Mr. Meyer,
This article on MSNBC.com says you want to expand into the iPhone, iPod and iTouch market.
Don’t try it until you fix your website. If you can’t operate a simple website, you’ll do even worse on the iPod platform.
The article also mentions that you want to do better in the installation of your radio’s into cars that weren’t equipped at the factory.
Don’t push that until you fix your website.
I have a car that wasn’t equipped at the factory, an ’07 Toyota Camry.
It’s not the radio, it’s your website that’s the problem.
There are people waiting right now for help, people like me who bought a new Starmate 5, after having been a subscriber for 2+ years. I upgraded my radio to take advantage of the XM channels, to buy them ala carte and give you even more money every month.
New radio. More channels. It all works for you…it must because it doesn’t work for me.
Don’t believe me? Read this previously written plea for Tech Support that I started over 15 days ago, as of the publish date of this post.
Here’s some simple business advice: Don’t try to expand into a new market that will bring even more headaches if you can’t fix all the headaches you have now.
Really, if you can’t make subscribers, who are almost the only source of income happy, why try to get more of them to be unhappy, spread bad word of mouth buzz about you and clog up the internet with bad reviews.
Here’s the deal, sir. You guys either don’t read the blog posts and articles written about you on the internet, or you don’t care. I’ve had tens of thousands of readers come thru this site in the 15 days since I wrote the first post about your complete lack of real customer service and tech support.
You people haven’t bothered to leave a comment, send an email or call in that time frame.
If you had some people into reputation management, they could respond to my blog post, get the issue fixed and be heroes.
As it is now, tens of thousands of people think you’re zeroes and wouldn’t even consider subscribing to your service.
Bad business, much like I had the unfortunate task of saying to Mel Karmazin, in my open letter to him.
Please Mr. Meyer, get this issue fixed. I want to keep paying you for your service in my car. I want to get your service on my iPod Touch and in my iPhone. really, I do…even though you don’t ‘care enough to send the very best.’
The article quoted you as saying you wanted the SIRIUS XM content to be more ubiquitous. Wow, lofty goal.
How about making it work properly where it is, rather than take it more places to not work well?
If you make it as problem free as possible, we the subscribers will help you take it to every platform that exists. We’ll demand it even.
As it is now, we’re not going to help you, because it’s not worth the effort.
Kinda like calling your customer service and the tech support that is quoted as “not speaking to customers on the phone.”
Bad business.
Thanks for your time.
EDIT 3/24/09 – After 2 days and four calls from a corporate type, I have a solution in the works.
I’m not completely happy, how could you be, if you’d been thru what I’ve been thru the last 2+ weeks.
I am heartened by the change in modus operendi.
The ‘solution’ will cost me about $72 extra dollars per year, so it’s more than livable, but the hassle and hour after hour of frustration on the phone was worth thousands of dollars if you’d paid me my going rate as a sales, customer service and marketing consultant.
Maybe SIRIUS will hire me to help them troubleshoot a few of their problems, which are many and massive, as far as customer service and websites go.
If you haven’t done so, please read the whole encounter by clicking the link. You’ll feel as bad for me as I do for them.
EDIT 3/25/09 – Still no radio.
EDIT 3/26/09 – Still no radio.
EDIT 3/27/09 – Still no radio.
EDIT 3/28/09 – Still no radio.
EDIT 3/29/09 – Still no radio.
EDIT – 3/30/09 – I called the nice young lady and asked why I still had no radio, no Tracking number and no phone call.
She said someone should have called and sent a Tracking number and apologized. The apologies are starting to grow old.
She gave me the Tracking info on my new MiRGE radio, which should arrive on 4/01/09.
That will be 8 days since they agreed to send one.
Personally, I’d have made damn sure it went out that day or the next and I’ve have sent it Next Day Air or Second Day Air at the very least.
I guess when you have ten’s of millions of subscribers, you take ‘em for granted.
EDIT – 3/31/09 – Still waiting. Should arrive tomorrow.
EDIT – 4/1/09 – New MiRGE radio arrived. I’ll try to get it installed and activated ASAP.
EDIT – 4/2/09 – Can get the SIRIUS channels. No XM channels as of yet.
EDIT 4/3/09 – No change. Can’t get anyone who speaks as much English as I do and they cannot get the XM chaanels to activate. I wish you could hear these fools and the sillyass things they have me try.
EDIT – 4/4/09 – No change.
EDIT – 4/5/09 – It’s Sunday, so I have the entire day to try and get someone who speaks good English and can get the XM channels to work.
I spoke with 5-7 people today. Not one was American or had a tremendous grasp of the English language.
They have zero technical skiils to boot.
Same thing each time. Turn off the radio, unplug all the wires plug it in and I’ll send the signal and it will work.
No, it doesn’t work.
I spent 2 1/2 hours sitting in my car and 7 1/2 hours total on the phone and/or waiting for the XM channels to activate.
I’m now 28 days into this nightmare.
I should take bets on when it will end…if it ever does.
Tomorrow I call Corporate again and see if the can find someone who can make it all go away.
EDIT 4/6/09 – Hey Jim, I called your office today, but I wasn’t actually able to talk to you, although Sandy said she’d have someone call me.
On another note, the nice young lady in Customer Care was advised of the complete and utter inability of the Customer Service reps to get my service activated properly.
