When I bought my car I was handed an alpine CD deck box, with reciepts from a major electronics store, detailing that they had installed the deck, along with 6 speakers into the car. Not knowing f-bodies very well, I said "ok cool" and took it at face value. Wait... 6? They had installed 2 speakers into the doors. They cut holes in the doors that were too large, then simply bolted the speakers to the cardboard in the doorpanel (they fell out every few minutes). Furthermore, they had removed the dashpad, taken out the dash speakers, and spliced the wiring to those, to run to the doors. In trying to put the dash speakers back in, it was simply too difficult to find a short screwdriver, so they layed the screws next to the holes, and never really inserted them. They also seemed to have trouble getting one of them back in, so they ran around the inside of the dashboard with a dremmel tool or something until the speaker went in the way they wanted it to. To top things off, they only bothered to put back every other bolt holding the dashboard down. Saved a lot of time by only getting 6 in I bet. They also found that when they replaced the rear speakers, the brackets the speakers mount to were loose. The solution? Fill the area with cotton until it can't really bounce around. Is that really easier than tightening a few bolts? With the interior of my car gutted, all of these things were fairly easy to fix with a little patience., but the stupidity of the installation was about as bad as I've ever seen. Have you guys seen this type of work? And if you install stereos for a living, please tell me that someone would get fired over this in your shop. I usually don't trust other people to install my stuff, but this takes it all to a whole new level.

Surprisingly you got off lucky, all that was messed up was the components that they installed, it didnt mess up anything important like, the engine or brakes.

I have run across a few cars at the shop that came in with various problems that where caused by an installation.
EI no four wheel drive. No abs, NO srs. all cause by some installer that just grabbed any old wire that had key on power, or seemed like a ground, but was realy infact the wire for the lock up solenoid.

Mine was the same way. I found the reciept in the car, and apparently best buy installed mine

I am a Certified Audio Installer at a 'well known' place... thankfully I've never taken any shortcuts and left anything in 'questionable' condition.

I have heard/seen some horrible installs. Horry stories of installers drilling through the firewall and into the brake booster...

Mounting an amp and drilling into the fuel tank...

Attempting to install a satellite radio antenna and magically cause the windshield to get a stress crack...

Mounting Mobile Overhead units and running screws through the roof...

So on and so on...

When you come up to the shop this weekend, you will see many of the projects we are working on and you will see that a real shop will not "hack" thier customers vehicles. Because without customers you make no money. Sounds like they did a shitty job on your car. Best of wishes of getting it all back to normal.

well thankfully everything in the car is gutted, so getting it back to normal wasn't hard. But I'm rather surprised that alot of places apparently get away with this on a regular basis. I'm pretty good at my own audio stuff, and wouldn't bother going somewhere to install it unless there was alot of custom fabrication needed. But I feel sorry for the folks who just want a few speakers in there and instead someone destroys their dash.

With "Free install" you really do get what you pay for.

Yeah, free is usually never good. I guess I'm just a little miffed. I always came from the school of thought that if you can't do something right, don't do it at all. I can appreciate what TADailyDriver talks about, with a dedicated shop that will do a professional job. It may cost quite a bit more than free, or the $14.95 or whatever the major chains charge, but it will be right.

What I don't understand, is if you can't do a job that is at least acceptable for $14.95 or free, why do it at all? To me it seems sort of like going to Dr. Ned for heart surgery (Simpson's reference, hope you guys actually get it).

I have installed for best buy, circuit city, and even do it for extra cash at the local flea market and I have seen some serious hack jobs. I have seen a head unit bridged using f/r-r/r & f/l-r/l and I have seen a Honda go up in flames because of a bad capacitor. Being a certified installer has its ups and downs and honestly most shops I have worked for want you there 6 days a week and 10-12 hours a day because there are not enough good installers. Honestly if you want a good job then do it your self if not then you have to put faith into a possible retard at a big name store that had to take a internet course for 2-3 weeks to get his job. Though I had to go to Best buy for a basket and there were some guys there who were from wyotech so I guess they changed policy.

