I’m almost never in my car anymore, so it made sense to shut down my SiriusXM Satellite Radio account. Ginny normally handles these things, but since it’s in my name, I needed to call them myself. I went through the automated answering thing step-by-step for a while, then it put me through to a real human being. (Whew.) But during the automated program, I think I was told I had to pay some past-due amount. I gave the young man who eventually talked to me live my account number and said I wanted to terminate my account. He said, “For our records, could you tell me why?” I said, “I’m in hospice and I’m dying of lung cancer.” Ginny was sitting close by and laughed out loud at my abruptness. (I was a little surprised by it myself.) He said, “Oh, my God. I’m sorry, sir. We’ll definitely terminate your account right now.” The phone call ended immediately. Now I’m feeling guilty: do I really owe them something? I’ll call tomorrow and see what I can find out. But I’ll only put up with so much of the automatic answering thing…
