Worth buying radio from anywhere other than Best Buy?

LageNomAi

New Member
Mar 30, 2009
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Anyone following my thread of woe below knows my situation. I've seen many people on here rave about the PSP for a radio from Best Buy. TSS offers the radios for $60 less, which is quite the discount and would cover the cost of the home dock, but I can't tell if I can get a warranty (or more precisely, a good warranty) from TSS.

Is it worth the extra money to get the radio from BB so as to get the extended warranty? Or does TSS offer a good enough warranty? Anyone have experience trying to do a warranty exchange through TSS? Any other vendors recommended?

Also, can anyone fill me in on the biggest problems with the SL2, since it seems that all of these devices have their bugs? I'd like to know in advance why I will be tearing my hair out.

Thanks.
 

Kryptonite

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2008
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IMO, TSS is good for replacement parts. If you need a pair of headphones, but don't want to replace the radio, go to TSS. If you need a "something or other part", then go to TSS.

For the initial purchase of the main radio, I don't think Best Buy's PSP can be beat.

Plus, the nice thing about Best Buy is you can open the radio right there and enjoy it minutes after you buy it.

The other nice thing about BB is that my grocery store sells BB gift cards. For every $50 I spend at the grocery store, I get 20 cents of my next fillup. Say a radio (plus the accessories) is $300, then that's an instant $1.20 discount off my next fillup. There is a time limit as to when the gas needs to be purchased, but that discount isn't something to laugh at.

And...since BB also sells Sirius programming cards...I can purchase a BB gift card at the grocery store and use that to buy Sirius programming.
 

nafddur

Member
Oct 18, 2008
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TSS is the only place I'll buy from.

I too buy all my peripherals from TSS. But when it comes to replacing a bad receiver, you just can't beat walking into your neighborhood BB, doing a warranty exchange with your PSP, and having your Sirius programming back again in a matter of hours (possibly even minutes, depending on how far away your closest BB is. I have three BB's within 30 minutes from me).

TSS might have a great warranty exchange program for receivers as well, but you still have to deal with the hassle of shipping and at least a couple days shipping delay.
 

MAJ Badmotherfarker

is drinking a beer.
Oct 11, 2008
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Washington D.C.
I too buy all my peripherals from TSS. But when it comes to replacing a bad receiver, you just can't beat walking into your neighborhood BB, doing a warranty exchange with your PSP, and having your Sirius programming back again in a matter of hours (possibly even minutes, depending on how far away your closest BB is. I have three BB's within 30 minutes from me).

TSS might have a great warranty exchange program for receivers as well, but you still have to deal with the hassle of shipping and at least a couple days shipping delay.

TSS radio has amazing shipping time. This last radio I ordered 2 days ago and it's scheduled to be here today. Plus, Taylor can usually beat any price around. He got me my car XM players for about $100 less than Best Buy and I had it withing a few days ... with 2 free t-shirts!
 

nafddur

Member
Oct 18, 2008
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TSS radio has amazing shipping time. This last radio I ordered 2 days ago and it's scheduled to be here today.

Exactly my point. Missing 2 (or more likely 3) days minimum of Stern shows is unacceptable to most fans. What good is having great programming - let's face it, Stern is why millions of us went to satellite radio in the first place - if you can't depend on it every day?
 

Kryptonite

Well-Known Member
Oct 21, 2008
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Exactly my point. Missing 2 (or more likely 3) days minimum of Stern shows is unacceptable to most fans. What good is having great programming - let's face it, Stern is why millions of us went to satellite radio in the first place - if you can't depend on it every day?

Yeah. TSS radio is good, and it's great having someone to trouble shoot something without all the menus and "on-hold" that Sirius puts you through.

But, being without a radio for a couple days can be a real buzzkill...in the old days, you used to be able to go to sirius.com at least for a temporary fix. :(
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
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Toronto, ON
I use them for Sirius accessories. If I needed a Sirius radio where an extended warrentee was not required, I would also use them.
 

MAJ Badmotherfarker

is drinking a beer.
Oct 11, 2008
8,461
211
63
Washington D.C.
I use them for Sirius accessories. If I needed a Sirius radio where an extended warrentee was not required, I would also use them.

I used to buy exclusively from BB or CC just for the warranty. That's back during the S50 days though, when radios died daily. These new radios don't seem to have the same issues though, especially the plug-and-play. I've gotten over the absolute need or a 3 year warranty at this point. Plus, they're just not as expensive anymore. Used to be $350 for a radio, now it's under $100. Replacing them isn't as daunting as it once was.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Sherbet is NOT and NEVER WILL BE ice cream.
Oct 11, 2008
27,228
13,833
168
Toronto, ON
I used to buy exclusively from BB or CC just for the warranty. That's back during the S50 days though, when radios died daily. These new radios don't seem to have the same issues though, especially the plug-and-play. I've gotten over the absolute need or a 3 year warranty at this point. Plus, they're just not as expensive anymore. Used to be $350 for a radio, now it's under $100. Replacing them isn't as daunting as it once was.


