SiriusXM Static: NY Sues Over Cancellation Policies

The office of New York AG Letitia James on Wednesday filed a lawsuit asking the entertainment company to be forced to pay several thousand dollars in fines for each violation of the state’s law against deceptive business practices, change its subscription cancellation policies and repay any customers who've tried and failed to cancel their subscriptions since Jan. 1, 2019.

James said the company, which offers access to subscriber-only satellite and streaming radio channels for between $13.99 and $23.99 per month, maintains a "deliberately long and burdensome cancellation processes" designed to frustrate customers.

Customers can't cancel their subscriptions without calling or chatting online with an agent, the lawsuit says, and SiriusXM has allegedly trained their customer service agents to "not to take ‘no’ for an answer and to keep bombarding customers with questions or offers until they either relent or become frustrated,” James’ office said in a statement.

James alleges the business practices violated multiple New York state laws that require companies to provide subscribers with "with a cancellation mechanism that is simple, timely, and easy to use."

SiriusXM told Forbes the company offers a “variety of options for customers to sign up for or cancel their SiriusXM subscription” and said it intends to “vigorously defend against these baseless allegations that grossly mischaracterize SiriusXM’s practices.”

By signing up, you accept and agree to our Terms of Service (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and Privacy Statement. 30 minutes. That's how long it takes, on average, for a customer to successfully cancel their SiriusXM subscription online, according to James's office. It takes an average of 11 ½ minutes to do it by phone.

As subscription services for entertainment, home goods, books, pet products, workout wear and more ahave become more common, so have laws surrounding how companies can operate their subscriptions, change fees, recruit subscribers and allow customers to cancel.