How SiriusXM’s Subscription Policy is Trapping Consumers and What You Can Do About It

The Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, has filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM. The lawsuit accuses the company of trapping consumers in paid subscriptions by making the cancellation process deliberately long and burdensome. According to James, SiriusXM forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, and then deliberately prolongs those interactions to prevent subscribers from canceling.

The lawsuit demands that SiriusXM make full monetary restitution and pay damages to all affected consumers. It also seeks to impose a $5,000 fine for each violation of New York State law prohibiting deceptive acts and practices.

SiriusXM responded to the allegations by stating that they offer a variety of options for customers to sign up for or cancel their subscriptions, and intend to vigorously defend against the baseless allegations.

The court filing states that SiriusXM violated both state and federal laws by not offering subscribers a simple, timely, and easy-to-use process to cancel a subscription. Additionally, the Attorney General’s office said that SiriusXM used fraudulent and deceptive actions to mislead subscribers who wanted to cancel their subscriptions.

The lawsuit also revealed that SiriusXM data cited by the court filing shows that it takes 11.5 minutes for a customer to cancel a subscription over the phone and 30 minutes to cancel online. In one situation mentioned in the complaint, a SiriusXM agent kept a subscriber in a chat for 40 minutes, even though the subscriber made repeated requests clearly asking to cancel his subscription.

SiriusXM has approximately 34 million subscribers, with nearly 2 million of them living in the state of New York. The outcome of the lawsuit could have significant implications for the company and its subscribers.