(NEW) B.o.s.e. Smart Soundbar 300

I did not buy this soundbar from Amazon, but I have owned it for over a year. Everything was fantastic for the first few months. The sound is incredible, it's easily the best soundbar I have ever owned as far as sound goes. My problem is that it just does not work most of the time. Like if I ever DON'T have to say a little prayer and cross my fingers before turning it on, if it just works right away just as it's supposed to, THAT surprises me now. I legit have trouble getting it to work 99% of the time. I am not exaggerating even a little bit. I turn my TV on, I turn the soundbar on...and nothing. No audio at all. Originally I had it connected to my TV via the HDMI cable. After a few months of working perfectly, it stopped powering on when I turned my TV on (I had CEC enabled on my TV and the TV remote turned the soundbar on with the TV). I did not make any changes to my TV settings, I still had CEC enabled, I still had the audio set to come through the soundbar. I began turning it on manually with the Bose remote, and it worked after that. That did not last long, pretty soon turning it on manually with the remote stopped working. The soundbar was powering on, the lights were coming on, there was just no audio coming through it. I started having to try different combinations of things to get it to come on with my TV or even manually - I tried turning the soundbar on before I turned the TV on, that worked for a day or 2 then that stopped working. I tried changing settings in the Bose app, changing the advanced CEC settings, anything I could find that might make it work. No luck. I WAS still able to cast music from my phone or my laptop to the Bose soundbar, it just would not work with my TV. Eventually it stopped working altogether and I contacted Bose for help. They had me do some troubleshooting and together we were not able to get it working again. They had me send it in to them for a repair. That took over a month, and I sent it back in the original Bose packaging (I didn't have anything else large and secure enough) and they sent it back to me in a funky beat up generic brown cardboard box. I was very disappointed by that, I like to keep my packaging for expensive electronics such as this. Anyway, whatever, now I don't have the box anymore but the soundbar is working! They said it was a "software update" issue and that it was fixed. And it DID work perfectly again for a whole week. Then it started doing the same thing, refused to come on with my TV, no audio from the TV. Only this time I could not even get it to work by casting to it from my phone and laptop. It was a $500 paperweight. I tried hooking it up via optical audio cable, and this fixed it! For a whole day. That quickly stopped working too. I feel very defeated and I hate this speaker. I'm not sending it back in to them for another repair, that was a waste of time. I still have it connected to my TV via optical audio cable and EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. this speaker frustrates me so much that I just want to cry. It's completely insane how hard it is to find the magical combination of fiddling with it that will make it work. It's not even the same magical combination of fiddling every time, like whatever works tonight will not work tomorrow to get this thing to work. I have the best luck when I unplug the power cable and the optical audio cable and then plug them both back in right before turning my TV on, but even that only works some of the time. I genuinely loathe even attempting to use it, like I feel sick in my stomach just thinking about trying to use it. It has been such an awful experience. I had a $79 soundbar that I used for 5 years before I got this Bose soundbar, I never had a single problem with it whatsoever. The sound was not the best but it WORKED. I thought upgrading to a Bose would be such a positive experience for me and I gave that cheap soundbar away. I have so many regrets. I don't have the money to buy another brand at the moment but as soon as I do this thing is going in the trash where it belongs. I absolutely do not recommend this soundbar.