Dear Sirius Satellite Radio:
When I first bought my satellite radio two years ago, I chose Sirius over the much more popular XM. Since then, I’ve been an ardent supporter of your company, recommending the system to many friends — most of whom have purchased Sirius receivers of their own.
When other people asked me what I loved about Sirius, I would cite:
– Soundscapes, the great New Age channel, which played exactly the music I wanted to hear
– The commercial-free music
– Air America Radio
– Sirius OutQ 149.
But over the past year or so:
– You’ve dropped Soundscape’s peaceful, meditative programming, substituting an edgy urban channel called “Chill.” Chill plays the same song with the same abstract rhythm and obvious beat over and over again. It’s excruciating.
– You’ve introduced DJ’s on my favorite commercial-free stations. Now, instead of non-stop music, you’re serving up the same lame talk I can get from any local FM station. Worse, in between lame talk segments, your DJs are spouting concert information, touting newly released CDs, and plugging movies. These paid placements are ads, pure and simple, and they annoy me. Your “commercial free” music stations are no longer commercial-free.
– Air America Radio signed an exclusive agreement with XM and is no longer available on Sirius. After getting used to Randi Rhodes and Al Franken, the programming on your remaining Talk Left station sounds more shrill and amateurish than it ever has before. Listening to Air America was part of my daily routine; now, every day, I’m reminded of what I’m missing by being a Sirius subscriber.
At this point, the only reason I subscribe to Sirius is Sirius OutQ, and, over the past several months, I find I’m listening to OutQ less and less.
XM offers a new age station. XM offers genuinely commercial-free music. XM has Air America Radio.
I’ve been a faithful subscriber for two years. Last week, even as I was thinking of switching to XM, you charged me in advance for twelve more months of upcoming programming — without so much as asking my permission first. Frankly, this struck me as rude at best and opportunistic at worst.
Because your industry saw fit to make sure hardware for one system was incompatible with the other, switching to XM will likely cost me several hundred dollars in new equipment, and my investment in Sirius Satellite Radios (I have two) will become worthless. Even with that in mind, I’m *this close* to making the switch, because XM seems more in tune with the reasons I listen to satellite radio.
This letter, then, ends with a question. Can you give me any reasons why I shouldn’t switch to XM?
I have had nothing but problems with my sirius radio. I got it to listen to Stern. The customer service is awful. The equipment really got to be expensive. I am going to cancel my subscription.
I agree w/the comments on Sirius…The Chill “station” (which plays my fav kind of music has like 12 songs in rotation. HELLO, even when I am my most A-D-D and want to play the same song over…I WANT to be the one to do so, not a station I PAY!!! I feel I have more songs to rotate in my Winamp playlist than Sirius plays. That on top of the reception which I KNOW I HAVE THE RECEIEVER POSITIONED AT THE RIGHT POINT, still drops here & there. WHAT’S UP WITH THAT? Funny part is I usually end up hearing Sirius on my computer so I use the online version…and EVEN THAT drops songs????!!! I am dissapointed, and even moreso as my year is almost up & it sounds like Sirius will REINVITE itself on my credit card *sigh* I guess I now have to get back on the phone with the “ever NOT so helpful” customer service folks.
Thanks for letting me vent. My check for your therapy listening services is in the mail ;-P
I love my sirius satellite radio. I’ve never heard soundscapes but they have Spa 73 which is new age and I love it.
Sirius has no sense of the term Customer Service. I paid for a year subscription, my radio worked for 5 months and the replacement they sent months later never worked. They refuse to refund my money. I will be a happier person NEVER to talk or deal with them again. I’ll only miss the Howard show anyway. Other than that, from my exerience, I have no doubt Sirius won’t make it. It’s only time till others see how they disregard their customers.
