WorldSpace Satellite Radio

Warning: This could be a long one, and is on my personal experiences with WorldSpace.

To start with, I got to know about WorldSpace Radio a good 8 years back, in 1998. My dad’s friend was using this stuff, and at that time, if I recollect correctly, it was free. There were 31 dedicated, ad-free channels that were belting out hits from across the globe. I remember my dad saying – “They’ll make it a pay and use service in a few years.”

And it happened! Today, WorldSpace is probably the only popular Satellite Radio Service provider, thanx to their advertisements campaign. I got a receiver for my father last year, July 2005. I’ve had absolutely no issues with the content, or the quality of the broadcast. WorldSpace lived upto their every word. The best content, Ad-Free, from all over the world. Now the number of Channels have increased, and so has the variety.

The way WorldSpace works is like this: They give you a PIN number, which is used to activate the receiver, when you pay for the subscription. The first year’s subscription is free of cost, and comes as a complementary gift with the receiver.

The subsctiption I had ran out this year, in July 2006. There was a grace period of 45 days, by which we had to renew the subscription. I got hold of one of the subscription packages, which costs Rs. 1800 for a year. There was a 10 digit number on it, and the instructions said that I had to call up the customer service, and give this 10 digit number, called R-PIN, to them, in exchange for which I’d be given a 22 digit number, that is to be entered into the receiver.

Unfortunately, for no mistake of mine, the customer service rep gave me a wrong number, which worked fine for 30 days from the date of entry, and later stopped working. Now since the R-PIN number was already used up (to give me the wrong 22 digit key), I couldn’t use it again.

I called them up right away and told them that there was a mistake on their part. The logged a complaint, gave me a complaint tracking number, and told me that they’d get back to me. I’ve been calling WorldSpace the entire of October, once every 3 days or so, asking them for the state of the logged complaint, which is being marked as “Done” without any actions, what-so-ever. Its been a month and a half, and my receiver at home is lying idle, with absolutely no reaction from WorldSpace.

I’m frankly shocked at the way WorldSpace has been attending to complaints, despite the fact that they have a dedicate Customer Service desk, who log a call, and give you a tracking number and do nothing about it promising someone would get back to you ASAP.

I strongly recommend anyone who’s reading this, not to buy a WorldSpace receiver. There’s the option of using FM, or get a PMP. You’ll probably never have to go through such a waste of time and money.

I called them up today again, and have told them that I will not be taking this lightly. Let me see how things proceed.

PS: That’s the end of the article. The following text is to spam trap search engines.

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EDITED 1 (November 22, 2006) – Mr. Adam Barker, SVP posted a comment on the above article. I had eMailed him with all the details, and I have been given a new set of keys by an employee working with the Bangalore office. He has promised that the keys will defenitely work. I’ll check them today. A heartfelt thanks to Mr. Adam Barker, who resolved this issue. Thank you Mr. Adam Barker, thanks a lot.

EDITED 2 (November 22, 2006) – The new number works! Hooray! I’m back listening to WorldSpace!