NY Attorney General Sues SiriusXM Over Illegal Subscription 'Traps'

New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, is waging a legal battle against SiriusXM for making it intentionally difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions.

James lamented her experience with the famous radio broadcasting company and cited the complaints of other customers, calling the practice "illegal."

SiriusXM is the home to Howard Stern's hit radio show, "The Howard Stern Show.

James, the 67th Attorney General of New York, took to Twitter to announce her grievance and lawsuit against SiriusXM. "@SIRIUSXM illegally traps people into subscriptions with a long and burdensome cancellation process," she began her statement.

"It even tells its agents to not take "no" for an answer when customers try to leave. Companies can't mislead people out of ending their subscriptions: I'm suing," the politician declared.

Per reports, the Attorney General filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming that an investigation into customers' complaints discovered that SiriusXM forced its subscribers to be on hold in an automated system before having often lengthy interactions with agents.

She alleged that the agents were trained to subtly avoid accepting a request to cancel service. In a statement after the lawsuit, the 65-year-old politician said:

"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."

The attorney general's legal team cited affidavits where customers lamented being kept in an automated system for a long time before being transferred to chat with an agent for more lengthy periods. According to James' legal team, it takes subscribers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone, and 30 minutes to cancel online, with some subscribers claiming it takes far longer.

Per one customer's affidavit, "When I finally spoke to the first customer representative and explained that I had been waiting nearly half an hour, I was promptly hung up on. Which means I had to wait again. Another 30 minutes, just to cancel a service I would have preferred to cancel online."

The lawsuit reportedly stated that over 578,000 subscribers seeking to cancel by telephone abandoned their efforts while waiting in the queue to be connected to the live agent between 2019 and 2021.

Following James' lawsuit, a company spokeswoman, Jessica Casano-Antonellis, released a statement denying any wrongdoing.

"Like a number of consumer businesses, we offer a variety of options for customers to sign up for or cancel their SiriusXM subscription and, upon receiving and reviewing the complaint, we intend to vigorously defend against these baseless allegations that grossly mischaracterize SiriusXM’s practices," it read.

The organization also claimed that in 2021, on average, online chat agents responded to consumer messages within 36 seconds to 2.4 minutes.

The Attorney General's lawsuit has seemingly resonated with many who took to social media to blast the broadcasting company. One fan wrote, "YES!! Thank you!!! I will never forget my experience with them (free trial/new car purchase). They kept charging me, wouldn't take no for an answer & even started to bully and belittle me when I asked them to stop charging my card. I will never deal with that company again."

Another similar remark read, "Hooray. They are ruthless. Other countries have laws that force them to cancel easy. However, you still have to put up with the hard tactic discussion but can be done. The US needs more laws to protect people, not corporations. Well done AG James."

More comments read, "I was trying to cancel my subscription back in 2017, I had to tell the woman on the phone 5 times that I wanted to cancel, after each time she offered a different deal. I was so angry."

Others, however, believed the lawsuit was a waste of resources. One critic penned, "I canceled with no problem when I switched vehicles. Maybe try focusing on real crime for a change."

Another declared, "Also I canceled with them and it was not a hassle or big deal. Maybe you're just being dramatic. Calm down."