Comments on: It pleases me to see Sirius XM telemarketing calls in my spam folder

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 20:52:00 +0000

If tjpf didn’t register with Sirius s/he technically hasn’t done business with Sirius, s/he’s done business with a car company. That’s why when they attempted to pester me via phone, my threat worked.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:52:00 +0000

If you’ve done business with them in the past six months, they’re allowed to call you. They can also call if they pretend that they’re not trying to sell you something.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:30:00 +0000

That’s when they start calling you. If you’re not on the federal Do Not Call (www.donotcall.gov) registy, get on it today. The one thing that swiftly ended the calls was my promise to take them to small claims if they called just one more time.

By: Tina Clarkson

Tina Clarkson — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:02:00 +0000

make sure and send the snail mail back ‘return to sender’ this costs them a fortune in returned mail fee’s. BTW, what happens when new owner activates the radio, if they still have your card details will it start charging your card for their listening pleasure? I’ve heard of that happening before.

By: tjpf

tjpf — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:48:00 +0000

Bought a new truck 3 months ago which included 6 months of Sirius/XM. I never registered with them and don’t plan to, just enjoying my free 6 months. (I’ve only found 4 stations that really appeal to me.) They do send me snail mail, likely the result of the dealership giving them my name and address. We’ll wait and see if their plan of attack changes as the 6 month date comes up.

By: m_gonyea

m_gonyea — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:46:00 +0000

“Hey, This company is annoying me (I say they are’nt but it’s obvious that they are) so I’ll purchase their product again! That’ll show ‘em!

By: Coderjoe

Coderjoe — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 07:27:00 +0000

For maximum effect, make sure you include the "intercept" SIT tones at the beginning, so the telemarketer computer thinks the phone company is telling it the number is out of service.

By: nixiebunny

nixiebunny — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:44:00 +0000

If they choose to annoy 500 people a day to earn a living, then they get what they deserve. Surely there are other unappealing jobs that don’t involve annoying 500 people a day, like all the work that our vast population of illegal immigrants performs.

By: James Kimbell

James Kimbell — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:18:00 +0000

In theory, they could make quality shows. In theory.

By: James Kimbell

James Kimbell — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:16:00 +0000

I’ve heard “vegan” used to mean “completely inoffensive” a few times recently. It’s an interesting linguistic, you know, thing.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:05:00 +0000

Really. Dozens of people apply for a single fast food job. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t have a full-blown welfare state. If you don’t have income, you don’t get social housing guaranteed for life. You live in an abandoned car or sleep under a bridge.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 21:04:00 +0000

So there’s genuinely a surplus of cold-calling jobs, and no others?

I know the job market is shit out there, but come on.

Not that I want to blow this put of proportion, it’s not like they’re TSA agents or soldiers, but there’s a world of difference between there being no other options, and no other options that appeal to someone (no cleaners? Waiters? Bar staff? Retail monkeys? Medical testing?? Or the flip side, customer service?). A good friend of mine was out of work for a while, it sucked. She went for a sales based interview – something like cold calling, and I think she said something to the effect of “I’d rather be homeless than work there”. And she meant it.
Personally I’d rather go off the grid and live on potatoes than coldcall confused old ladies and sell them shit they don’t want or need.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:35:00 +0000

There are plenty of crappy jobs that dont involve pissing people off.

No. There aren’t. Not in the US.

By: PO Admin

PO Admin — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:33:00 +0000

If you have VOIP and are able to respond to Sirius XM calls with a recorded message, try one that says, “Hi, you’re through to Sirius XM customer services. All our operators are busy right now … etc” Follow that spoekn message with some suitable hold music.

They find it very confusing!

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 20:07:00 +0000

Yep. One week of listening to XM and I’ve heard everything I want to hear. Twice.

By: Peter Green

Peter Green — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:26:00 +0000

So what you’re saying is, the Sirius XM Corporation are a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

By: wrybread

wrybread — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Ok I’ll bite. Maybe because you want to listen to new (to you) music?

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:18:00 +0000

I hear Godwin calling.

Your rationalisation relies on there being 0 jobs apart from this. There are plenty of crappy jobs that dont involve pissing people off. It’s just most people would rather wear a suit than a McDonald’s uniform.

By: Talia

Talia — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 15:53:00 +0000

It’s true, one does always have the choice of employment vs. losing one’s home and living out on the streets. Very astute. :P

Sometimes you gotta take what you can get. No, there isn’t always a better option.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:39:00 +0000

Also that the variety is nearly nonexistent on there.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:38:00 +0000

What about registration and inspection time? Or do they not care until you get arrested?

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:36:00 +0000

And if you want to be a true asshole find a an Ayn Rand objectvism speech.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 12:36:00 +0000

Everyone has th choice to choose their employer. These people choose to piss of innocent people so they can earn minimum wage, that’s their rationalisation, it’s not a defence.

The same could be said for many scummy jobs, it doesn’t make them not scummy.

By: traalfaz

traalfaz — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 11:03:00 +0000

I think that’s why satellite radio is on the ropes. They came into being just in time to be rendered largely pointless by other emerging technologies. If you have good signal to your phone everywhere you drive, there’s no need for satellite radio.

By: Eric Rucker

Eric Rucker — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 10:56:00 +0000

What you do is disconnect the antenna for the radio, before cancelling.

Wait a couple years. (This works best if you keep cars very long term, or use an aftermarket receiver.)

Plug it back in.

Voila, you’ve now defeated their DRM without even doing a real hack.

(Previous owner of my car cancelled his satellite radio service when he sold me the car, but I never bothered to plug in the receiver… decided to play with it, and found that it still worked because it never got the kill signal, and after a year or two, the kill signal isn’t sent any more.)

By: Peppermint

Peppermint — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:06:00 +0000

Because of course people who work in call centres can afford to choose their employer…

By: RJ

RJ — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 08:39:00 +0000

I opened my Sirius account back in 2004, when the only modular radio offered was the Brix Streamer. I finally closed the account in March or April 2011. Somehow, they managed to give me a big “screw you” at the end: when I re-upped my account a couple of years ago, I apparently missed the bit in the contract that said I’d be charged a fee for discontinuing service without warning. So they nailed me (I think it was around $20-30, IIRC) with that fee. It pissed me off so much that I swore that was the end of my relationship with those sleazy jerks at Sirius. I’d rather listen to the empty air than waste a dollar on those skeevy con men.

By: Dave Pease

Dave Pease — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 06:51:00 +0000

ok but just because its useless to you doesn’t necessarily say anything about the service. lots of people out there don’t have usb sticks full of stuff. lots of people out there don’t even know what cbc radio is much less listen to it.

By: Robert Drop

Robert Drop — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 05:22:00 +0000

I get calls about “refinancing my mortgage” all the time, too. Only, I’ve never had a mortgage, so they’re just fishing.
On the other hand, my bank keeps trying to call me at a phone number I’ve not used in 20 years. Nothing seems to solve the problem.

By: Robert Drop

Robert Drop — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 05:19:00 +0000

This sort of behavior would seem to be a pretty compelling reason to never do business with Sirius XM in the first place if people actually knew about it.