New York’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Wednesday against SiriusXM, accusing the satellite radio and streaming service of intentionally making it difficult for its customers to cancel their subscriptions.
Attorney General Letitia James’ office said an investigation into complaints from customers found that SiriusXM forced customers to wait in an automated system before often having lengthy interactions with agents trained in how to avoid receiving requests to cancel service.
“Having to endure a long and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is an onerous burden that no one expects, and when a company makes it difficult to cancel a subscription, it is illegal,” the attorney general said in a statement.
The company disputed the claims, arguing that many of the long interaction times cited in the lawsuit were based on investigations in 2020 and were partly due to the impact of the pandemic on their operations.
The company says many of its plans can be canceled with a simple click of an online button.
“Like many consumer businesses, we offer multiple options for customers to sign up or cancel their SiriusXM subscriptions and, after receiving and reviewing complaints, we intend to vigorously defend against these baseless allegations that grossly misrepresent SiriusXM’s practices,” Jessica Casano- Antonellis, a company spokesman, said in a statement.
AG Letitia James’ office cited affidavits in which customers complained about long waits in automated systems to chat with agents, only to endure lengthy attempts to retain their business. AP
The attorney general’s office cited affidavits in which customers complained of long waits in automated systems to chat with agents, only to endure lengthy attempts to retain their business.
It takes customers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone, and 30 minutes to cancel online, although for many customers it takes longer, the attorney general’s office said.
During 2019 and 2021, more than 578,000 customers who wanted to cancel over the phone abandoned their efforts while waiting in line to be connected to a live agent, according to the lawsuit.
“When I finally spoke to the first customer representative and explained that I had been waiting for almost half an hour, I was immediately hung up on. It means I have to wait again. Another 30 minutes, just to cancel a service I prefer to cancel online,” one customer wrote in an affidavit.
SiriusXM disputes the claims made by the attorney general’s office. Getty Images for SiriusXM
The company said that in 2021, on average, online chat agents will respond to user messages in 36 seconds to 2.4 minutes.
The lawsuit seeks financial penalties, including compensation for the time customers spend online during a cancellation process that the attorney general called “deliberately long.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
