SiriusXM Radio cancellation practices subject of suit by NY Attorney General Letitia James

Saying there are serious issues with how SiriusXM Radio does business, New York State Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday announced a lawsuit alleging the radio giant is “trapping consumers” in subscriptions with a “deliberately long and burdensome” cancellation process.

James said investigators for the Office of the Attorney General found that SiriusXM forces subscribers to “call or chat online” with an agent to cancel a subscription, then “deliberately draws out those interactions” as part of a company strategy designed to prevent cancellations.

The OAG also found that SiriusXM trains agents to “not take ‘no’ for an answer” when customers attempt to cancel.

It takes subscribers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone — and 30 minutes to cancel online.

For some, the OAG found, it takes “far longer.”

In an emailed statement a SiriusXM spokesperson said: “It’s telling that the New York Attorney General issued a press release before providing SiriusXM with a copy of the complaint. Like a number of consumer businesses, we offer a variety of options for customers to sign up for or cancel their SiriusXM subscription and, upon receiving and reviewing the complaint, we intend to vigorously defend against these baseless allegations that grossly mischaracterize SiriusXM’s practices.”

James said investigators found that SiriusXM agents can actually cancel a subscription with the “simple click of a button” — and that it even can allow customers to cancel on their own.

In one case, James said, a subscriber was kept in a chat for 40 minutes, despite “clear and repeated requests” by that subscriber to cancel. And James said even after the repeated requests, SiriusXM “continued to charge the customer anyway.”

James said one 92-year-old customer described, in a handwritten complaint, “a maddening phone call with a SiriusXM agent” that lasted almost 40 minutes.

The Attorney General’s Office is seeking “restitution, penalties, and disgorgement from SiriusXM” for violating state business laws.

“Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” James said in a statement.

The OAG is asking any consumers who may have been affected by the SiriusXM cancellation practices — or deceptive and fraudulent cancellation practices with any other automatic-renewal service — to file a consumer complaint online at ag.ny.gov/file-complaint/consumer/goods-services.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”