Gripes About Stereo Installers

[Troy711]

I have had a bad experience with an installer on my ute. I had just bought it and was itching to get my stereo installed. I went to autobarn to buy some splits and while i was there i decided to get a quote on getting just the deck, cd stacker and splits installed. The price was $230. I said to the guy that i would call them the next day and let them know if it was a go ahead or not. As i was going back to my car i stopped off at BDL car stereo in belconnen (ACT). i got a quote from there which was $10 cheaper. 'Thats a better price then autobarn gave me' i said to which the guy said 'well we are cheaper, and we will do a much better job too'. All sweet i think to myself and booked it in for the next weekend. The reason i booked it in was cause i figured that they installed car stereos for a living so i figured that they would a top job. so i dropped the car in and was told it should be ready around lunch time. I went to see a movie and as soon as i walked out of the cinemas i got a call telling me it was ready. So i picked it up. i drove home, not paying much attention to the install job cos i figure i would have a good look when i got home. Upon closer inspection i notice that there was a 5-7mm gap above the surround of the deck. i wasnt too happy. Next i noticed that they had jammed the thing in so damn tight i couldnt even use the face release button. i was getting pissed off by this stage. The floor of the ute was littered with wire off cuts. How hard is it to break out the vacuum and clean a customers car? final thing was the left speaker had a terrible vibration coming out of it. after putting up with it for some weeks i pulled the door trim off to see that of the 3 screws holding it in, one was tight, another was loose and another wasnt doing ****-all!
Ill never in my life take a car of mine to that place. I didnt even want to take the ute back so they could fix it. when i had the sub and amp installed at audiotech they refitted the deck for me free of charge. I was very impressed with the way i was treated at audiotech. They explained to me what was what, what had been done and gave me a quick demo of how it sounded.

Does anyone else have a stereo horror story?

 

[Robbie]

Geez that's dodgy.... so you didn't take it back at all??

I have only had one bad experience .. the guy had no clue... it was in an old Magna i had... When you drove with the headlights on you got a winding sound from the front speakers as you accelerated.. sounded kinda cool as it was like a turbo sound inside the car... I can't remember exactly but I think I also had some other lightt staying on after installing the deck...

A very dodgy installer.. hold on that was me... my first attempt at installing a stereo... I had to hard wire it in.. it was a cheap deck so the plugs didn't fit... I had to geuss which wire was wich into the standard speakers.. it was an all round nightmare.. i now buy pioneer and read the instructions before installing.. it has made things a lot more succesfull

Cheers,

Robbie

 

[Grantis1976]

Was not happy jan, about 2 weeks ago, cruising down the road taking my kids to school in the family " L ", and some ******** in a Falcon wagon comes screaming off the entry ramp, onto the main road, and run us off the road. We all ok, thanks to the trusty VL. What does this have to do with car audio you say???
The Falcon had a well known stereo brand plastered all down the sides, and after following it to its next stop ( car stereo store 5 mins away ), turns out it was a rep. driving the car. NOT good for business I say!!!

 

[2_SeeK_U]

Before l had my stereo installed l asked around to find out what strathfield, oak flats and places like them were like and just kept on hearing negative comments, so l just went to the autoelectrician down the road from me (he's been in the buisness for 15 years now) and he put it in for me with two 6x9's for $60 (6x9's only needed connecting, not actually installing). They even went to the trouble of labeling each wire as l didn't have a wiring diagram so if l want to take it out l can do it my self. I was very suprised at the top job they did as they didn't even advertise they did car audio. So if your in the wollongong region, l suggest going to Webb's in dapto.

Car audio stories can't always be bad

 

[Locksmiff]

I dont trust anyone bar myself. If I screw it up, then I aint gonna be as pissed off, if it was someone else and I had to pay them for a screw up. I know who I prefer to pay for a screw up

 

[markovr]

I wounldn't let those butchers sit in my front seat ,let alone give them tools to pull it apart.....to them if it doesn't come off easily pull it harder and if it brakes it 's a stupid design anyway.
Don't let them near your pride and joy......do it yourself you will learn something and if you are not sure ask someone ...ask questions on this site or read the instructions...its not rocket science .
These blokes work to a time frame and there is nothing that is too rough if it speeds up the job and you're not there to see them do it.
Check out the workshop manuals,if you do it yourself you can take your time and if you break something by mistake a least you know,you learn something and you fix it properly,not to mention things that have to come off (eg heater controls air con ) work as they did before you started.
There is always a way to do something neat ,properly,and able to be reversed easily eg( take out to update or sell the car )if the need arises.

Thats my opinion
Mark

 

[jules]

car stereo installers aren't qualified. they just use cowboys who stuff the thing in with a crowbar and lubricant.

i have had major headaches with them. do not do business with blaupunkt!

 

[onezero]

That's why you always go over your car before taking return of it, then you can say "Oi asshole, what's this?" When you spot something.

One of my mates had a new deck installed at the dealership he originally bought the car from (BMW dealership no less), and they stole the parking change!

I suppose it isn't a horror story, but it's funny.

 

[xstatic]

well if you are anything like me you don't know an over wheelming amount of stuff about cars and i just don't have the time to do it myself so i will be taking my baby to tonkins see what they can do. I have laso heard that some mechanics have a habbit of taking change out of your car.

cheers

scott

 

[Bax]

I've had/heard of a few. Mainly was the first one, charged me some ridiculous figure to connect head unit and 6" coaxials in the door, now this was ages ago and I really wish I'd have thought about it more. But I left it with them for the day, only to return to find that the bastards had glued a piece of 14mm mdf covered in black vinyl on the bottom of my doors. Stupidest looking shape and install ever. Hated it ever since, Worst part was, because its glued its basically stuffed my door skin.

Another story was a boot install on a mates car, long story short, everything isn't flush, screws are screwed into nothing etc. Bit of mdf for false floor looks like an off cut.

Worst experience of all would be - took the car into the local auto leccy (not stereo based) but still.. I wanted him to get my headlights brighter, new bulbs, check the wiring. End result, brighter headlights - Minus alarm switch that was the only thing I could use to turn the alarm off (disable it so siren immobiler etc don't work)

So now when my battery on the remote starts going flat I panic because if it dies my car aint moving.