Sirius Canada Axes Lifetime Subscriptions
Posted by Reid on 23 July 2009
19 Comments
In a perverse celebration of the nation’s birthday Sirius Radio Canada decided to stop the issuing of lifetime subscription services effective on July 1st 2009.
The news may come as a surprise to many fans of the satellite radio corporation, especially as the discovery of this move skirted conventional press releases and was mainly brought to attention through customers phoning to renew their subscriptions.
A member of the Digital Home Forums detailed a phone call to the Sirius Canada customer service department where a representative informed them that the lifetime subscription service had been cut in order to be replaced by the pricier, month-by-month option.
[Via Digital Home Forums]
Reader Comments
are you people screwed up.why did you do this? as soon as my current membership is over, i will probably be sending my system back to you covered in axle grease, so you can give it to upper management to shove up their anal cavity, HARD. i have been accumalating finances so i could purchase the “lifetime option”, but that has been shot to hell.
The decision by Sirius Canada to disallow further Lifetime subscriptions is especially a slap in the face for those, like myself, that purchased receivers and radios that would accept Sirius. In April I was PROMISED, GUARANTEED and again ASSURED that delaying connection until August or more likely September would not impede my ability to do so even though purchasing the the radio from Sirius Canada. An unfair decision in this case and hopefully will have someone in the organization change their mind until I have exhausted all avenues after spending all these monies. I enjoy listening on my car radio but was hoping to have in the home but not unless a Lifetime subscription.
i too got screwed, i activated one reciever on june 25th on lifetime, phone back on july 10 th for my other two and told no longer offered. I would have activated them all in June if i knew that , but wanted to wait to put them on the next CC bill.
We r the children in that commercial,with that red truck, then the creep hands us the card board version of the truck and the kid says this is a piece of junk,I want the real truck. Naked dishonestness and missleading aproaches to bussiness is quite a hallmark of service. Most of their material is american junk. On their material it has the nerve to say,Made In Canada. What a laugh. Anyone talking to the CRTC about these slimmy bastards. I bought a car with their radio. The radio worked fine. I was at first quite turned on by their service. This was in early June 09. Took a long drive to Terrace BC from Calgary AB. Noticed that all programs repeated,many times. Usually radio in northern B C is nil,but with sirius you r fine. Got back to Calgary and told Sirius that we were considering,lifetime,but seeing that we lived in mexico for 6 months we wanted to know if their service worked in southern Mexico. They told us,there is no service in Mexico. Drove to my second home in Cabo and all radio stations work loud an clear. Contacted Sirius via Skype told them I’m ready for their lifetime pack. Sorry no such thing. Huh? What? Give me that red truck and stop this nonsence.
Got a six month trial with new car. Called in to subscribe. Had to call in three more times after that as radio would suddenly stop working. They needed to “send a signal”. Jan 2010 radio stopped again after car was serviced. Called in to try to get it straightened out..on hold 30 min. By email I am told they have no record of my previous calls! There is something very wrong with this company..I am mystified subscriptions are up so strongly.
My 1 year sub is up in April, if I can’t get lifetime this time.. I’M GONE!
I’ve had a receiver for 5 years now (started with an American Subscription and transfered to Canada) and was planning to buy the lifetime membership this year. No lifetime option equals no customer.
Called about the lifetime subscription when the free 1 year term on my car radio was up. Was told that it is no longer available. Nice Notice SIRIUS>>>> I asked to speak to their VP of Customer Service and was refused. What kind of company does not want to hear feedback from thier customers? What kind of company changes subscriptions without notifying their existing subscribers? What kind of company has a VP of Customer Service that is nameless? What kind of company promises to get back to thier valued customers in 24 hrs when you send them an email…and then does not? I have been waiting for 2 days for someone to call me back to discuss how angry I am that I am not able to purchase the lifetime subscription. I’ll tell you what type of company…the type that does not care about thier customers, the type of company that would rather have their calls filtered by customer service agents that are too afraid to give you the name of the VP of Customer Service because he or she does not want to hear from their customers. Sirius Radio is the absolute opposite of customer service…more like customer dis-service.
Ok.. I have had sirius for the past 5 years. Since I bought it at Lordco the activation was for the US… finally this year I decided to do the upgrade to the lifetime in Nov 09 since I recieved a email saying my service would run out soon.
