NY AG Letitia James Sues SiriusXM For Complicated Cancellation Process

SiriusXM Radio is in the hot seat with New York’s Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly intentionally making it difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions.

In a lawsuit filed on Dec. 20, an investigation into customer complaints found the satellite radio and streaming service allegedly forces subscribers to wait in an automated system before interacting with customer service representatives for long periods. After lengthy wait times to speak to an agent, affidavits found agents would hold longer conversations, pushing the customer to continue their subscription.

The suit seeks financial penalties, including compensation for the time customers spent online, described as “a deliberately lengthy” cancellation process.

The attorney general obtained training documents teaching employees how to drag out phone cancellation requests and online chats. If subscribers explained to agents they wanted to cancel due to high fees, they would have to listen to several more expensive subscription offers than the one they initially wanted to cancel.

On average, it would take subscribers a little over 11 minutes to cancel by phone and 30 minutes for online cancellations; however, for others, the timeline was longer. One customer said, “When I finally spoke to the first representative and explained that I had been waiting nearly half an hour, I was promptly hung up on. Which means I had to wait again.”

A statement from James’ office says forcing subscribers to endure long wait times to deter them from canceling is illegal. “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,” she said. “Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy.”

Close to 580,000 subscribers who tried to cancel by phone during 2019 and 2021 said they abandoned their efforts after being subjected to long wait times in the queue. However, the company denies the claims brought against them, saying online chat agents respond to requests within minutes and can cancel online. Spokesperson Jessica Casano-Antonellis says Sirius plans to defend themselves.

“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.”

The company claims, on average, that online chat agents respond to consumer messages within 36 seconds to 2.5 minutes.