Sirius STILL sucks, green thumb

Last night when I got home it was raining.  I had planned to go out and till the new soil into the garden but I certainly didn’t want to do it in the rain.  Luckily the rain stopped 15 minutes later so I decided to venture outside.

I first dumped my 9 bags of compost and garden soil around various spots in the garden.  I then snapped on my new tiller attachment to the weed whacker and got busy.  I tilled in two perpendicular directions to loosen the soil as much as possible.  I followed up with the rake to even out the furrows created by the tiller.  By the time I was done I had two nice planting areas on either side of the garden with a small path down the middle.

By the time I was done sunlight was fading but I decided I wanted to get some stuff in the ground.  I wound up planting almost everything that was edible including onions, lettuce, swiss kale, two varieties of tomatoes, and two varieties of peppers.  By the time I got done it was after 7 and almost pitch black.  Everything I planted only took up one side of the garden, I am not sure what we will plant on the other, possibly one of the fruit shrubs we got. (blueberry, black berry, raspberry)

You may recall in mid-October I changed my one Sirius subscription that was due to expire in the end of November from a yearly plan to a monthly plan.  My thought process is if Stern does not renew with Sirius I will be cancelling their service immediately so I didn’t want to be locked in for another year. The rep that handled my request said that once the year on that radio expired November 24th I would be switched over to month to month billing.

So imagine my delight when I have an envelope from Sirius in the mail yesterday.  I open it up and pull out a bill with an orange flyer that has in big letters YOUR PAYMENT IS PAST DUE IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!  I was PISSED as I glanced over a bill that showed I owed them $12 dollars and change.

I immediately got on the phone and after a typically annoying 10 minute wait got somebody. I explained that I was not supposed to see a bill until my current year subscription expired. The rep said that when I called in before they switched me immediately to monthly billing. WTF, that was not what was supposed to happen.  The rep apologized and said that she could not fix the problem, I had to be transferred to billing.  I asked her if I would have to wait another 10 minutes to talk to someone in billing because I had stuff to do.  She said no, it should be immediate.  Well after 5 minutes of dead air I hung up and resisted the urge to throw the phone against a hard surface, f’ing idiots.

So first thing today I call back Sirius.  I once again explain the situation to another customer service dude.  In addition to being annoyed about being billed before I should have been I mentioned to the guy that I saw Sirius tries to charge customers an EXTRA $2 if they want a paper invoice sent to them. That wasn’t going to fly either.

So after typing in all of my complaints I am once again told that I have to be transferred to billing.  I told the guy I was put on a dead air hold the night before.  He said he will transfer me directly.

So after a brief hold the phone is answered with an Indian accent.  I thought to myself “They didn’t just transfer to f’ing INDIA for the billing department….” Yep, they did.  I had to try to explain my problem to a robotic, hard to understand, Indian.  He basically tried to reiterate that I saw the charge because it was the result of my request to switch over to monthly billing.  I had ZERO patience at this point.  Being transferred to India to put the issue to bed enraged me.  I cut him off mid-explanation with “Please transfer me to the cancellation department”

Once again I am ported back to the United States.  Evidently if you are ready to cancel you are good enough to talk to someone that speaks English natively, if you need your bill corrected you get marble mouthed Indians.

For a third time I explained the background.  I said I wasn’t going to pay a penny before my year runs out November 24th and there was no way I was going to pay an extra $2 a month for a bill. The woman understood my frustration and did her best to accommodate me.  She waived the charges that were showing on the account and gave me 2 months of the monthly service for free so I shouldn’t see a monthly charge until December.  I gave her my CC info once again so they can bill the card directly to avoid the invoice fee with the understanding that I was not committing any more than one month at a time.

It will be interesting to see if what I was told will actually take place.  I will not be at all surprised if I have to call them ranting and raving in a few weeks.  Sirius just sucks, plain and simple.