November 15, 2011 I Cancelled XM Sirius Radio, Here's Why

Today I cancelled my last XM radio subscription and will not go back to it. Last year I dropped off the first car out of protest of stupidity. I sold a car that had an XM radio in it, XM and Sirius had merged, my new car had a Sirius radio in it. When I called XM to drop off the one receiver I wanted to continue and add on the new Sirius one, simple replace right? But due to corporate lunacy, I was told I had to fully cancel my XM account, call Sirius and start up a new account with them for the new radio. I proceeded to cancel XM but never went back. My wife's car was one month away from another 2 year, pay in full up front renewal, and we decided to cancel it all. There were many valid reasons behind it.

• The Pay 2 Years Up Front is a pain, stupid, and no one else does it. Why not a monthly charge like every other service on the planet?
• Charge more and more for devices, including online listening. What are the customers paying for? The service or device fees? Charging for online listening pushed me away instantly last year.
• Internet Radio has emerged as a valid and superior replacement. Pandora, Spotify, Slacker Radio, iHeartRadio and now the new iTunes Match who needs satellite radio?
• Here's the primary reason, pay attention - What the heck are we paying for? The idea in the beginning of satellite radio was to pay a premium to get access to more music than we would know what to do with COMMERCIAL FREE. But when you listen to XM, you get as many annoying, stupid, irrelevant COMMERCIALS as you do on terrestrial radio that's FREE! Same music, same crappy DJs, same commercials all for a low price of $18/mo. Where's that value in comparison to FM?
• XM and Sirius alienated their customers, post-merger placed stations with commercial filled crap and has not realized that the people demand mobility. Anchored to a car radio for $18/mo is not a good business model.

Hey XM, I am a pretty smart guy, you need to add high quality Online Streaming FREE with a subscription. That streaming service needs to be from a PC, iPhone, iPad, etc... You cut that off, you cut off all the money making business people that want to listen to Opie and Anthony or Howard Stern with their headphones at the office, but they won't because they don't like to be nickel and dimed by the premium service they pay for.
Anyway, XM you lost another customer, you may get us back but on your track you are going you will fade away as a failed technology story and people waiting for your equipment to burn up in the atmosphere.
End of Line.

Posted in: Reviews,Technology