Comments on: SIRIUSly Expensive: Satellite Radio Rates to Go Up

By: Chuck S

Chuck S — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:47:40 +0000

The FCC’s decision to allow the 2 companies to merge was a poor one and one that certainly would not benefit the consumer. It has not even been a year and these concerns are coming true.

According to the FCC’s guidelines, there were certain conditions that were to be followed to allow the merger. One of them being that the pricing would not be raised for 36 months.

Well as a subscriber to the Sirius I can tell you that they have used to loophole to skirt the provisions and effectively raised the prices, not once, but TWICE!

In the first instance, the did not raise the prices on the primary units, but raised the prices $2 month for each additional unit. Today I get another notice from Sirius that they are now adding a “Royalty Fee” charge of $1.98 per month on primary units and .97 for additional units.

Call it whatever you want, this is effectively 2 price increases in less than 6 months and is unacceptable. I would like Congress to look into this matter and propose legislation to prevent not only Sirius XM, but all companies from engaging in this deceptive behavior.

Everywhere you look today, companies are engaging in deceptive practices and by raising prices and disguising them as additional fees and charges. This is standard practice on just about every rental car with concession recovery fees, battery fees, tire fees, license fees, etc. They are not the only ones, this practice is very common with hotels (resort fees) and now airlines are jumping into the fray.

This has to stop. The price should be the price. The only thing that should be allowed to be added is any taxes and fees required by law.

By: Sirius Radio Impresses Us With its Customer Service | Gadget Wisdom

Sirius Radio Impresses Us With its Customer Service | Gadget Wisdom — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:03:14 +0000

[...] SIRIUSly Expensive: Satellite Radio Rates to Go Up (technologizer.com) [...]

By: Sirius XM Girds Itself For Bankruptcy | Technologizer

Sirius XM Girds Itself For Bankruptcy | Technologizer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:06:25 +0000

[...] I wrote when Sirius XM recently raised some of its fees, I was once a hardcore XM fan, and still find much to like in the service–but I have the [...]

By: Ken Link

Ken Link — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:12:33 +0000

I use Sirius in my vehicle, secondly on my boat. Boat use on the Great Lakes max. 5 months. Why do I pay for 12? I won’t pay an increase for the second receiver. I also will not pay (again) for Sirius on the internet when I’m not in the vehicle or on the boat.

The question is ARE YOU LISTENING, SIRIUS?

By: kevin mendelsohn

kevin mendelsohn — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:01:50 +0000

Consumers benefit from competition. GOOGLE provides lots of competition. Microsoft was there first, but never paid much attention to those areas. BA and Air France made sure that no-one else could operate Concorde planes, but at least they developed them jointly. I am very sad that SIRIUS was ALLOWED to buy out the competition and thus remove their public spectrum from us. NOT NICE.
Anyway, I will continue base car use, but drop everything else. Attempts to be a monopoly are UN-American, and usually fail, but sometimes survive for years. Look at TICKETMASTER. TERRIBLE. What will happen as technology moves forward?

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:00:02 +0000

I have 4 subscriptions. I called today and they told me that I was to also pay 2.99 for each subscription if I wanted the interent radio
I will keep 1 subscription for one more year and see what happens.
They really have given us the shaft. I guess the side that was saying they would raise prices was right. So much for 3 year freeze

By: George Nelson

George Nelson — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:38:57 +0000

I will start canceling features until I get to the lowest cost possible. If that goes yup, I go back to listening to CD’s and regular radio (fm).

By: Russell Kirsner

Russell Kirsner — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:42:00 +0000

OH HOWARD! I LOVE YOU! you KNOW ILL SPEND $3 a MONTH MORE TO STREAM YOU AT WORK!

The Stock to a Sh*t in the bed…I bought at 2.80…now its not worth toilet paper.

P.S. ARTIE IS FAT

By: Tim Sickler

Tim Sickler — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:40:55 +0000

Be reasonable guys the internet subscription will cost money. A 2nd radio will cost money. Even with your cell phone apps you will not be able to go coast to coast listening to them. This satellite radio is worth the money, with the cost of everything else going up do we not have more important things to bitch about.

By: Pat Barringer

Pat Barringer — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:15:06 +0000

Is it possible to listen to Pandora and/or Slacker on the iPod touch? What about the Blackberry Storm? I would really like to know.

And by the way, the XM Online player really stinks. You can tell no one at that company really gives a crap anymore.