Dumping Sirius XM

[peakbagger]

The time has come to dump Sirius XM. It was great when I had long business trips but these days post retirement, I am just not driving as much, most of my trips are local and usually within range of my battery capacity in my Rav 4 Prime so I am not visiting the gas station as much. I can stream music off my Android phone if I am desperate for music. For a station that claims to be ad free they sure have a lot of cross channel promotions to other channels. They also like to have their djays plus concert tours and shows. They should have an option for chatter free music.

Sirius got tagged for making cancelation difficult, they may have improved it but its still a minor PITA as they set it up so that you need to talk to an agent. I tried doing it online and thought I was done and then they switched me to chat mode. I had to type "I want to cancel my subscription" three or four times before the agent stopped trying to do retention. I know that in six months they will try to make me an offer for a cheap subscription,

At some point I may restart it if I get a deal but like my other subscriptions, I want to be deliberate on what ones I keep.

 

[ABMax24]

I dumped Sirius shortly after they switched from their 3 elliptical orbit satellites to the 2 geostationary orbit satellites. I'm far enough north that it doesn't take much obstruction to the south to block the signal. The previous satellites had an inclined orbit that usually kept one of the 3 satellites nearly overhead, improving signal.

I also got the run around, it'll get better, they're working on it, here's a 50% discount. I told them it wasn't worth it even if it was free if it didn't work half the time.

 

[Ashful]

I call to cancel every year. Then they offer me a renewal for another year at an absolutely silly low price, that I can't refuse, so I stay with it. Following year, same story, and we repeat. I guess I've had Sirius for 7 years now, and have never paid more than 1/2 price for it, in fact usually more like 1/3 of full price.

The day they stop offering to drop the price is the day I'll cancel. I really don't use it enough to justify paying the full price.

 

[marty319]

When I bought my new ford ranger in 2007 it came with 6 months free,was 10 months before they cut me off and 2 years of constant bugging me to subscribe before they gave up.

 

[Ashful]

Not to rant, but their high count of and time spent in commercial breaks sort of negates their primary advantage. If I want to listen to 15 minutes of commercials every hour, I can just as easily get that on free over-the-air radio. I think the only way to really save the Sirius business model is to lower the price to a point where everyone is willing to hop on the bandwagon. If it's $15/year, no one will care, and they'll have 100M subscribers. But at $15/month/car, their market is always going to remain too small to pay for content without advertising.

 

[ABMax24]

I think the satellite radio business model is dying a slow death anyway, with the advent of on demand streaming services and the expansion of high speed cellular networks there is no need for satellite radio.

I think it's only a matter of time before Lord Elon brings Starlink to his cars, setting a precedent for others to match that will also further enable streaming services and undermining satellite radios market share.

 

[Max W]

I call to cancel every year. Then they offer me a renewal for another year at an absolutely silly low price, that I can't refuse, so I stay with it. Following year, same story, and we repeat. I guess I've had Sirius for 7 years now, and have never paid more than 1/2 price for it, in fact usually more like 1/3 of full price.

The day they stop offering to drop the price is the day I'll cancel. I really don't use it enough to justify paying the full price.

That’s where I’ve been, ready to give it up if they don’t offer that deal. Been some years now also. Crazy thing, I have some how come to enjoy the 40’s station, with some exceptions. Been a Billie Holiday fan a long time but had never been able to get into the big bands before. Ken Burns may have had a part. Listening I also feel a connection to the time when my folks were coming of age. To me the music represents the lighter side of the time and devastation of WWll, a time also when my father survived an attack that killed over 700 men on his aircraft carrier in the Pacific.