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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 utter incompetence of most of the customer service people is staggering. Once again, a few days into January $150+ was withdrawn from my checking account (renewal price).
Good luck if you have to deal with them. The first time a family member called Sirius, paid for the year with his credit card, and we thought it was set. 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. 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. So to put it simply, don't ask for your subscription to be paid for as a gift, and avoid dealing with Sirius directly.
I had a bad feeling but decided to go that route. This might actually be my last year with them because of this. 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. Not happy again, we had to haggle over the phone for a few days to get it rectified.This brings me to this year. A family member called Sirius, provided a credit card, and paid for the year. is around 25. I'm now in my 4th year with Sirius. The associate told me I could use the Egift credits and buy Gift Cards from the Sirius shop and have them sent to me.
They both contacted Sirius and asked if there were Gift Cards or Certificates that could be used towards the subscription. A week later the Gift Cards arrived. We both called Sirius and the issue was not resolved for more than a week.The second issue was a similar issue. As far as the radio and the daily service, it is absolutely awesome. 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. Problem this time, I had just paid a bunch of bills out of my checking and it overdrafted my account. 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. They admitted fault initially, but then began to change their stance and stated that I never had the Sirius account frozen.
That was what they did.On December 30th I went to redeem them. You will not want to return to regular radio again after a couple days of Sirius. Sirius even refused initially to refund the overdraft fees from the bank. I called Sirius to take issue. I was furious and called Sirius once again. Before I called Sirius back to redeem them, I checked my checking account.
Luckily I document everyone I speak to. It is nothing but a hassle that probably will cost you days of problems.
To top it all off, I still never got an apology from Sirius. 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.
I finally spoke with a supervisor who agreed to refund the fees and subscription price. I'd say the average I.Q.
Sure enough once again Sirius charged me already for the yearly renewal. Problem is they are only good towards Sirius hardware and cannot be used for subscriptions.
His credit card was double charged, and at the beginning of January when my plan renews, I was also charged. Obviously b/c of past issues.
Had a little bit of trouble getting signal initiated, but after that I use it every day. Radio works great.
It is lost as soon as you walk under a tree, behind a telephone pole or God forbid a butterfly flys overhead. 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 doesn't sound like the new Stiletto 2 is much better. 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 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.
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 wear it walking and the signal is great unless the canopy of trees is very close on both sides. 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. The headphones are a pain, but I got used to it. 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.
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. 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.
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