Since this is the week I've gone dark, I figure I can write about some random stuff on my mind.

So here's one that frustrates me...Sirius Satellite Radio. I thought about titling this post, "Sirius Sucks" -- but that is only partially true. Here's my story.

• My wife bought me a Sirius Sportster 2 radio for my birthday in June. Being a geeky guy, I was pretty happy.
• I spent about $400 additional to get it hard-wired in one of my cars, and to purchase a 1-year subscription in order to bring the monthly price down a little bit.
• I LOVED it for 2 months. I'm a news junkie and talk radio junkie--especially on long trips in the car. Also love several of their music stations, including Revolution-67 and Sirius Hits-1. But, that's where the love affair ended.
• In mid-August, the radio started malfunctioning. Over a series of a week, I spent over 3 hours waiting on hold and/or talking to someone about the problem. When they finally agreed my unit was malfunctioning, they said they'd send another.
• They informed me, though, that they didn't have any and it would be 4 to 6 weeks before they could send me one. I informed them that there were hundreds of units down at the local Circuit City (where I purchased the unit), and surely I could run down there and swap it out. Nope--doesn't work that way.
• So, I waited. Eight (8) weeks later my unit arrived in the mail. The good news: It was an upgrade (Sirius Sportster 4). The bad news: It doesn't fit the mount that I had hard-wired in the car for over $200.
• I called them back to let them know I needed a different mount. They said they couldn't do that, unless of course I wanted to send this new radio back and wait for the older version. Of course, they said it might take several weeks to get it.
• So, now I have a working radio that I can't use in one car. I paid $200 for a mount and wiring that I was able to use for a total of 2 months. And I was without a radio for 2.5 months while I was paying for the subscription.

So does Sirius suck? Not their content...it's actually better than XM (in my opinion). However, the strength of a company is in how they stand behind their product and what they do to keep their customers happy. So my suggestion--don't buy Sirius.