I, probably like hundreds of others, had satellite radio in my company car. When I was "laid off" last December, canceling my radio subscription did not even cross my mind. I have thought about this a few times since then but thought that a refund could not be given; somebody else would receive the benefit of my subscription when they got my fairly new company car.
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Sirius XM stating that they tried to automatically renew my subscription but that there was a problem with my VISA account number. Of course there was, I changed cards last summer, a fortunate circumstance in this case. Thinking that the e-mail might be bogus - who knows the number to call on the e-mail could be to some small island nation in the Caribbean that would charge my phone service excessive rates for each second that I was on the phone; I called Sirius XM directly to see if this was a bogus scam and to officially serve notice that I no longer had this car. Here is what I found:
1) The e-mail was not bogus, it was legitimate.
2) They did try to charge my old credit card for another year of service without contacting me first.
3) Select Service is about $142.00 per year.
4) If you no longer have a company car where you had a subscription to satellite radio, they will give you either a pro-rated refund or they can transfer service to a personal car if it also has a satellite radio
5) At my request my account has been canceled. They are escalating my case to see if they can get me a refund for the 7 months of service that I paid for someone else to enjoy satellite radio. I don't expect a refund, I should have called back in December.
In any event, if you are laid off, this is another thing you have to deal with. If you were laid off back in December and you did not cancel your subscription, it may have renewed automatically using your personal credit card or it may be renewed in the near future. Given our economic situation, I don't think many of us want to pay $142.00 a year for someone else to enjoy the radio in a car we no longer have, so here is one more thing to add to your "To Do" list.
PS - Novartis should have added this to the check list of things we needed to do when we were closed out.
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Sirius XM stating that they tried to automatically renew my subscription but that there was a problem with my VISA account number. Of course there was, I changed cards last summer, a fortunate circumstance in this case. Thinking that the e-mail might be bogus - who knows the number to call on the e-mail could be to some small island nation in the Caribbean that would charge my phone service excessive rates for each second that I was on the phone; I called Sirius XM directly to see if this was a bogus scam and to officially serve notice that I no longer had this car. Here is what I found:
1) The e-mail was not bogus, it was legitimate.
2) They did try to charge my old credit card for another year of service without contacting me first.
3) Select Service is about $142.00 per year.
4) If you no longer have a company car where you had a subscription to satellite radio, they will give you either a pro-rated refund or they can transfer service to a personal car if it also has a satellite radio
5) At my request my account has been canceled. They are escalating my case to see if they can get me a refund for the 7 months of service that I paid for someone else to enjoy satellite radio. I don't expect a refund, I should have called back in December.
In any event, if you are laid off, this is another thing you have to deal with. If you were laid off back in December and you did not cancel your subscription, it may have renewed automatically using your personal credit card or it may be renewed in the near future. Given our economic situation, I don't think many of us want to pay $142.00 a year for someone else to enjoy the radio in a car we no longer have, so here is one more thing to add to your "To Do" list.
PS - Novartis should have added this to the check list of things we needed to do when we were closed out.