BUFFALO, N.Y. — The State of New York filed a lawsuit Wednesday against SiriusXM, accusing it of making it intentionally difficult for its customers to cancel their subscriptions.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday that the satellite radio and streaming service is drawing out the cancellation process, saying the company forces consumers to "call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy to prevent subscribers from canceling."
James' office also said SiriusXM trains its agents to not take "no" for an answer from consumers.
“Having to endure a lengthy and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden no one looks forward to, and when companies make it hard to cancel subscriptions, it’s illegal,” James said in a statement released Wednesday.
“Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy. New Yorkers can trust that when companies like SiriusXM try to take advantage of them and violate the law, my office will step in to stop them.”
The state is seeking restitution and penalties from SiriusXM, which has 35 million subscribers. Approximately 2 million of them are in New York.
"According to SiriusXM’s own data, it takes subscribers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone, and 30 minutes to cancel online, although for many subscribers it takes far longer," James' office said.
"Subscribers often spend substantial time waiting to be connected with an agent, with wait times that regularly reach more than 20 minutes for online chat agents."
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