I’m now starting to agree. I was in denial, but now I see the light. My wife signed up for it and instead of going month-to-month, they swindled her by taking a full year subscription from her bank account. The Chill channel was my favorite, but now it sucks. I can still listen to my favorite tracks, but it’s a hit or miss during the day. And what’s with this slow-low trance repatition crap the keep playing. I thought it was “Chill”, not Heroin Downslide Time! Yes, their customer service is horrible and I even had a hard time siging up a few years ago. They just keep wanting more money and more money. The head units alone can empty your pockets, PLUS, you can’t find any accessories at any stores as soon as they’ve come out with a new one. My wife’s power plug went dead and my little plastic P.O.S. harness for the unit broke off and I can’t buy another one unless I purchase the entire car kit again. That’s like $50!! Is anyone else getting that “pipe” sound which is equivalent to Internet Radio?
Now, a “merger”… but it is in reality the Mel Karmazin – driven, let’s pretend we’re fm, play Creedence on the hour and half hour, predictable Sirius that in essence has bought XM.
I started with Sirius, bought XM after Sirius shortened their playlist, and was wowed by XM’s deeper tracks, less talk, and more willingness to be faithful to eras– for instance, they actually play what was popular in the 50’s on the fifties channel, instead of the early 60’s Sirius considers to be 50’s. And I love their “talk” channel as well.
This means higher prices, less choice, more Howard Stern, commercials, etc. And the FCC will approve it in a flash.
We purhased two Sirius radios at Christmas in anticipation of NASCAR moving from XM. I spent Chrismas afternoon and well into the night trying to get a signal that would say on the Sirius radio. I was on the phone with Non Customer Service several times and each time being told to move the antenna. We had had XM for two years and never had a problem getting signal. NOT SO with Sirius.
I was so frustrated I wanted to send the whole sebanng to the trash can. I tried the other radio in my van and and my car and all I get is AQUIRING SIGNAL and some brief intermittent programing.
I finally heard a guy say he had his antenna out in the middle of his yard so I tried that with limited success. Seems that certain times of the day the satelites mis align and the AQUIRING SIGNAL comes on again. This is now March and three months later and I fianlly put the antenna on the ROOF. I hope that works with clear freaking SKY.
The other diference with XM and Sirius is that I can recieve a strong XM signal on any decent radio anywhere in the house. The Sirius radio has a fm line plugged into the receiver and wrapped arount the exterior antenna of a great radio in my office…That is as far as the fm sigal goes.
We have never gotten the car Sirius to work. So, we are paying for a subsription we cannot use. I am still enjoying my XM radio on the daily commute.
I wish NASCAR had never switched. Now I am worried about Sirius dragging down a great working XM if the two merge.
You know, I have never had a problem with Sirius at all. It almost sounds like most of your problems are very isolated. The original comment made by the individual seems to be very, umm… whinish. If you paid for a year…you paid for…a year. You check your online settings on whether they can automatically take out of your credit card per month, per year, or just go and pay on a month to month basis. Also as for the “chill” channel, Thats something that could be made known by calling and leaving messages on the channels line. Seems very childish to just whine and take no action! I dont know…it just seems theres a lot of mundane speak here about things easily resolved. I had a major issue involving a couple radios that was resolved rather easily.
XM dont have anything at all worth going there for. Im sorry I aint signing up for XM for Oprah. Yes Im a Stern listener.
ERIC: It almost sounds like most of your problems are very isolated.
MARK: So isolated, in fact, I get about five emails a week from other people who feel the same way.
ERIC: Seems very childish to just whine and take no action!
MARK: Making four calls to customer service, writing two letters to the company, and publishing this article strikes me as doing more than “just whining.” And as for taking action, I did — I canceled my subscription, and I’ve encouraged hundreds of other readers to do so.
ERIC: I had a major issue involving a couple radios that was resolved rather easily.
MARK: You started your comment by saying, “I never had a problem with Sirius at all.” Were you lying then … or now?
ERIC: Im a Stern listener.
MARK: I’m not surprised.
