Canceling XM Radio

If you want to cancel your XM Radio subscription, don't bother going to their website. You can't cancel from the site; they make you wait on the phone and ask permission from a real person.

And don't try calling the number that the site lists for cancellation requests. After 10 minutes on hold, they'll tell you the department you called can't process cancellations.

No, instead, just call (800) 998-7900 to cancel XM Radio. That's the unpublished number that you get only after jumping through all the hoops. You still have to wait on hold for 10 more minutes, of course, and then listen to a script monkey try to talk you out of it.

Some reasons for canceling:

• Their website doesn't support Mozilla Firefox -- inexcusable for a product that's still in the early-adopter stage.
• (Slightly circular reasoning) As I described above, XM follows the cell-phone carrier mentality of making it as painful as possible for their customers to perform costly actions, such as canceling their service. Don't support companies that have attitudes like this!
• The real reason I canceled: In December they replaced my favorite station, Luna, with Nashville Christmas. Good grief.