She called me back with a gentleman from the IT Dept., I think. I have his name. Nice guy.
He suggested I send them the radio, let him activate it and he’d send it back. Bad suggestion to someone who’s 28-29 days into this special hell called SIRIUS.
Since that was less than the ideal suggestion, I asked if he could activate a radio and send it to me and I’d send the one I have back in that same box.
Simple and much, much better.
I hope to get an email with a Tracking number sometime later today. Nice young lady in Customer Care says I will.
Until then I have no service, but I’d bet my subscription is ticking just as if I actually had what I was paying for.
I’d love to talk to you Jim. Call me. You guys have my number.
EDIT 4/7/09 – Hey Jim, guess what?
I got the replacement MiRGE radio today. You know, the one the nice guy from Engineering said he personally activated with XM and SIRIUS service.
Guess what Jim? It didn’t have any XM service when it got to me and my vehicle.
Doesn’t that suck? It does for me.
What kind of special torture do you have planned for me next?
You are the VP of Operations, right?
This kind of falls under your realm of responsibility, right?
I’d be delighted to offer you some sales, marketing and customer service consulting for a low, low price.
It’s what I do, Jim. Every day. All day.
In between talking to the buffoons you have as Customer Service reps and letting you guys torture me.
Stay tuned for the next special thing you guys do to me.
I’ll be telling everybody 
EDIT 4/8/09 – Hey Jim, another day of failed Operations, in my opinion.
Another day with no working radio.
Another day with no solution from your IT and Engineering Dept.
Another day that neither you nor Mel called or answered in any way.
Have you guys heard of reputation management online?
I’m guessing the answer is a resounding NO.
Failure seems to be a way of life for your Operations Dept., which leads to fewer sales, which is also your department.
How in the hell do you keep your postion?
I’m guessing it’s because the person above you is just as clueless as you are.
Am I right?
EDIT 4/9/09 – Well Jim, the nightmare may be over. I got a radio delivered today that actually worked and had SIRIUS and XM programming on it.
It’s not actually onb my account yet, but maybe we can get past that without any hiccups.
I hope.
Thanks for being a model of how not to protect your online reputation during this ordeal.
You made a perfect case study of how to do it completely wrong.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I just called and cancelled my Sirius account. Why? Well, first, I have been a subscriber to Sirius back when they first started and LOVED the service. When you called Customer Service, you actually got that! (AMAZING!) Recently, my partner had an issue with Sirius in his Dodge Magnum. He had called to cancel it (well over a year and a half ago), and they never did. Then when they charged his credit card again, he called and they finally closed it and refunded most of the money, but their reputation as a company was worth less to them than $20. He will tell anyone he comes into contact with about his issues with Sirius.
Now my issues have started with them. My receive was stolen out of my car between Sunday April 5th and Tuesday April 7th. I called Sirius, was going to cancel it, and they transferred me to Retention (Detention?). I was promised a new radio, car kit and free installation. I told the gentleman that I needed it shipped to a different address than what was on the account (I had just moved into my first home purchase!), and was told it would happen. I got the confirmation email on April 8th, late in the day, stating it was being sent to the wrong address. I called on April 9th, and talked to Customer Service, and was transferred to E-Commerce. When I told Rafael that it was being shipped to the wrong address, he said, ‘the address needs to be changed by the shipper (I think that is him, right?)” and he would be right back. Within about 3 minutes, I get a message to enter a 4 digit extension, since I did not know anything about that, I held on, and was told “good-bye” from their voice mail hell system.
I then called back, told the Customer Service person I first got my phone number and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor. I started getting the stories of I have to do this and that first, and I told her, no, I want the supervisor. She relented quickly, (I guess because I told her I have worked in Customer Service and call centers before and I did not want to yell at her, but a supervisor). I had to once again give the supervisor all my information (shouldn’t the rep have told the supervisor all of that? I would have!) and the story and wanted to cancel. She transferred me to the Retention Department again, and I told that rep I wanted to cancel my subscription and get a refund on the rest of the 3 months I have prepaid and if I get a charge from them, I will file fraud charges against them. She has assured me that the account has been closed. We shall see.
I understand, Dan, I understand.
I’d love to be in charge of creating a better series of steps for Customer Service reps to follow.
It’s the system that’s flaw, not necessarily the people.
Their problems are like the Grand Canyon, you can really see it all if you’re too close.
Someone who could view it from the outside could easily and quickly rid their system of processes that cause them to process people, rather than serve them.
Have been on hold/hell for 3 hours so far with Sirius. I have an XM account, but my husband has Sirius and just needs a new radio. you would think that would not be too much of a challenge for them. However, we have been hung up on twice and transferred 4 times. All this for the privilege of paying them money for a radio. They are a radio company, right? They sell radios and provide programming, so why are they acting like I am calling asking for pizza delivery when I just want a radio for an existing account? At least when I call XM I can get a person who doesn’t know what they are talking about in only a minute or two instead of waiting hours for someone who can’t help me.
I tried to buy a new radio and it took over two hours to speak to a customer service rep. then the rep disconnected me. Finally got to speak to someone who was actually helpful. Now, just got an email stating that i needed to update my billing information. I have tried UNSUCESSFULLY three separate times. What a screwed up company. WTF. How can this happen!!!!