For a PnP, I would not do the BB route. But for anything in the Sirius Portable line ... definatly. Just last night my SL2 has decided it won't start up with the microSD card inserted. If the microSD card turns out to be good, then I may need to take my SL2 back for warrentee work (if I decide I still want that feature).
 

ClubSteeler

Member
Oct 16, 2008
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I hate these threads. Every day I press power on my SL100 and hold my breath. Whew.. It worked again today!!!
 

Ehilbert1

Ooh-Rah!!!!
Oct 13, 2008
4,480
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Columbus, OH
If you buy a SL2 I would only get it from BB or if you plan on lifetiming a radio get it from BB. Aslong as your radio is under that extended warrenty you won't have to use one of your three exchanges and that makes it worth it. No offense to TSS but the BB extended waranty can't be beat and that is they only reason I got a radio's from BB and no TSS.
 

Mrwirez

Member
Nov 10, 2008
66
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57
Pittsburgh
I like TSS radio and have used it for many items but, I bought my SL2 a year and a half ago and already returned two of them to Best Buy. Both times it was my fault. The first time I washed it and the second time I dropped it on my concrete driveway. For an extra $39 dollars I am on my third SL2. After the second time the Geek Squad guy said my warranty was fulfilled and I needed to buy another $39.00 warranty. So I did and got a new radio and four more years of warranty. Apparently my first radio was covered under my factory warranty and the second one was for the extended warranty.. That is good coverage no matter what.. I HIGHLY recommend the Best Buy extended warranty!!

I Break Stuff.. :eek:
 

Vargas

Molon Labe!
Oct 16, 2008
3,426
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Western, PA
Up until recently, there was a CC about 5 mintues from my house so I used to buy all my radio's there with their protection plan as well so I could just upgrade when a new radio came out.

However in the past few years I have bought several items from TSS and they really can't be beat. They always work with you on pricing, they ship insanely fast (so fast that I wonder if they have people waiting with empty boxes to be filled and then they run as quick as they can to the nearest UPS and ship it) and, perhaps most importantly, they fully support these forums and will aways help you if you post here, call them, anything. They're just hardcore Sirius fans that happen to own a Sirius store.

I know the allure of the big box store but I really prefer TSS. The next Sirius portable that comes out will be ordered from there and I will wait the few days to receive it. My SL2 is still going strong so I can hold out or a few days.

Now let's just get that next portable out so I can hurry up and buy it. I want a new toy!
 

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
49,832
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Toledo, Ohio
Exactly my point. Missing 2 (or more likely 3) days minimum of Stern shows is unacceptable to most fans. What good is having great programming - let's face it, Stern is why millions of us went to satellite radio in the first place - if you can't depend on it every day?

2 of the 3 replacements I had through my CC warranty (2 replaced S50's and 1 replaced SL100 took CC more than a week to get back in stock.) So even if you did buy through BB there is no guarantee that they will have it in stock.

Plus, if you think about the $60 savings from TSS and then the $45 for the extended from the BB PSP, you're looking at over $100 extra first cost from BB. That's a lot of clams and keeps TSS in the running.
 

nafddur

Member
Oct 18, 2008
174
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2 of the 3 replacements I had through my CC warranty (2 replaced S50's and 1 replaced SL100 took CC more than a week to get back in stock.) So even if you did buy through BB there is no guarantee that they will have it in stock.

All 6 of my BB warranty exchanges (4 S50's and 2 SL100's) were on-the-spot replacements with either the exact same receiver or the next, latest model.

There is a reason that CC is now out-of-business and BB is going strong - even through both Bush recessions over the last 8 years. There was no comparison between CC's warranty plan and BB's PSP.
 

HecticArt

Administrator
Oct 19, 2008
49,832
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Toledo, Ohio
It must be the local market. I would check to see if BB had them in too while I waited, and once or twice they didn't have them in stock either. But hey, that was great for you! I still had to wait.
 

LageNomAi

New Member
Mar 30, 2009
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I hate these threads. Every day I press power on my SL100 and hold my breath. Whew.. It worked again today!!!

ITA. Until I found this board, I had no clue that I should *expect* my radio to go wonky on a regular basis. Like you, I now hold my breath each day.

For those interested, my radio came back to life and has been running strong ever since. I wish I knew which of the 10,000 things I did actually made the difference but, for now, I ask no questions and simply accept it as is. ;)
 

erock9174

Member
Mar 17, 2009
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Does any know if Best Buy's extended warranty covers issues such as antenna's going bad? cradle breaks ? etc or is it just on the unit itself? Reason I ask is I just bought a Starmate 5 for $99 there and they offered me a $14 replacement plan that covers 4 years. I didnt sign up for it, but they said I have 30 days to do so. I may go back considering half the lights on my Sportster Replay's quit working about a year into it.