NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - The State of New York claims Sirius XM has made it virtually impossible for customers to cancel memberships, claiming it puts them through an "endurance contest."
The State of New York, represented by Attorney General Letitia James, filed a lawsuit in December in state court against Sirius XM Radio Inc. The media company, based in New York with approximately 34.3 million subscribers, is accused of making it excessively difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions.
According to the court filing, Sirius automatically renews subscriptions at the end of each term and continues to charge consumers unless they undergo a lengthy and burdensome cancellation process. The process allegedly includes forcing most subscribers to interact with a live customer service agent and going through a six-part script before their subscription can be cancelled.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that Sirius trains its agents not to take "no" for an answer from customers trying to cancel their subscriptions. Instead, they are instructed to present a series of renewal offers and press forward until the consumer accepts an offer or abandons the cancellation effort, the suit says.
The State argues that this strategy deliberately wastes subscribers' time even though Sirius has the ability to process cancellations with a single click. Sirius recently removed the case to federal court.