Totally agree with you, I haven't had anyone else touch my stuff since someone broke all the mounts of my door panels on a Grand Am when I was 16. Everything I know about cars is the result of my anger from that incident, and my vow to learn enough about cars to only take it to someone else when I'm in far over my head. Unfortunately, I bought this car after it'd been hacked into.

When i installed all new speakers in my car, i found that where the 6x9's were suppose to be, they had put 4x6's with tweeters on a peice of pressboard. Then under the dash pad, they installed one 3 1/2 specker and a 5x7 speaker. to get them to fit they cut half of my heater vent tubes going to the driver side vent and then never covered it up. so i had to ductape it shut in order for heat to come through. But at the shop i work at, if we scratch break or bend something while isntalling something, we will replace it. We are very dedicated to our customers and being a private buiness, we need as many as we can get.

That's the difference here. You guys make money by doing stereo stuff alone, and you depend on your reputation to help you. The Best Buy's and Circuit City's around the country don't need return customers or a decent reputation, because there will always be some sucker ready to buy something.

I just find it interesting that there is no minimum standard. I mean yeah, its only car audio, but I can't think of any other place where you can be certified to do anything, and still get away with complete garbage. If you were a Dr. a carpenter, a mechanic, or anything like that, you'd be fired and your certification pulled. The only field that is even comparible is IT. Wait... the major problems in IT come from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc...
(and before you IT guys start hating on me, I'm an IT guy myself. I know this industry, and am thankful I work for a private software company with higher standards than that)

In short, kudos to those people who care about their customers. Go see them or do it yourself.

storys like this is what makes me never what to trust enyone around my car

I had 2 10" subs, amp, and head unit installed by Circuit City in an S10 pickup. The amp was mounted on the back wall behind the seats. It fell off about a month later. Is that a minor thing? Yeah. But still.... I am fairly good at doing my own installs. They just offered it for free and I made the mistake of taking them up on it.

Always do my own audio installs. It ain't that hard and at least I know it's gonna be done right rather than paying someone else to botch it up.

I am an installer for a circuit and I cant agree more with the most of you, but u cant lump it up by the employer (while working here has killed my spirit). We are a little slow, actually im at work. now..shhh dont tell, but we did 4 speakers in a 00ish durango this morning and being the more experienced guy here I told my part timer to take the rears and ill do the fronts (all 4 speakers are mounted in the doors). well i got mine done before he got one of his done so i did 3 and he did one and when i tested everything out he used to long of screws and it interferred with the window, luckily no damage was caused because i tore his door apart and fixed it. and that isnt the first time i have had to do that with him. he is just ignorant. its partly because his pay is sooo low that he doesnt care, luckily he put his two weeks in half a week ago so i only have to follow him for a few more days. but aside from him me and my supervisor out here pride ourselves on no sils (self insured loses), I have never had one in 3 years and he hasnt had one in over 5years.

Apparently, someone didn't do any research prior to having work done on that car. I prefer a small chain if you will (only 3 stores in the whole county) that has some exceptional installers. Though I'm capable of the work myself, their installs carry a lifetime warranty on workmanship, even after the equipment warranties expire.

Seeing as you have the RECEIPT, I would be interested in seeing you post up the name and exact location, of course in the interest of saving the one person who might have been actually about to go there from this site.

The reason I haven't posted that info is that my car was a barn find, and the receipt is from nearly 5 years ago (when the car was still running.) I'm not convinced that the people who installed the stuff would likely still be at that location, or still installing stereo's at all. I don't want to target a particular place that may have changed its practices (unlikely, but still) in that time period.

So if you live near Bloomington IL, and you are worried about this stuff, stay away from the big chain stores and either do it yourself, or have a real pro do it.

