Jan 23, 2008

I am NOT a stupid person but...

I don't believe I've ever had to deal with a company like Sirius Radio before. Oh...my... God... I called today because our new car came with Sirius Radio and the initial free six months subscription is almost up and I wanted to renew it. We have one "receiver" in the house, and I'd just bought a one year subscription for that ($142), and now wanted to add a second "receiver", which the web site states will be $6.99 a month. Sounds SO simple, doesn't it? After a confusing initial automated voice "menu" I finally arrive at a customer service rep. I told her what I wanted, provide my account number, provide the ID number of the new receiver and told her I wanted a year's subscription... and (drumroll)... how much would it cost? "Well," she says, "What they do is take the cost of your first receiver and divide that between the two receivers." "So, " I respond, "You're telling me that I will get each receiver for half of what I paid for the first receiver... in other words, the second receiver is free?" "Oh no," she says. "A one year subscription on the second receiver is $77.00." "OOOOOk...." I said. "So it will cost me $77.00 to add the second receiver for one year?" "Well, if you divide the first receiver's subscription in half, it will actually be $55.00 for the second one," she replies, AS IF I'M STUPID. I'm starting to get confused. "So it will be $55.00 for a one year subscription for the second receiver?" "Well, Ma'm," she says. "That depends on what kind of car it's in and the plan the dealer picked out." "What?!?! I thought you just said it was going to be another $55.00." "Well, I can't tell, ma'm, until I actually put your receiver ID number into the system and find out what kind of car it is." "Miss," I TRY and say with respect,"Are you actually listening to yourself? So far you have told me the second receiver is going to be free, it's going to be $55, and it's going to be $77. Let's try this again, shall we? Can you please just put the information in and tell me how much the second receiver is going to cost me for one year?" "It will be $83.00, ma'm." THUD.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am actually kind of following her at first with the $77. Maybe she was thinking of your 2 home receivers, adding the additional charge, and then dividing it by 2 for a "per receiver" charge.

Where she lost me was the $55. It sounds like she was confused about you renewing the car, adding the additional receiver, but already having recently bought the year's subscription for the 1st home receiver.

Unfortunately, I have dealt with many companies like this, mostly at my job and many people like this, owing to my experience at Kinko's. You just have to state your question in a different way (or several different ways), just like you did.

I wasn't impressed with the format of their website, either. It wasn't very customer friendly. Fortunately, the radio itself is fabulous!