It's just my opinion, but it seems like customer service at XM Satellite Radio became a mushroom cloud of incompetence as soon as the XM - SIRIUS merger was approved. Although I'm sure it's just coincidental, let me just give you an idea of how badly my customer service experience was earlier this week.
Early Sunday afternoon, I install a new radio in my car and call XM to activate it. I call - I'm on hold - finally the guy takes my information and says it should happen within 3 hours.
4 hours later - nothing. I call back. I'm on hold. Another person looks up my account. Mmmm...didn't take. Start again. Old radio number, new radio number, update some account info. Wait a few hours. If nothing happens, go to refresh.xmradio.com and type in the radio ID.
Nothing. I go to refresh.xmradio.com, put my number in. Error message. "Call customer service".
Monday morning I call. They look up my account. The new info on my radio and account are not there. Start again. Okay, give it a few hours because the system is going through an upgrade. A couple of hours later - nothing. I go to refresh.xmradio.com, put my number in. Error message. "Call customer service".
Monday afternoon. I'm now on call 4 or 5 (I've lost track and besides: I'm giving you the short version). I start to go through the process again and the customer service representative tells me something like it's going to be 24 hours at least because they've been going through a service-wide upgrade since FRIDAY. Can I call back?
Every time I called, it got worse and worse. So, I finally just decided to wait a few days because my frustration level was so high if I didn't walk away from this, I'd become unproductive and obsessive.
At this point, I'm so furious with the B.S. (Bad Satellite), the next time I do call I am teetering on one of two decisions:
1. I'll either try one more time to activate the stupid new radio or...
2. I'm going to cancel the service completely (for the old one they can't seem to deactivate or the new one they can't seem to activate) AND the XM radio in my wife's SUV. I'm that peeved.
The other day, XM sent me a press release announcing the service had exceeded 9.6 million subscribers. At this rate, it may be minus one. I feel like customer service hasn't been straight with me from the very beginning and if there is one thing I hate most it is being played for a fool.
They may not miss me, but then again, I won't miss this frustration.
