SiriusXM sued, saying the Attorney General’s NY Claims Service made it difficult to cancel

New York’s attorney general sued SiriusXM, accusing the satellite radio and streaming service of intentionally making it difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions.

Attorney General Letitia James’ office said customer complaints show that SiriusXM forces subscribers to wait in an automated system. That was before the often long interactions with agents trying to convince her not to cancel.

“Going through a long and frustrating process to cancel a subscription is a stressful burden that no one looks forward to, and making it difficult for companies to cancel subscriptions is illegal,” the attorney general said. said in a statement.

SiriusXM denied the claims, arguing that any delays were due in part to the impact of the pandemic on their operations. The company said many of its plans can be canceled online with a simple click.

“Like a number of consumer companies, we offer our customers several options to subscribe to or cancel their SiriusXM subscription, and upon receipt and review of the complaint, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless allegations that SiriusXM’s practices grossly misrepresent.” “Jessica Casano-Antonellis, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a statement.

The attorney general’s office said it takes subscribers an average of 11.5 minutes to cancel by phone and 30 minutes to cancel online, though it takes much longer for many subscribers.

According to the lawsuit, in 2019 and 2021, more than 578,000 subscribers who tried to cancel over the phone abandoned their efforts while waiting in line to contact the live agent.

“When I finally spoke to the first customer representative and explained that I had been waiting for almost half an hour, they immediately hung up on me. This meant I had to wait again. Another 30 minutes just to cancel a service I chose to cancel online,” one customer wrote in an affidavit.

The lawsuit seeks financial penalties, including compensation for time customers spent online while the termination process was what the attorney general called “deliberately protracted.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.