I was on a trip to pick up my daughter at an airport and her flight was delayed. I was bored waiting around so i went shopping for stereo gear. I found a head unit and 4 speakers I wanted to replace the stock stuff. The salesman said they could do the install now for $100. Since I wanted the new stereo for the long ride home. I said sure. I gave them my truck then walked over to the mcdonalds. After i ate i walked up to the bay door at the back of the shop to see how the install was going. Low and behold here is some 16yr old kid (I have nothing against 16 yr olds if they know what they're doing) reefing on my door panel (01gmcZ71) trying to get it off. He wrecked the light/reflector in the door with a prybar, bent the **** out of the panel and gouged it up. He also destroyed the wire mesh cover that goes over the speaker. He said "you don't need that anyways cuz the new speakers have grills" I wanted the new speakers to go behind the original grills. I freaked and told the manager the kid is clueless and is wrecking my truck. I showed him the damage. To my surprise he apoligized and went himself to the GM dealer and ordered me a whole replacement doorpanel light and grill. Since I had nothing to do he let me use the shop tools and do the rest of the install myself. My god did he ever freak on the kid, sent him home and told him to not come back. I got the new parts for the door a week later. He said the main installer was sick that day and the kid was working there for about a month helping him out. He thought the kid would have been more capable than that on such a basic install. Thank God I decided to check up on him before he got into my dash and hatched up all wiring.
P.S He didn't charge me for the install.

I would NEVER let a kid under the age of 18 work on my car. The problem with most audio places, just like the chainstore auto parts places and McDonalds.......they don't pay very well so they get to scrape the bottom of the barrell on knowledge and experience.

Good thing for me is that I've been doing car audio since 1989 as a hobby and pretty good at it (look at my cardomain site) and I have never "paid" for an install since my first one in my 1978 Camaro.


I've heard too many horror stories of botched wiring and proken panels to take that chance.

I just think it's funny when a younger person tries to tell me what I need at our local circuit city when I'm browsing the car audio section

I gotta say, I was planning on getting an entire system from Best Buy pretty soon. They have done decent work for me in the past but I have already dropped plenty of money in to my project Iroc and reading these horror stories have motivated me to just do it myself. The jackass who owned it before me had already cut holes in the doors so I'll be needing to replace the door panels thanks to that.

if your retaining speakers in the doors build some speaker pods to match your interior....problem solve!!

Similar to what I did to these universal pods I built a while back...


but make yours to flow with the doors..like these cherokee panels I also built...it's not hard to do

The 16 year old kid had to pay for the damages out of his pay check though he deserved it for not using the right tools that they provide. I have fixed so many issuses from those chains and I have even installed speakers where they were not suppose to be. My favorite speaker upgrades were a 14 speaker system in a 94 Tbird and a 16 speaker system in a Fiero and both of those were just insane.

No Best Buy/Circuit City (big retail chain store) would do this, but it doesn't mean that ALL their employees are useless....

From this...



To this....



ZERO loss of space, with 2 12" subs....And those are just a few pics to gigve you the idea. Not showing the box was covered in matching OEM fabric....That the entire floor got Dyomax....And yes, it offset to right passenger side, on purpose.

With the factory floor mat laid down, it it invisible. As if it doesn't exist.

i hate to sound like im defending poor people who butcher cars but the reason that installers at big box stores dont do anything like that is a)cost, people see free install on cd players and dont read the little sub headline stateing doesnt include parts then come in and bitch when they have to pay for kits, and harneses and b) we only do what we are allowed, ie at circuit we cant raise a vehicle off the ground by use of a jack, back in the day when we did underglows we had to use drive up ramps and we frequently had to turn cars away because they sat too low. i doubt its still on their site but the circuit that i work at actually built a show car for eclipse, it was a sequioa back in 06 i dont remember what point i was trying to get across anymore lol but dont just lump all big boxer installers together, some of us care about our jobs and the cars we work on

Me too. I thought it was just me. Thanks....

Wow, i started a fire here, lol. I hadn't even checked this thread in a while, and I'm pretty surprised to see it go this far out. It is interesting to see above some examples of outstanding work, and also hear about some examples of horrible hack jobs.

