XM Satellite Radio Unauthorized charges Washington, DC 20002 Washington District of Columbia

This happened to me as well, twice! After the first year's subscription was up, XM charged my original debit card for another year subscription, without ever notifying me or asking about renewal. I only noticed it when my account was overdrawn. I called and complained, at which point they were to switch my billing to "invoice only" which the customer service rep explained meant they would not be able to automatically renew my service. By the time another year was up, we had switched banks. I never received an invoice or bill in the mail and about 2 months after the subscription should have run out my XM radio stopped working. I called XM to resubscribe and was told that they had tried to charge my old debit card but it was declined. I explained that was because I had changed banks, and I should have been an "invoice only" customer, yet I never received an invoice. I paid with my debit card for another year, and checked the box on the statement that should have made me an "invoice only" customer.I also told the woman on the phone that I would be canceling after a year. She never told me I had to call a specific number at the end of the year to cancel. Again, after a year XM attempted to charge my card but again we had switched banks. The radio stopped receiving signals after a few months. Four months after that, I received a notice from Credit Collectors of America (or something similar) that they were attempting to collect a $77 debt on behalf of XM!

When I contacted them, they were so rude and nasty-they refused to tell me why I owed them, only that XM had sent it to collections! I called XM, who told me they had not sent it to collections. REALLY! THEN WHY IS A COLLECTION AGENCY CONTACTING ME AT HOME? When I asked why I never got a bill, they said XM doesn't send bills even though I told them I was supposed to be an "invoice only" customer. CCA continued to harrass me even when I told them I hadn't even received a statement.

At one point, the CCA employee hung up on me, after screaming and yelling about I needed to pay this bill, even though CCA said I needed to clear up the issue with XM. Remember, I had never received notification from XM prior to this that I owed them anything! At first XM insisted that I was responsible for paying for the whole year of service (from Dec to Dec even though they shut it off in February and this was now August), and then insisted that I pay for the 2 months I had received even though they were in error for continuing the service without ever contacting me once! The employees at XM were so rude. They kept telling me to cancel you have to call them (even when I already told someone I was canceling at the end of the year?), I should have paid XM before (how can I pay something when I've never gotten a bill?) It was so frustrating and time consuming! Then I went online and discovered all the devious billing practices of XM and found a great website-www.creditinfocenter.com-they helped me draft a letter to CCA basically bringing a legal aspect to it.

I have not heard from XM or CCA since-and I never paid a dime. I know it was only 20 some $ (after XM agreed I should only pay for the months of service they had never shut off!), but it's the principle. XM knows a lot of customers are just going to cough up the $, just to get them off our backs. The form letter I sent was found at :
www.creditinfocenter.com/forms/sampleletter9.shtml
Hope this helps-we have to fight the big companies together b/c no one else is worrying about the little guys!