A little more than a month ago, I made a big change in my routine. I cancelled my subscription to Sirius XM and switched to pretty much podcasts only for my daily commute.
In reality, the change was not that drastic because I had slowly drifted away from satellite radio into podcasts over the past few months. As I noticed myself switching the connection to my XM receiver less and less, I could use the monthly fee for something else.
When I called to cancel – you have to call to cancel, no online option – I prepared myself for a hard sell. A lot of skepticism still exists about the viability of satellite radio so I figured they would do whatever it took to hold onto a customer.
All I got was a half-hearted attempt to get me to buy the online package. No discounted rate. No free month. No effort to keep someone who has subscribed to the service for more than nine years. Apparently, they’re OK with their position.
So am I. Even though I enjoyed a bunch of the stations, I don’t miss satellite radio at all. I created a special playlist for when I drive long distances with my wife – she has much different taste in music than I do, something which the satellite could mitigate. I have more podcasts downloaded than I can fit into my two-hour daily drive. I even drug some old CDs out of storage to put into the car.
Others who have cancelled their service warned me I would start to get offers in the mail to renew my subscription. So far, bupkis. This hurts my feelings. Why don’t they like me? Are they mad I hadn’t upgraded my receiver in about five or six years? Do they think I’m fat?
In the end, it doesn’t matter. I might take up a good offer if I could cancel before the full rate kicked in. Or I might pass altogether because I have a new routine in place. I’m just a little surprised that they let go of a subscriber that easily.
My daily commute is now ten minutes since Ben’s school is closed for the Summer and his camp is close by work and home. I wonder how much longer I’ll keep going with it.
You’ll get some offers eventually. I used to have a subscription in my car (canceled maybe 3 weeks ago) as well as a portable so I could listen in the house, office (no streaming media allowed on the work network), the park, etc. For the portable, eventually the satellites shifted enough that I couldn’t get a get enough signal as the window points east. I occasionally still get info in the mail about that subscription but since I don’t have the receiver anymore it doesn’t do me any good.
So now I just listen to either the radio via my phone (TuneIn or iHeart) mp3s at the desk, or podcasts. If you have ever watched the show on HDNet called Drinking Made Easy, they also have a podcast out that I thoroughly enjoy.
I listen to Bill Simmons, a bunch of the Grantland ones, PTI (since I never catch the show itself), a few soccer ones, WTF and the Sporkful.
How rude! My bet is that they didn’t do their homework and had no idea you were a nine-year customer. That’s messed up.
You deserve more! …What podcasts are you listening to?