I do find it interesting that on one side of the fence you have kids with no training prying cars apart, and on the other you have some very experienced professionals doing jobs worth thousands of dollars. How in the world can both people hold the same job title?

Maybe audio installers should carry portfolios like artists? I think in the same manner you get artists who are terrible (like my 5 year old cousin) and those who paint masterpieces. I don't think that at least the good installers would object to the artist comparison after all.

I certainly won't be letting anyone touch my car in any way without first seeing examples of their work (audio installer, painter, etc).

Many installers do have portfolios. Some stores even put some of their installs on their home page, something you probably won't see from a big box store.

My favorite store here, a Mom & Pop outfit with only 3 stores in the county. My install was done by one of the installers here, along with other jobs.

http://www.mobilradio.com/new/gallery/gallery.html

And this is the reason i havent gone with best buy and/ or circuit in a long time, i had them install the deck on my brothers lancer, but thats about it, it was aldready single din so it was easy, i just didnt want to do it lol, I havent even bothered with a stereo for the camaro yet, im dodging the two above and probably going to MTX in mesa here or to chronic car audio, both have done amazing work to mine and my friends cars and i will return everytime, plus MTX gave my buddy a sweet deal on his charger, 2 12's, full trunk pop with Tv mounted on it, 2 amps, new deck and custom enclosure, for like $400 and 2 shotguns, full warranty on everything, its sick. Small places with good installers get my vote hands down.

Never go to a car stereo shop that used to be a old gas station with the pumps removed.....and the store sign is painted plywood.

We have a few of those around here The double as "detail" shops

Age has nothing to do with it and I am sure im younger than most of the people on this board and I have been building stereo systems for competition since I was 17. The age card has been pulled on me so many times it makes me sick because I can keep up with the older installers that have been doing it for as long as I have been alive. If I was one of the people at circuit city telling you or suggesting the over priced crap they have to install you would probly have the same thoughs, But I have had a car win Nopi DB drag and another win in daytona nationals. I am a professional stereo installer and I am just as good if not better than most of my peers in the field. Though I am as good as I am now because of all that treatment because it drove me to be better and learn more and surpass those that were better than me but I know im not best but im just 24 and to be where I am now I am doing damn good.

I install stereos on the side (i also do brakes, tuneups, etc, but stereos is all i ever get calls for). I would never do anything like that. Ive done entire rewiring of a vw gulf with some kind of crazy common ground stereo, A buick regal that had the amp in the dash and like 3 or 4 wires going to each speaker, tons of sub/amp setups...and ive never done anything like that and still got them all to work. I installed a stereo and 4 speakers in my cousins car in 2003 and everything still works in there. And those guys are supposed to be professionals? I will install a stereo for 20 bucks haha

Pics are deleted, but check out my thread: http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/ca...tml?highlight= (Tweeter sucks. Pics inside...)

I was at a small private audio shop a while back, and it just so happens that the sales rep. for Lightning audio was visiting, I talked to him thinking he was an employee and long story short, gave me a pretty good deal on the basic set up. 2(10" DVC 500 rms), sub box, 2(6x9) coaxial, 2(4x6) coaxial and a amp (weak 800x4) all Strike series -> 4 around $700, i was gonna install the items my self, but the shop offered to do it for 100.00 and said the Eta would be 2 hrs. sounded like a sweet deal, so i accepted.
Shitty Install job, tried to put cheaper speakers than what i had paid for, thinking that i wasn't gonna check what the hell they did, after they took 5 extra hours to finsih my shiet.
THis was a real test on My patience and self control. I handled the Issue like a Civilized person by talking to the main man. got my shiet straight, but i Decided to do the install my self. (moral of the story: Don't try to take short cuts. If something is worth doing, It's worth doing Right! DIY!!!).

Just curious, what type of certification do you have? A6 auto elec/electronic systems? That's the only ASE that I could think of that would count for car audio..