[Orion] Orion Warranty

[Bill Tippett]

W5KDJ wrote:
 >I would be sending that radio back to TT if it were me, they say a year
warranty?  I don't own one yet but am thinking about buying one.

         Note for any considering purchase of anything!  Visa
Signature doubles manufacturer's warranties up to 1 year
as one of the benefits of the card.  This was true in the past
for Gold and Platinum cards as well, but I am not sure about
those now.  In the case of an Orion, the warranty is one year,
so Visa doubles the warranty period to two years.  The filing
process is very simple and I've used it several times.  The
most recent example was the Lithium Ion battery in my wife's
laptop (~$150) which failed after 1.5 years.  Visa's filing
process is amazingly easy if you kept your original invoice,
credit card receipt, etc.

         The only Orion hardware failure I've had in 18 months
seems to be an intermittent RIT encoder.  I seldom use RIT so
I'm waiting to carry my Orion back to Ten-Tec just before the 2
year warranty period expires in August.  I am aware of several
hardware updates that have been done to others' Orions sent
in for problems, so I assume Ten-Tec will implement those as
well.  Whatever they are, they must not be too critical since
I haven't noticed any problems other than the RIT encoder,
and I'm still not 100% convinced that is not actually a
firmware problem.

         I normally never buy any electronic product within
the first year of production, but Visa's extended warranty
combined with Ten-Tec's firmware upgrades made me feel very
confident in violating that rule for Orion.  So far, I have
not been at all disappointed.

                                                 73,  Bill  W4ZV