I Called and told them hi… I have had sirius for five years I always paid one full year at a time and had no credit card on account because I do not like surprise billings… If I want to pay another month, another year etc I will call.. in the past they always honoured this but this is what i was told when i called….
They told me that my service doesnt end soon it already ended… I said oh well the email says it ends next week.. they said no.. I owe them 3 weeks if I want to buy the lifetime.. I explained to them that I only pay in advance and in fact not only do I not want them to assume I am keeping my business in the future it actually has a note on my account not to give me radio I dont pay for .. in other words when it runs out shut it off… he said its not our policy….
Anyway, I tried the next in command.. writing corporate etc with no help from anyone so the radio sits in my tacoma with no service cas they refuse to take my lifetime plan money….The employees are worse than useless when they turn away subscriptions to cover up their mistakes…. I hear you can still ha ck the rodie , One more legit try for me and other options will be tried instead
No lifetime? — then I will never give them a dollar.
Bring back the lifetime subscription and you will get another customer… until then… cya later.
Bought a new car 3 months ago, dealership activated sirius acct. Today 3 months to the day ,click, reception terminated. Discussion with other customers, they had been approached by mail with promtions offering significant savings to continue service. I did not. Contacted sirius really got the runaround, put on hold did not return after 20 mins ie. dumped. Called back again same runaround. Would not provide number or transfer me to Customer Service or Public Relations. Stated they do not do mailouts for promotions. Given to another agency. “Maybe I will get an offer when they get around to it”. AMAZING way to operate. Keep it up and we all will be in possesion of a radio and no program supplier if they keep this up.
It says right in there terms and conditions that theres a lifetime subscription for the life time of a receiver!!!
e) Lifetime Subscription Plan. A “Lifetime Subscription” is one that continues for the life of the Receiver equipment. Amounts paid for Lifetime Subscriptions are nonrefundable after the first year of service. If you cancel during the first year of service you will be charged a cancellation fee.
I am quite dissatisfied with this decision and advised them of this in a recent Customer Service survey Sirius sent to me. I will see what (if anything) becomes of my feedback but in the meantime, I will definitely NOT be recommending Sirius radio to any friends or acquaintances of mine. For a business that has been through the financial woes they have, I would have expected customer service to be an all time high priority for Sirius to at least maintain the loyalist of past customers. Personally, I feel I have been slapped in the face with their current practices.
Bad move folks. What you should have done was offered the lifetime to your existing subscribers. I was told I could subscribe to the lifetime later and now, I have had to activate one on monthly and the second in my ford truck that the free portion will be coming to an end….well lets just say I have to think on that, I may not subscribe. I will definitely NOT be recommending Sirius radio to any friends or acquaintances of mine.
Contract terms…
e) Lifetime Subscription Plan. A “Lifetime Subscription” is one that continues for the life of the Receiver equipment. Amounts paid for Lifetime Subscriptions are nonrefundable after the first year of service. If you cancel during the first year of service you will be charged a cancellation fee.
Glad I googled this. When my radio subscription runs out in Oct. I am not renewing. Bluetooth audio streaming internet radio on my phone FTW.
Goodbye Sirius, It was a fad and it’s time has come!
I am also disappointed in this decision. I have other options via my blackberry now and will certainly be entertaining them in lieu of the lifetime membership removal. If this changes let me know and hopefully my wireless option has not turned out to be a better provider. Losers… oh by the way I assume this came about only with the union of XM an Sirius. Is this move in any way collusion and does it break any competition laws? As I understood the US Sirius stopped its Lifetime memberships also. I think it is worthy of the attention of Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs. I will CC a copy of this posting.
I got a lifetime subscription way back when.using it at home.
also have in 5of our cars. selling one of them this week and wonder how difficult it will be to cancel my subscription.
I imagine they will be THRILLED(!) as it will mean that the buyer of my car has to be a “new” customer(ie–more $$$ for Sirius!)
This will be very interesting.
John on 6 july 2010 wrote:
I got Sirius in my car on year ago and when the service was up i contacted Sirius customer care to upgrade my service to a lifetime sub. A Sirius agent told me the lifetime plan is not longer offered. I am planing to cancel my service as soon as possible and this is for sure.
I pay monthly but a friend of ours got the lifetime a little while back when it was still offered. They’ll probably offer it again for a limited time. Just keep your eyes/ears open.
I don’t know where you can get quality radio that matches Sirius. $15/month or whatever isn’t enough $$ to complain about… but a lifetime deal would be sweeter.