The Joys of Customer Service! Or How to Drive a Tumbleweed Insane

Without satellite radio this trucking thing would be a lot harder.  So it's probably not a good idea that I harass the people at SiriusXM Radio with annoying emails but I can't help it.  They won't bend to my will and admit that I'm right and I just won't let it go.  A gal's got to have principles.

Satellite radio is a real boon to those of us who crisscross the country on a daily basis.  There are a gazillion music channels, 3 (three!!) NPR channels, the BBC, talky and comedy channels and a trucking specific channel.  When we got into trucking 10 years ago, we started without it and that well and truly sucked.  Searching for a radio signal every fifteen minutes and losing the station just when you start getting into the song or show was supremely frustrating.

What I'm saying is that I like it and don't want it to go away, but at the same time I want them to admit that I am not crazy.

Never!

Here's the problem:

There is a show that comes on the weekend at a certain time on the trucking channel.  Sometimes we can hear it and sometimes we can't. When we can't, the channel plays a recording that says that channel is scheduled to be off the air at this time.

This is a pure lie.

The SiriusXM Radio website channel lists the show.  The shows website lists the show and I have called the show while it was on (when we can't hear it) and the producer said that the trucking channel gets preempted for football or whatever stupid sport is being played at any given moment.  The stupid sport stuff is sucking up bandwidth or some such.

So I write a harmless little email to lodge my complaint.

Aside:

I once wrote a letter to a company demanding my money back because by my math they owed me some, but in reality they did not.  That little incident made me gun-shy about letter writing but this one has no math, so I feel pretty safe.

Anyway.  They responded to my complaint with a form letter telling me how much they appreciate my input! and that I should check their website for the latest information and program line-up.  Because I'm paranoid and think everything is my fault, I check online (again) to see if indeed all the information I could ever want is right there on the screen, if only I was smart enough to find it.  And again, I see that the program is listed at the time and on the channel that I think it is.

What really gets me though, even more than the fact that they do not address the problem, is that at the bottom of each of their responses is this:

Status: Resolved

It's like they're just trying to provoke me.

So I write back.  Each time.  After about the fifth time, I sent them the following.  (I'm sure they are going to give me a lifetime subscription now!) 

Dear Elma,  (there has also been a Pamelle and Americk. Note the obvious robot names)

Are you trying to drive me insane?

Is it SiriusXM Radio's policy to make a simple question seem the most difficult, rocket-surgery complex thing on the planet?

As of this moment, 6:13 pm eastern time your website says that ATBS Business and Beyond on channel 106 is on NOW.

Also at this very moment, some geek in a recording on channel 106 states that this channel is scheduled to be off the air.

How can both be true at the same time?

Is this like quantum physics or string theory, because I don't understand those things either.

You know what really gets me, Elma?? That every response from SiriusXM has a status as resolved and yet it is not.

Perhaps the company is being run by robots and not humans and that is why I keep getting responses that don't come close to answering my question. It is the only logical answer. But that doesn't mean I'm giving up!

A computer won on Jeopardy! and I feel certain you can do something as simple as answer my question.

Ever Hopeful,
Ms P.

A lone tumbleweed blows across the desert,
yearning for customer service support.