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Harsh, but it is what it is.Three of my four years with Sirius, I have been lucky enough where I've had family/friends want to pay for my yearly subscription as a Birthday/Christmas present. He assured me it wouldn't be, and transferred me to customer care.At customer care, I spoke with an associate who assured me my account would be frozen, it would go into invoice billing, and I simply had to just wait for the Gift Cards to arrive in the mail. His credit card was double charged, and at the beginning of January when my plan renews, I was also charged. Once again, a few days into January $150+ was withdrawn from my checking account (renewal price). Sirius even refused initially to refund the overdraft fees from the bank.
We both called Sirius and the issue was not resolved for more than a week.The second issue was a similar issue. They both contacted Sirius and asked if there were Gift Cards or Certificates that could be used towards the subscription. Before I called Sirius back to redeem them, I checked my checking account. The first time a family member called Sirius, paid for the year with his credit card, and we thought it was set. That was what they did.On December 30th I went to redeem them. To rub extra salt in the wounds, it will take 7-10 days, my checking account is now frozen, and I have no way to use it right now.
A friend and a family member wanted to pay for my subscription. I stated that my account was set to renew in a few days and this would be a problem. The hardware and product they give you daily is phenomenal.That being said, dealing with the company itself, specifically over the phone, is an absolute nightmare. I'm now in my 4th year with Sirius. I'd say the average I.Q. Both were told by Sirius operators that the easiest way was to purchase Egift Certificates, which are sent directly to the recipients email with a code to redeem them. Problem this time, I had just paid a bunch of bills out of my checking and it overdrafted my account. A week later the Gift Cards arrived.
I had a bad feeling but decided to go that route. So to put it simply, don't ask for your subscription to be paid for as a gift, and avoid dealing with Sirius directly. A family member called Sirius, provided a credit card, and paid for the year. The utter incompetence of most of the customer service people is staggering.
The associate told me I could use the Egift credits and buy Gift Cards from the Sirius shop and have them sent to me. You will not want to return to regular radio again after a couple days of Sirius. Sure enough once again Sirius charged me already for the yearly renewal. Not happy again, we had to haggle over the phone for a few days to get it rectified.This brings me to this year.
Problem is they are only good towards Sirius hardware and cannot be used for subscriptions. Luckily I document everyone I speak to. As far as the radio and the daily service, it is absolutely awesome. They admitted fault initially, but then began to change their stance and stated that I never had the Sirius account frozen. I was furious and called Sirius once again. This might actually be my last year with them because of this. It is nothing but a hassle that probably will cost you days of problems. I was disconnected by the first two associates, the third was yawning into the phone, and finally the fourth try I got someone who could help.
is around 25. To top it all off, I still never got an apology from Sirius. Obviously b/c of past issues. I called Sirius to take issue. I finally spoke with a supervisor who agreed to refund the fees and subscription price. Good luck if you have to deal with them.
Radio works great. Had a little bit of trouble getting signal initiated, but after that I use it every day.
I live in a relatively flat rural area of Pennsylvania and purchased the SIRIUS Stiletto SL100 Portable Satellite Radio Receiver almost two years ago to use when working outside. It is lost as soon as you walk under a tree, behind a telephone pole or God forbid a butterfly flys overhead. It has been a major disappointment primarily because of the poor reception. The headphone antenna is mandatory to obtain any signal, but even with the headset I am only able to get intermitent reception. It is primarily designed for the creative listener that likes to hear every 10th measure of a song or intermitent pieces of a game and mentally fill in the rest. It doesn't sound like the new Stiletto 2 is much better.
My clock radio doesn't have input jacks so I mounted a car kit stand on top of it and used the transformer plug from the home kit to power it. I had sirius built into my car stereo, and an old portable sportster I used in my other vehicle with a car kit. Outside It worked great on the beach in northern Wisconsin and in the virgin islands. I had 2 home docking stations in the house, but I could turn on any radio in the house or listen with a portable FM radio outside up to 50 yards away(cutting the lawn). The stiletto barely sends a signal 5 feet. I wear it walking and the signal is great unless the canopy of trees is very close on both sides. The headphones are a pain, but I got used to it.
I'm not the type to generally review products, but the Sirius S10 was so remarkably bad, that I thought the least I could do was add my two cents here for other potential buyers. What the other reviewers say about the earphones and signal issues is absolutely correct---I cannot conceive what value a "portable" satellite receiver has that is virtually incapable of receiving any signal, and then when it does, loses it if you happen to move the wrong way. Unless you plan on installing an outside antenna and using the device for stationary listening, you're much better off with a standard MP3 player that includes an FM receiver.
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