USA Today: As Sirius, XM signals merge, customers are confused

[mch]

As Sirius, XM signals merge, customers are confused - USATODAY.com

Thousands of comments, pro and con, were posted on XMFan.com's discussion forums. A former XM subscriber, John Colelli, 45, of Syracuse, N.Y., switched to Sirius because he liked its blues channel better: XM's Bluesville "plays mostly old blues, and that is the reason I dropped it years ago." Blogcritics.org's Mark Saleski railed that the company has "shot (itself) in the foot, if not the heart."

Some, but not all, of the 19 million subscribers received e-mails about the shuffle. "I'm astonished by the lack of communication," says Ryan Saghir, 32, who runs satellite radio blog Orbitcast.com.

Subscribers seem to be most upset about the loss of channels devoted to disco and old-school rap and hip-hop, Saghir says, but the company had to make changes. Saghir, a subscriber to both services, adds, "There is still no other audio service that provides the breadth of entertainment in your car at this time."

And there were satisfied subscribers. By adding Sirius' The Grateful Dead Channel to XM, "they gave me more of what I'm paying for," says Brandon Lowitz, 38, of New Rochelle, N.Y. "How great is that?"

Frank Sommo, 57, of New Providence, N.J., was happy to have NASCAR and Sinatra channels added to XM. "Even though the lineup has been compressed, I still feel there is plenty of variety and good programming for the average listener."

And XM Sirius is listening to complaints. On Monday, Greenstein announced that DJ Meg Griffin of the now-defunct Sirius Disorder channel will host a show weekdays and Sundays starting Dec. 1.

They're going to be getting a lot of complaints. From what I've seen online, a lot of people are posting that they're complaining about the new lineup and wanted to cancel, and were tided over for a few months with free months. This tipped off other people, who either aren't unhappy or don't even listen to the music channels (i.e. Stern, O&A, Ron & Fez subscribers) calling up and complaining just to receive some free months.

 

[styckx]

As Sirius, XM signals merge, customers are confused - USATODAY.com



They're going to be getting a lot of complaints. From what I've seen online, a lot of people are posting that they're complaining about the new lineup and wanted to cancel, and were tided over for a few months with free months. This tipped off other people, who either aren't unhappy or don't even listen to the music channels (i.e. Stern, O&A, Ron & Fez subscribers) calling up and complaining just to receive some free months.

Wackbag is an embarrassment

 

[Jgatie]

Wackbag is an embarrassment

Well I can understand begging for a discount on something most won't listen to for free.

As to the USA today article - meh. Enthusiast's forums amount to about 0.1% of the actual audience and they tend to build moves like this into a catastrophic change. Not a good place for a survey, unless you are looking for quotes to support a presupposed premise.

 

[klingon_master]

I was reading the USA Today Article about Sirius/XM and while reading the comments I got a laugh.

Doc Don wrote: 9h 51m ago

I resent that Nascar is bundled with pornography and I have to pay for that filth just to listen to Nascar races when I am on the road. Well, I will not degrade family values by supporting un Godly, anti-Christian trash.

So, keep Nascar and go out of business!

I'm thinking wow! that is the least of our problems. I think for the people who are complaining or deciding to cancel have done so cause they don't like what happened to the channels. Not because if they want to get Nascar they also end up with Howard Stern and Playboy Radio.

 

[DAB]

Plus if this idiot Doc Dan would have made any effort to look at the programming, he could have gotten the family friend plan with best of Sirius and it woudln't have included Playboy or Howard Stern and he would have saved $2.00 per month.

But then again is this really Doc Dan's fault that Sirius XM has done such a poor job of informing subscribers of what is available in terms of plans.

 

[mch]

Family plan really isn't an acceptable response to these complaints until there's more than one radio that supports it.

 

[Jgatie]

Family plan really isn't an acceptable response to these complaints until there's more than one radio that supports it.

The only acceptable response to these complaints is: Change the channel, doofus! I don't care to listen to (or support) OutQ, Martha Stewart or your Christian stations, but I'm not asking for a refund over it.

 

[snakester]

Family plan really isn't an acceptable response to these complaints until there's more than one radio that supports it.

By the sounds of his complaint he has an XM radio, as he was talking about having to add a package, and because of XM's authorization system, as far as I know all their radios support the family package (someone correct me if I'm wrong here). The guy is just a giant tool. Football and NASCAR are worth the $4 even if you never listen to the other channels that come with it.