Girl friend has a 2008 Sebring, the Radio in the car quit working,

I was on E bay going to go buy a radio, and the ads all say You may have to take the car back to the dealership to have the replacement radio reprogrammed for the car.

I have never heard of anything like this before.

Has any one ever heard of this?

Thank you

I can't answer for a 2008, but:
When the AM/FM/cassette in my '96 Breeze quit, I got a used OEM AM/FM/CD, swapped it in, and it worked fine.
Eventually it was on its 2nd such unit (3 in total) when I sold the car a month ago; they'd just quit after a while.
Never had to do anything but the swap, but it could be that the newer ones were keyed to the car's VIN for theft reasons.
We used to run into that with BMWs back in the late '90s.

Yes, common on newer cars. Wait for one on eBay to show up with the 4 digit code, or there are websites, free and paid that can come up with a code for you.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=2008+Sebring+radio+code

It's because that everything electronic is controlled by the computer. It has to recognize the radio with the vehicle VIN associated with it.

Many newer cars require the stuff to be programmed to the car.

Technology progress.