio, they will rake in $2,000,000 per MONTH. Are we supposed to believe this is the monthly fee assessed for Music Royalty Fees?

See http://www.xmradio.com/about/musicroyalty.xmc for their explanation.

[sdstern]

I just let my subscription expire. That these folks raised their fees was only modestly alright with me, but when they added a fee for listening on my computer, that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. There are plenty of free Internet stations I can listen to.