SiriusXM accused of trapping customers in unwanted subscriptions in New York lawsuit

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — New York's Office of the Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM, accusing the company of trapping customers in subscriptions.

New York AG Letitia James said in a statement released Wednesday that SiriusXM forces customers to call the company or chat online with a representative to cancel a subscription. She added that the process is intentionally long to stop customers from canceling.

According to James, SiriusXM representatives have been trained to "not take 'no' for an answer when customers try to cancel."

Through their investigation, New York's OAG said it also found agents are trained to keep customers on the phone when they try canceling subscriptions using a "lengthy six-part conversation." During that conversation, authorities said agents make as many as five retention offers to keep customers.

The OAG also found that while SiriusXM can cancel a subscription with a "click of a button," or allow subscribers to do it themselves, customers can spend much longer on the phone or online trying to end their plan. James pointed to multiple SiriusXM customers who reported spending almost an hour trying to cancel subscriptions — some of whom were still charged afterward.

"Consumers should be able to cancel a subscription they no longer use or need without any issues, and companies have a legal duty to make their cancellation process easy," said James, who accused the company of violating state and federal law, and of engaging in fraud and deception.

In a statement to CNN, SiriusXM called the allegations "baseless" and said it plans to "vigorously defend against" them.