has anyone's radio gone "dead" according to tech help?

2 days ago my old Starmate receiver just showed the Sirius logo and would not play any stations. Upon calling tech help they proceeded to tell me that my receiver was beyond the normal 3-4 years that they last and it had simply gone "dead". The ONLY option is to purchase a new receiver. Ironically the subscription had been renewed the previous week and billed to my credit card. Has anyone ever heard that after a few years the radios will suddenly stop working? I thought this was ridiculous...charge $100 for a radio, have it last a couple of years, go dead and require subscribers to purchase new radios??

The life span of a radio varies. I have had customers that had radios last 4 years and some others only last 4 months. There are so many factors that determine how long a radio will last.

Is there a known main cause for these failures? Overheating, vibrations? My Sportster 4 died 2 weeks ago (after 2 years and 3 months), I opened it and didn't find anything obvious.:(

my husband has the sirrus stratus3 he bought it 5yrs ago and it still works today.