I hate talking to people on the phone, Dave, but I need to cancel my SiriusXM subscription. I never listen to it anymore, so why pay for it? Is there an online cancellation option for Sirius XM?
You’re not alone in disliking customer service agents, though in the case of companies like SiriusXM we should probably use their correct name: customer retention agents. That’s right, their job when you call to cancel is to offer you a promotion or discount so that you’ll stay after all. It is a good way to negotiate a lower rate (that I’ve done for years) but it’s also stressful; why can’t they just offer the cheapest possible price automatically?
Shortcuts: Find Your Subscription | Manage It | Chat to Cancel Your Subscription
If you’ve set up an account for yourself online at siriusxm.com, the good news is that there is indeed now a completely automated path to cancel your subscription. No humans involved. No arguing, no time wasted listening to pitch after pitch. Interestingly, though, the automated system also tries really hard to retain you, showing that robots can do the work of call center humans.
As it happens, I’ve been a subscriber for quite a few years but have realized that I now don’t need it since I listen endlessly to Spotify instead. The company switched me from annual to monthly (at $30/month!) without notification, so my response is to cancel my SiriusXM subscription entirely. Here’s how I did it…
FIND YOUR SUBSCRIPTION ONLINE
Go to SiriusXM.com and log in to your account. If you’ve never logged in, there should be a way to set up your account with just a few clicks anyway. Once logged in, look on the top right for the tiny person profile icon and click:
As shown, choose “Manage My Account“. You’ll be shown this information:
You can see that the company switched me to a $30.64/month plan (without notice) and that the next payment is due in 30 days. You can explore the various tabs along the top, but to proceed with the cancellation, click on “Subscriptions“.
That’s my car, so that’s my active subscription. To proceed, click on “Manage“.
MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
Here’s what I saw once I clicked:
Did you know you can transfer a SiriusXM subscription? Not what you seek, but good to know if you love it in your car and just bought some new wheels! For this task, however, it’s Cancel subscription that’s the choice. A click on “Cancel” moves me forward…
Notice that one of the choices is not “too expensive” or “don’t listen”. I’ll pick “I have other reasons for canceling” and a button appears that allows me to move forward. A click on it and I’m presented with two less expensive options (I told you this was about customer retention):
I view this as a deceptive practice, to have my highly discounted annual subscription switch to the max price monthly subscription without any notification other than a receipt for a transaction. But hey, no worries, I can go back to the discounted rate, but why would I trust the company not to do the same thing in 12 months?
In any case, if $8.49/month or even $12.13/mo [both plus taxes] sounds good, you could switch here if you prefer and stick with SiriusXM. No? Below the two offers is another box:
Time to cancel. Click on “No Thanks, Chat to Cancel“…
CHAT TO CANCEL SIRIUSXM
Like so many online services nowadays, Sirius XM utilizes an AI-powered chatbot to go through the very same sequence that a call center employee would use. “Harmony” starts thusly:
It coyly acts as if it doesn’t know why we’re here but “cancel” is easily typed in, at which point it – surprise! – goes through the retention script of offering first one deal, then the other:
Nah, don’t want this one. A “no” response produces the second offer:
Did you catch the “won’t automatically renew at a higher price” snippet? I have a feeling that the subscription I signed up for a year ago said the same thing, but here I am, with a $30 monthly charge on my credit card. Hmmm…
To proceed further, I again type “no“, which, finally, produces the actual cancel option:
As you can see, I have again had to type “cancel” to actually proceed, but, finally…
That’s it. I might subscribe again, but these sort of business practices make me much less likely to proceed with a new subscription. Your experience may be different, but then again, you also want to cancel, so now you know the path to accomplish the task. Good luck!
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