Caught In Subscription Maze With SiriusXM? Audio Entertainment Firm Faces Lawsuit Over Cancellation Process

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. SIRI SiriusXM Radio, Inc. has been sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James for trapping consumers in unwanted subscriptions.

The audio entertainment company has also been criticized for maintaining deliberately long and burdensome cancellation processes. 

An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that SiriusXM forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy to prevent subscribers from canceling. 

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The OAG also found that the company trains its agents not to take "no" for an answer when customers try to cancel, making it extremely difficult and frustrating for consumers to end their subscriptions. 

"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," said Attorney General James. 

The OAG opened an investigation into the company after hundreds of consumers reported to OAG and other agencies that they could not cancel their subscriptions.

According to SiriusXM's own data, it takes subscribers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone and 30 minutes to cancel online, although it takes far longer for many subscribers, as per the statement by the New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The OAG's lawsuit also alleges that SiriusXM engaged in fraud and deception by misleading subscribers seeking to cancel. 

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Price Action: SIRI shares are trading lower by 1.65% to $5.360 on the last check Wednesday.

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