A friend of mine read my post about Sirius and gave me his horror story with NO-Customer Service.

He has service with Sprint so he bought a laptop with an enbedded wireless card serviced by Verizon.

Well, he wanted to try the service so he signed up for the trail period. His dumb butt did not cancel it before the 30 days as a matter of fact he allowed it to go delinquent 90 days.

Anyways, he called to try and pay and cancel the service but to his surprised part of the initial signing up he was automatically locked into a 2 year contract with an early termination fee of $165.00. Ouch!!!!

He went back and forth pleading his case. It was his understanding that you would only get locked into a contract if you were given a device. Part of the promotion and logic behind a 2 year contract is to offset the discount (sometimes free) device when you sign up. The device actually costs $400 but they give it to you for $99 with a 2 year contract so they can spread out the balance. You ultimatly pay for the device. The problem is that Verizon (or any other phone service) continues to get paid on the device after 2 years!! What a scam.

He thought because he did not need a device (service only) that he would not be locked into a 2 year contract.

To his surprise, in order to use Verizon’s service he will be locked in a 2 year contract regardless if he provides his own equipment or not.

The moral of the story is – READ YOUR CONTRACT or take advantage of the promotion to get a free or discounted device.

So while doing some Christmas shopping I was in the electronics section and needed some help. There was no one around so I pressed the “Help” button. There were other waiting so I was patient.

Then 3 people came and instead of having a “May I help you” attitude they had a “Why are you bothering me?” one.

There were 2 people inside their little register area helping others when a third came in. I had a simple question and since I was the one to initiate the “Help” button, I felt it was fair that I be next.

This is where I felt I had “No Customer Service”. As soon as I started to ask the question (because if I would wait until they made eye contact with me and ask “How may I help you?” Hell would have already have frozen over I took it upon myself to initiate the question). They lady immediately held up her hand and didn’t say a word. Am I a canine???? What the heck????? I am a humane being and you are at work… You are getting paid to help people. I had no idea you were helping anyone else. A simple, “Sir, I will help you in a minute” would have been awesome!!!

Ok, so I really like Sirius Backseat TV because it provides me 3 awesome channels (Nick, Cartoon Network, and Disney) I wish it gave me ESPN that would be epic.

Well, I had a message on the screen that said to call to subscribe (assuming my subscritption had ened and I needed to pay for another year) so I called the toll free number on the screen and first off. I HATE THE MENU SYSTEM!!! It never recognizes what I am telling them (phone number). It won’t let me input it via key pad. They ask a billion questions and when I finally get to speak to someone, they freakin ask me the exact same questions again!!!! How stupid is that!!!!

I understand why, the automated menu system tracks who is calling and what for. SImply for logging/tracking purposes for corporate. They failed to share the initial information to the Live person so they have to ask the exact questions again.

Anyway, my issue was never resolved. The first time I called a lady kept referring to the system as BACK STREET when it’s Backseat. An hour later my service was not working so

CALL #2 Went through the horrible menu system again and spoke to another person who said to turn the system off as well as the car (mind you I’m on the highway going 70mph) and he would refresh the signal and in an hour it will run again.

Call # 3 – the next day the system was still not working. So I called a third time and again having to go through their insane menu system that is worth crap. and Finally a competent person answered and knew exactly what to do.

My point is that the menu systems that companies such as Sirius, XM radio, DirecTv, Comcast, and all banks suck because it’s an ordeal just to talk to someone live.