December 27th 2023.
SiriusXM Radio is facing an investigation by New York's Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly making it difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions. According to a lawsuit filed on Dec. 20, an investigation into customer complaints found that the satellite radio and streaming service allegedly forces subscribers to wait in an automated system for long periods before they can interact with customer service representatives.
Furthermore, affidavits found that agents would hold longer conversations with customers, trying to push them to continue their subscription. The suit seeks financial penalties, including compensation for the time customers spent online, which was described as "a deliberately lengthy" cancellation process.
The attorney general obtained training documents which showed how employees were taught to prolong phone cancellation requests and online chats. Customers who tried to cancel due to high fees would have to listen to several expensive subscription offers before they could proceed.
On average, it would take subscribers a little over 11 minutes to cancel by phone and around 30 minutes for online cancellations. However, some customers have reported even longer wait times. One customer recounted how they had to wait nearly half an hour before speaking to a representative, only to be hung up on shortly after.
Letitia James’ office released a statement saying that forcing subscribers to endure long wait times to deter them from canceling is illegal. “Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” she said. “Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy.”
According to the lawsuit, close to 580,000 subscribers who tried to cancel by phone during 2019 and 2021 said they abandoned their efforts after being subjected to long wait times in the queue. SiriusXM, however, denies the claims brought against them, saying that online chat agents respond to requests within minutes and can cancel online.
Spokesperson Jessica Casano-Antonellis said that SiriusXM plans to defend themselves against the "baseless allegations." She added that, on average, online chat agents respond to consumer messages within 36 seconds to 2.5 minutes.
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