The Rhyme is gone...but wait a sec...

BACKSPIN IS BACK!!!

For those of you who have had a ride in my car, you've likely heard me rave about the fact that it came with XM Radio.  At least, I raved until around September of '08.  See, I got the free XM trial with my Nissan Versa, and managed to get so hooked to XM 65-The Rhyme that I decided to subscribe for the full 3-year plan.  Not something I'd normally do, but after a number of months of listening to The Rhyme, I figured that station alone made it worth my while.

Imagine my surprise when I tune in, not a week after subscribing, to find channel 65 missing.  Yup, not switched to another station, not all service disrupted...just my beloved XM 65 was gone.  No explanation, no warning, nothing.  Just poof - gone!  I figured it must be an issue with programming regs or something.  Maybe Monie Love had said something just a bit too afrocentric for public airwaves.  Maybe Courtney Brown had Vanilla Ice on the air and kicked him in the crotch with steel toe boots.  Maybe DJ Shame had gone and done a tribute to Paris after the release of Acid Reflex and the Bush Administration wanted to fight back as their last impotent attempt at throwing their weight obese excesses around.  Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Turns out it was none of these things.  Well, okay, these were all pretty unlikely, sure, but one can hope that if a station is going to go out, it's going to go out in a blaze that's at least almost documentary-worthy.  What can I say, I'm a sucker for storytelling.

It actually turned out that the XM-Sirius merge in the States had ended up spilling over north of the border, and the lineups were being merged.  This, in itself, was not surprising.  I'd figured that would happen eventually, but I wasn't worried - either The Rhyme or Backspin would still be available, and both stations played what I liked hearing on my long road trips.  Instead, they managed to kill both stations!  BOTH!!!  Why would they do that???  That's not where it all ends, though.  They didn't give any notice, they didn't send any messages out, they didn't do anything other than just kill things for both sides.  Unacceptable, right?  Well, fair enough, they're a business and they need to do what they need to do.  I had, of course, the option of cancelling.

Since I was working 4+ all-nighters a week at that point, I was not in a position to call during the week, I decided to email in and request the cancellation.  I stated my reasons politely, but firmly.  An excerpt of my reasons:

I had expected that if the XM/Sirius merger affected channel lineups, that at least one of "The Rhyme" or "Backspin" would remain. Instead, I find that the stations to which I would have listened are no longer available, nor is there any viable alternative on XM Canada that plays exclusive old-school hip hop.

In the response XM sent me a message which contained this:

Programming changes are made for a number of reasons, however a large part of the decision making process is based on subscriber feedback and market research. As the current technology limits the amount of channels that can be offered, the decision was made to remove The Rhyme in favor of other programming.

WTF?  Current technology limits say what again?  You have banks of unused channels, including the one you originally used to broadcast The Rhyme.  Well, okay, maybe I was missing something about how Satellite Radio was set up.  I'll admit, I never really looked into it.  Still, this seemed specious to me.

On a whole, though, their message said to give the new lineup a try.  They even directed me to their site, which said:

Well, alright, I figured I'd give it a shot, just to be fair.  After a week of attempting to try these new stations (and a number of other stations across, literally, all genres they offer...even easy listening!) I had to send them this response:

Dear XXXXX,

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, I have tried to give the new lineup a try, and have found the stations, for lack of better words, painful. The amount of inane chatter, horribly vapid hosts, and generally mediocre to just plain substandard programming on these channels has more than reinforced my decision to cancel my account with XM Radio. I'm far better getting a device which can stream Shoutcast™ stations over-the-air, such as Smoothbeats.com, WeFunk Radio, or even the former shows from The Rhyme and Backspin.

If I could get information from you as to how to cancel my subscription, I would greatly appreciate it. I will definitely keep my eyes open for stations that support my interests in the future, and hope to see programming that matches what I would wish to hear in my vehicle (the primary location where I listen to XM). Should such stations reappear in your lineup, I would more than happily return to XM, but until such time as such stations are reintroduced to your offering, I am forced to pull away. 

My thanks for your understanding and assistance in this matter.

Best regards,
Pradeep Nair
XXX-XXX-XXXX

Harsh, perhaps, but I didn't know how to make it more clear.  Emphasis added for effect, though - I wasn't that much of a heel.  Anyway, they promptly sent me instructions for cancelling, which I finally got around to following today.

Strangely, this is where I get impressed with XM again.  First off, unlike most subscription services, they actually have cancellation as an option on their auto-attendant!!!  This is spectacular in and of itself.  Most organizations will make you go through some sort of crazy complicated nonsense just to get to a live person who then has to direct you to three different departments before they drop your call and make you start all over again, going through the same nonsense 3-4 times before you can actually get someone to help you cancel (Bell & Rogers, I'm looking at you...although even they weren't as bad as AOL).  I was already impressed.  I got someone quickly (I was on hold for maybe 90 seconds) and they took down my info, verified my account, and quickly took down the info as to why I wished to cancel.  They then asked if they could be allowed to check to see if The Rhyme was coming back anytime soon.  I was skeptical, but said "sure, go ahead".  Honestly, I expected they'd come back and say "Sir, we expect that it will come back within the next X months so if you just want to hold on to your subscription until them, blah blah blah."

Not at all what happened.  Instead, they came back and told me BACKSPIN IS BACK ON THE AIR AND HAD BEEN SO FOR A WEEK!  Say what?  Really?  Well, I was momentarily speechless.  But that's okay - Nicole, XM's helpful rep, filled the silence with more good news - they were going to credit me the cost of my subscription for the 5 months I was without The Rhyme!!!  How incredible is that!?  I didn't have to fight with them, argue with them, go from being calm to being irate...none of that.  They just up and went and did what a good customer service organization SHOULD do!  Unbelievable.

Anyway, after all that, I of course kept my subscription.  We'll see if it works out, but for now I'm ecstatic to know that I've got satellite back for my roadtrips.  Thank you XM!!!