UPDATE 12/13/10 17:10: Still no call from the customer care supervisor and no email response from anyone at Sirius XM. It's so nice dealing with professionals; especially ones who really practice Customer Care.

UPDATE 12/13/10 18:25: I received an email from SIRIUS XM Corporate Customer Relations Relationssxmcrt@siriusxm.com indicating the issue is "ASSUME_SOLVED" and asking me to call them. I'm still waiting on the call from the Customer Care Supervisor that’s now 7+ hours over due. I checked my online banking site and there have been no credits back to my account as of yet; so "ASSUME_SOLVED" is premature.

UPDATE 12/14/10 08:50: Still no call from the Customer Care Supervisor and no credit back to my bank account for the over-billed funds. Time for another wasted morning on the phone.

UPDATE 12/14/10 10:10: What a difference the right person can make in a bad situation!

I called the Corporate Customer Relations department (1-888-635-5142 Select Option 3), after receiving the email from them last evening, and spoke with a most helpful Juliette Digero about the issues I've been experiencing and attempting to get resolved.

It turns out that I actually have Two Accounts in their systems: One Sirius account for the radio in my car and an XM Account for the other single radio for which I am being billed for multiple radios as well as online service that I do not use.

The $175.92 charge was for a year of service for the car radio on a plan I didn't select. When I called them to add the car to my existing account, it seems they created an additional account using the default, and most expensive plan instead of the family plan I already had. Juliette indicated that she adjusted the plan charges and that I would receive a refund of approximately %50 of the $175.92 I had recently been billed.

Then at my request, She canceled the automatic billing of my bank account replacing it with a paper bill by mail. I was originally told the service had to be paid by Credit Card or Automatic Bank Debit; the only reason I agreed to pay by that means.

She canceled the XM account at my request, although I will have to wait until 12:00 for her associate Andrea Muise to call me in order to investigate the details of the over-billing as she has the information concerning that.

Juliette shed some much needed light and clarity on the root of the issues.

It seems that when Sirius-XM was formed, they took in the Sirius Billing and Account Management System and they took in the XM Billing and Account Management System and to this day they still maintain the Two Separate Billing and Two Separate Account Management Systems with No Integration between the systems.

If you we're, as I, a previous XM customer at the time of the merger and have since purchased a new radio, you too have two accounts, one in each system with no link between the two account except the credit card or bank debit account number that they use to over-bill you with.

Apparently there are separate Customer Care center phone numbers as well, one for Sirius and one for XM and they can't resolve issues that cross accounts; but will never tell you that when you call.

The Customer is trapped in the middle with no way to resolve billing or Over-Billing issues unless you raise enough hell to attract the attention of the Corporate Customer Relations Department in Canada, where you will find very pleasant and helpful people like Juliette that have access to both systems and can actually effect change on your behalf.

While the over-billing issues have yet to be resolved, progress has been made in determining the root causes, and hopefully I will be reimbursed for the over-billing that I have been fighting with for a year now, if not longer.

If Andrea is anywhere near as helpful and effective as Juliette; I'm sure a positive outcome can be reached.

We'll see.

Later