As soon as Cash for Clunkers clanked to a stop, I bought a new Ford Explorer.

It came with built-in Sirius satellite radio and a free subscription for a few months after which I had to pay for the service or lose Sirius in my new Explorer.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And, since it’s such a good idea for both Ford and Sirius, you wonder what could go wrong.

Well, something could. And did.

Apparently it never occurred to anyone at either company that someone might already be a Sirius subscriber, someone like me.

I’ve been with Sirius for years. Then, suddenly, I had two accounts. Sirius automatically renewed my old one for a year and started sending me letters and emails about my new one expiring any day now. For some reason, I’d thought the Ford dealer would handle all this.

Foolishly, I started by writing back to Sirius with all the details: dates, account numbers, what I wanted them to do, etc. No response.

I emailed them a few weeks later. Nothing.

Finally I bit the bullet and called them. It’s like calling hell. Wait, wait and wow, how those fifteen minutes flew by. Didn’t feel like more than four or five hours. Finally, a young lady took my credit card info to save my about-to-expire new account.

Great. Now how about cancelling my old account and refunding my money? “Oh, you have to talk to billing about that. I’ll connect you.”

“Wait!”

Too late. She was gone. (You’d think Sirius would have music on their wait lines, wouldn’t you?) Three years later, I hung up. A few weeks after that, another letter arrived reminding me that my free trial Sirius account – the one I’d already paid for – was about to expire.

If it wasn’t for the 24-hours jazz channel, Sirius 72, and Larry the Cable Guy on 103, I’d have cancelled the whole mess. Despairing, I wrote another letter and asked Sirius to call me. A week later, a guy did call and he amazed me by straightening everything out and arranging the refund.

I think. I hope.

The “customer experience” reminded me of the farmer watching the single track railroad out back of his yard. A train came from the east and another came from the west. Head-on collision. A reporter asked the farmer what he was thinking when he saw the trains heading for each other. “I was thinking that’s a hell of a way to run a railroad.”