Boy, you gotta love the 33% increase I had to pay to renew my sub last week!
- Thread starter beaniemac
- Start date
Yeah, probably. Bending over to the RIAA isn't the best solution, but from a business financial standpoint, what's the better solution?
a) Pass on more and more your base fee, thus cutting in to what you keep?
b) Create "service" fees. This raises the price, but you get to keep 100% of your base fee.
I suppose the other solution would be to divide it like this:
Sirius keeps $10.95
RIAA gets $1.50
Sales taxes get $0.50
Base price = $12.95
I know they didn't have a choice, but what I don't like is how they hide the real increases by making up BS "fees". If it is not optional to the consumer then it is part of the base price, I don't care what percent goes to what expense. I would be happy to not pay the RIAA fee and get no music channels but that isn't an option. This is all about keeping their alleged "base price" the same to comply with the FCC conditions of the merger, and so that they can advertise a lower price. I know a ton of other industries also do this (ticketmaster, airlines, cell carriers, cable companies, etc...) but that doesn't make it any less dishonest.
Right on! I agree with you 100%
They simply hid the price increased into so call add on fees.
There is no doubt they pay the RIAA royalty fees, but for years they ate the fees as part of the total price, but suddenly they decided they could no longer do it.
No I doubt we'll ever go back to having Sirius XM without these add on fees, because their agreement with the FCC forced them to do the add on fees rather than just raise rates. Otherwise, I think we'd all be looking at $14.99 per month for the primary account with no add on fees other than the BOS or BOXM.
Just like TicketBastard. They have all of those "service fees" "Venue charge" "handling" etc.
Funny, I always thought those were what I was paying for the ticket for. . . .
Funny, I always thought those were what I was paying for the ticket for. . . .
After I buy a ticket from them, I feel like I've been handled. . . if you know what I mean.
IdRatherBeSkiing
Sherbert is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
If SXM starts charging a "Convenience Fee" like TicketMaster then I'm going to smash my radios and start downloading the Stern Show!
I'm glad I have my one Sirius and one XM radio lifetimed. Those fees suck and what sucked even more was paying for the Internet streaming. I'm glad mine were included. When they started with the fee BS I canceled my other radios. It just wasn't worth it.
I know someone on here said that prices for everything is going up. Thats true but atleast when DirecTV raised my bill by $3 they added a lot of HD channles and lots of updates to our DVR's. I don't mind paying a little more when they give back in return. What has Sirius/XM added? Not a damn thing. Infact they took away the free streaming and charge us for it. They haven't added anything in quite a while and it sucks that people pay more for way less. I understand they need to survive. I get that. They just need to add more value to the product if their going to take things away and raise prices.
I know someone on here said that prices for everything is going up. Thats true but atleast when DirecTV raised my bill by $3 they added a lot of HD channles and lots of updates to our DVR's. I don't mind paying a little more when they give back in return. What has Sirius/XM added? Not a damn thing. Infact they took away the free streaming and charge us for it. They haven't added anything in quite a while and it sucks that people pay more for way less. I understand they need to survive. I get that. They just need to add more value to the product if their going to take things away and raise prices.
If SXM starts charging a "Convenience Fee" like TicketMaster then I'm going to smash my radios and start downloading the Stern Show!
Personally, i'd sell my radio, make a bit of money off it and use that money to my enjoyment...but that's just me.
DirecTV also launches satellites every so often. In fact, they're getting ready to add new channels, if they haven't done so already. (Last I checked, the satellite was in orbit, but being tested.)
SiriusXM can't do this. Four or five satellites, as opposed to two or three doesn't mean more channels.
Now if they wanted to add some previously-deleted channels back to their internet lineup, i'd be all for that.
DirecTV also launches satellites every so often. In fact, they're getting ready to add new channels, if they haven't done so already. (Last I checked, the satellite was in orbit, but being tested.)
SiriusXM can't do this. Four or five satellites, as opposed to two or three doesn't mean more channels.
Now if they wanted to add some previously-deleted channels back to their internet lineup, i'd be all for that.
Ok but give us something. Quit charging more and taking things away.
And, of course, the reason they have to itemize it is because they agreed to a price-freeze on their rates. When they had the language put in that they could pass-on royalty fees a year after the merger, a person had to know what they were going to do and that they weren't agreeing to a true price-freeze. Have to give the company credit....they've done a good job over the years exploiting the gray areas of rules.
What I'm waiting to see is what they do with the rates once the price-freeze expires on July 29, 2011. Do they raise rates and if so, will the royalty fees be included, or will the royalty fees remain an additional charge? Or do they totally re-structure the rates and packages?
My bet is that the prices go up a bit and the other fees stay on as extras. They may package the prices as a total fee, but they will show the breakdown like your phone and cable bills.
Wasn't there a limit on the amount of radio swaps you could do during the "lifetime" contract? I think you could only replace the radio twice? and then the "lifetime" sub was cancled. I have been though 4 or 5 radios since 2003.
I think it is three, however if you can convince the call rep that it is a warranty swap, they should waive the swap.
That sounds about right. I thought they just upped the swap fee if you did more than three. I don't have lifetime, but slightly remember paying $15 2 of the 4 times I replaced radios.
My sister has a radio and it broke on her. She went and bought a new one called to have it swapped out and they wanted to charge her $15. She was pissed and just canceld and took back the radio. That was the first she ever tried a swap. I don't get it charging for a swap if your radio is broken. They would rather lose a subscriber than swap out a radio.
Thank god Sprint doesn't do that with cell phones. I've had two break on me and I had to replace them.
Thank god Sprint doesn't do that with cell phones. I've had two break on me and I had to replace them.
