I bought a new car and sold my 1994 Mercedes Benz S420 after using a combination of Craigslist, AutoTrader.com and YouTube to advertise my old car for sale.
I had installed an aftermarket XM Radio in my S420 a number of years ago and upon selling the car needed to deactivate that particular XM Radio signal.
Listening to XM Radio on my laptop, I am accustomed to navigating the XM Radio website to select channels and manage my account.
Not having ever deactivated one of their radios, I went to their website’s Frequently Asked Questions section where I was unable to locate any mention of how to turn off an XM radio signal or cancel an XM account.
XM Radio Frequently Asked Questions
I then drilled down into my account’s “Listener Care” section where I thought surely I could deactivate my car’s XM radio unit. After much searching, I concluded XM Radio does not allow its customers to deactivate their radios online.
XM Radio Listener Care
XM Radio cares so much about me and my business they won’t let me deactivate a radio without my first having to call and speak to them about it!
The thought nearly moved me to tears – just not tears of joy…
After realizing they weren’t going to let me go without a fight, I then had the pleasure of speaking with a XM Customer Care representative half way around the world in India.
As their website had directed me, I called XM Radio @ 1-800-XM-RADIO (1-800-967-2346) between the following hours:
Mon-Sat: 8 AM – 11 PM ET
Sun: 8 AM – 8 PM ET
My ‘Listener Care” representative notified me he personally wouldn’t be able to help me deactivate my radio but would forward my call to the appropriate department where they could.
I was then placed on hold for about 15 minutes.
I hung up and dialed back where I told the next person who answered I had been on hold for 15 minutes and had all the “Listener Care” I could handle today.
The conversation then moved to the point where I explained how I wanted to deactivate a radio – not close my account. He then addressed my previous comment by saying the cancellation department can have extended queue times and that he could not guarantee I wouldn’t have to hold for a prolonged period of time again and that it would probably be better for me to call back on the weekend!
XM Listener Care Phone Number
I then asked him: “Can I not cancel an XM radio subscription online?” He said, no.
At this point I told him if he wasn’t able to help me cancel my radio signal right then that I would instead cancel my entire XM Radio account. I also mentioned I would now be writing about my XM Radio experience.
At this point it was obvious our call became “monitored” and I was magically wisked to the cancellation department in under one minute.
I was finally able to cancel the XM Radio in my now ex-S420 Mercedes Benz but not before having to go through 20 more questions about why I was canceling followed by a couple attempts to get me to put XM in my new car even though it came from the factory installed with Sirius.
If you are needing to cancel your XM Radio subscription – Good Luck – you will probably need it.
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