Dear Mark,
Just wanted to say “Right-on!” Sirius sucks. The playlists are RIDICULOUS. The same 20 songs are played OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER. And the DJs constantly interrupt even that sorry attempt at programming. They erroneously charged my credit card for an annual subscription and it took over a dozen phone calls and over 2 hours to get it “semi” reversed. I say “semi” because THEY NEVER GAVE BACK THE FULL AMOUNT THEY TOOK OUT.
It had gotten so bad recently that I have not even listened to it in weeks, prefering my ipod in the car and itunes radio at work.
I HATE Seriously hate SIRIUS!!!!
I purchased my Sirius receiver in November 2004 with the boom box and a six-month plan. My purchase was virtually plug and play. I had a great out of the box experience. 800# activation was within minutes. After six months I found that I was totally hooked, so I purchased the lifetime subscription. Living in Florida with ultra-high communications taxes, I had to pay and extra $100.00 just in taxes. But I thought it was all worth it, as the choices for terrestrial radio in the region I was living was quite limited.
Since then there have been a lot of changes. I’m not a Howard Stern fan, but I don’t think he is an indication as to why the programming has changed so much. OutQ has gone in the dumper, and the iPod has taken over large portions of the portable communications market, leaving satellite broadcasters scrambling for a shrinking market. PodCasting has opened up broadcasting to just about anyone with a digital recorder and a dream. Cars now have built-in iPod docks as well as Satellite docks. But what seems to be the iPod incentive is the versatility of using an iPod as a universal entertainment source. Rather than allowing someone else to create programming for you: You can do it yourself!
Right now with 7.9 million subscribers, XM is the clear leader, although their growth is slowing. Sirius will report May 1st, so keep your eye out for that. By the end of the year, Sirius and XM are expected to finalize a merger proposal, which will be interesting to say the least. Market researchers say it will be a fix for both. The only problem is, this merger will leave us with only one source for satellite radio.
So, what is the right mix for North America? Perhaps we need to look to Worldspace Satellite Radio, which currently broadcasts in Africa and Asia, but have been looking to get into the European market. The UK has it’s designs of it’s own, but are they doing any better? I still love my Sirius Satellite Radio, but I also get a lot out of my PodCasts and my iPod Playlists.
I did like the Coffee House channel, but if I have to listen to Tracie Chapman’s “fast car” one more time, I think I will blow my brains out. Also, every time I turn the god damned christmas channel on, that fuckin Charlie Brown Christmas song is on. WTF!!!
I called Sirius cust. service number 4 times and they had me on the phone with different representatives for an hour and 20 minutes.The first woman I spoke with (who processed my order) set up my order for a radio and 2 subscriptions. She gave me incorrect information about the shipping which I later found out by looking on the website. SO, I called back to get this resolved – I was then transferred to the shipping department where representative #2 proceeded to cancel out my entire order and started over — screwed up everything! Suddenly, my order was lost, he was talking in circles and making absolutely no sense. He couldn’t answer any of my questions & he couldn’t explain prices to me. Suprisingly, the price he quoted me was different than the price the first person quoted me but he couldn’t form enough of a sentance to explain why this was so. So after 15 exhausting minutes with him, I polietly asked to be transferred to someone else who could explain what was going on. You know what he did? He hung up on me. Okay, so – I called back AGAIN. This time asked to speak to a supervisor. I was then told by representative #3 – “sorry but all of the supervisors are busy – how about I offer you 50% off the activation fee”. Really? Wow – thanks but no thanks – that’s about all the insults I can handle from one company today. These people wasted an hour and half of my time. I have no service, no radio, nothing to give to my husband for father’s day and the best resolution they could offer me was $7.50 cents? I never got out the door with Sirius – they completely lost my business.
I would appreciate a call back from someone who can A) fix this mess B) can follow up and find out who the person was that gave me the wrong information about shipping and C) find out who the person was that hung up on me and FIRE him and lastly, D) offer me something that can come close to making up for this insulting experience.