I’m on the phone canceling all of my service with Sirius satellite radio. My decision lies ENTIRELY with Sirius’s poor customer service. Not to mention the fact that they are trying to complicate and delay the return of $106 to me.
On January 2nd I ordered two Stratus 4 radios from them. One was to replace my aging original Sportster and one was to add a radio to the account for my Dad as a Christmas present. January 7th came and went with no radios and the hold on my account had been removed for the $106.72. So I called and canceled the order. Sirius confirms the cancellation is in their notes on the account.
I went to Best Buy and bought two Stratus 5 radios for a total of $143. Forward to January 13th. Today I look at my bank account and what do you know there’s a new hold for $106.72 from Sirius. Apparently they didn’t cancel the order. And as far as I can tell they’ve run my card again for a new hold.
So I made the dreaded call to sort it out. First you’ve got to verbally navigate through the highly annoying automated attendant. Any company that resorts to automated attendants for first line customer service stands a high chance of losing my business under the best of conditions. As a life rule I don’t talk to computers. Cus at them a lot but never talk.
Once I finally got a human on the phone she said “yes, I see where you canceled on the 7th. Let me let you talk to ‘Ecom’ about the billing and why the charges haven’t come off your account.”
So the guy from “Ecom” gets on the phone. He said the order “couldn’t have been canceled”. I told him the previous customer service rep told me that it was. He replied, with attitude, “that person doesn’t work in Ecom and could not have canceled the order”.
So did the radios ship? “I can’t tell you at this time”. What about the charges for the radio, how do I get those back? His response “there’s nothing I can do about it at this time sir”.
So here I was trying to buy additional radios and add service to my account so Sirius could have more revenue. Instead they screw up the order, the cancellation, charged me for the canceled order and can’t even tell me if the radios shipped. Send me to cancellations.
Now customer retention is on the case right? Problem is that if Sirius screws up bad, like they have, customer retention can’t do a damn thing despite their efforts. She tried contacting corporate customer relations and a lot more but couldn’t get an answer on what’s going on or what to do. So “cancel my service” I said. “That’s why I was transferred to ‘cancellations’ in the first place.”
She responded, “Well, can I give you three months for free for the inconvenience?” And I asked “Can you tell me when I can expect my money back? Or how many more times you guys will keep putting holds on my card without shipping any product?” She could not.
Then she put me on hold again. She came back to inform me that “I’ve escalated your issue to my manager who will have someone from corporate customer relations contact you within 5 to 7 days.” 5 to 7 days??? “Are you for real?” Of course she was.
So I had no alternative, “Cancel the service.” The battle presses on.
Bad customer service will cost revenue. This, along with other management reasons, is why Sirius closed at $0.13 a share today. They’re scheduled to be delisted from Nasdaq on April 20, 2009.