When I bought my new truck back in February of 2021, it came with a free year of SiriusXM. Some of the content is ok, the DJ’s, in general are quite good and I really enjoyed listening to MLB games if I was driving home from Calgary.

Once my free year was up, I continued on a $5 per month plan which wasn’t too bad. Most of the channels play the same mix of music on a daily basis, with little change from day to day and you’d soon learn which artist was which DJ’s favourite since you’d hear them all the time. I tended to listen to Classic Vinyl and Classic Rewind. They’d occasionally play an artist I didn’t like, and it’s simply switch to the other station. They both also played easy too much Beatles and Jethro Tull, as odd as that sounds, SiriusXM has a major crush on Jethro Tull, a “fringe” band, in my opinion, all their songs sound the same, I digress.

So, for the most part, I was happy with them. I didn’t listen to any of the talk shows, Howard Stern is an idiot and I wouldn’t give him the time of day, never mind listen up his drivel. Earlier this year, I tried to listen to an Astros game and my radio told me I was not subscribed. I figured it was an error and ignored it.

Fast forward a few months and I tried to listen again, same message. I checked online and confirmed that my account should include this content and it recommended that I resend a signal to my truck so I did that. No change. So I opened a chat with their support people.

Someone answered almost immediately which was great and tried the same steps that I had already completed, didn’t fix anything. Then he tells me that my account doesn’t include this content. I explained that when I checked to see what I was subscribed to, it was included, he sort of ignored that. I was offered a platinum plan for $8.50 a month, plus fees and taxes, so it would have come out to about $10 a month. Now, I’m not quite sure that I’m getting value at $5 a month, never mind doubling it.

I asked for the platinum plan at the current price I was paying and was told that wasn’t possible. Ok, no worries, I’ll cancel them. The agent I was talking to couldn’t do that, so he transferred me to the cancellation department. Surprisingly, my chat didn’t get disconnected (I honestly figured it would) and the next agent helped me out.

He wasn’t able to offer anything else for the $5 a month I was paying, so I decided to cancel. He claims that my account has been cancelled and that I’ll get a credit on my credit card within 5 business days. We’ll see if that comes through.

I’ve heard horror stories from those who’ve tried to cancel a SiriusXM account, I guess time will tell. With streaming from various sources, playing music from my phone and regular radio, I just don’t see a value in paying for something that doesn’t meet most of my needs. I think I’ll live without SiriusXM, thanks for the music.