dishonest car audio shops.saved 80

Being an amateur car audio enthusiast and wanting to upgrade my factory stereo in my 1997 Toyota 4Runner Limited, I bought my stereo, a Dual XHD6425 which seems to be a fantastic stereo, and bought a wiring harness on eBay for $1.00. A local car audio shop wanted to sell me one for $25.00.......a rip-off if you ask me. I also bought a 2 DIN install kit too. Anyways, I started to install my stereo this past Friday and after tearing my dash apart I found out that the wiring harness didn't match up. Wanting to get everything installed ASAP due to having to work the next 4 days straight and not having any stereo to listen to on my commute to work, I went to that same local car audio shop that wanted to charge me $25.00 for a harness and was willing to pay the $25.00. They said there was a couple different harnesses that fit my year, make and model vehicle and that they were sold out. I asked if there was any other local car audio shop that would have this particular harness and they said they were the only one. Now, I understand them wanting my business and not wanting to give out competitors names, but I told them my dilemma and they still said they were the only car audio shop where I live. Thank God for iPhone 3g GPS. I hopped on the GPS and pulled up another car audio shop not less than 5 miles away. I'm new to this area, so that's why I didn't know any other car audio shop. Needless to say, I'll never buy anything from the first shop I went too since they were dishonest with me. I called the other car audio place and went by there. They had only one harness left, but said I had to add another piece of equipment to the harness because my Limited model 4Runner had a factory amplified stereo. All in all I was gonna have to spend $80.00 to get another wiring harness and a Peripheral 4 channel line output converter. They said that if I added my new aftermarket stereo to the already amplified system that I'd fry the amplifier. This peripheral output converter was supposed to somehow bypass the factory amp. Technically speaking, I have no clue what it does. The car audio guy at the second shop I went to explained it, but it went in one ear and out the other. I was wized because I had to spend this extra money I hadn't accounted for and didn't have budgeted. I put $5.00 on it and told him I'd be back in a week to pay the rest of it. Well, last night I get on the Internet and go to YotaTech forums and found a post about a guy who said he just bypassed his factory amp. Basically he said the wiring harness I initially bought would match up to the plug going "in"to the amp. YIPPEE!! I was ecstatic when I read this!! This meant I get to save $80.00. I'm sure that BOTH car audio shops knew this all along, but wanted to make the almighty dollar and tried to shaft me and take my money. I mean they might have well just reached into my pocket and took my money while holding a gun to my head. A thief is a thief, but some thieves are disguised as a business. Well, anyways, it just goes to show how untrustworthy some businesses can be. I don't have a problem paying for something that I actually need, but when someone tells me that I NEED something when I really don't, well, that just really irritates me!! If it wasn't for the Internet then I would have had the wool pulled over my eyes because I don't really know anything about car audio other than what instructions I find online. Also, I can buy stuff SO MUCH cheaper on eBay and at other various internet audio shops then what both of these local car audio shops had their stuff priced at. I know one thing, I'll never buy anything from either of these two shops again and I'll spread the word to their dishonesty. I just got done installing my stereo and didn't have to spend another dime doing it. I sounds great!! So much better than my factory stereo. I have some CDT CL61's that I'll be installing next. This will be a little bigger task for me, but between this place and other various "car audio" information sites and forums online then I shouldn't have any problem doing it myself. :)

usuall it would be recommended you rip out the factory amp for quality reasons.  But yup on those vehicles the amp is right under the factory radio.  You unplug both harnesses from it and plug it in to the "to car" harness.  My first time I workeds on this vehicle i also thought one needed an amplifier intergration harness then i Looked down and there it was

atx deville wrote: a fool and his money are soon departed. you should have done the research BEFORE you went to the shops. A salesman will sell their mother if the price was right

I can see your point in doing research. As I stated, I'm an amateur and thought I had all the info I needed. It's a shame what people will do for money!!

lspker wrote: May be I missed something, you went to the shop to buy a harness adapter, and they tried to sell you what you asked for and they are dishonest for doing so? If you count the extra trips to the shop, the time you spent and gas your $1 harness cost more than that, not to mention shipping.

Yeah, you did miss something. I went to the shop to buy a wiring harness ONLY after I thought the one I had bought on eBay was the wrong one. Turns out it was the right one though if I just unplug the factory amp and use the connector going "in" to the factory amp. The salesman at the first shop told me there were several 1997 Toyota 4Runner wiring harnesses. I took my factory HU into the shop with me and he took it in the back to try and find the right wiring harness. He came back and said he'd have to order it and when I asked if there was another shop I could buy one from he said there were none. I have been in sales before and have sent customers to other businesses if they needed it ASAP and couldn't wait. It's just the RIGHT thing to do! The salesman at the second shop had only ONE wiring harness that would work with keeping my factory amp in place, but said I had to buy a $70 audio inverter thing to add to it. If the salesman at the second shop knew that I could bypass the amp in the first place and the wiring harness I initially bought on eBay would work just by bypassing the factory amp then he should have told me rather than taking my money. Again, it's just the RIGHT thing to do rather than putting money in his pocket. Maybe I'm different. If I were a salesman then I'd prefer to be 100% honest with someone even if it meant not making a sale. Karma is a bitch, lemme tell ya. I've learned the hard way in my short life. Basically, what it all boils down to is, if I had did some research and found out that by bypassing the factory amp the wiring harness I bought on eBay would have worked then I wouldn't have taken the time to drive to the shops and none of this would have happened and I wouldn't have wrote this thread to explain my experience. I panicked and didn't have much time before I had to go to work and was in a hurry to get my new stereo in because I had to work that night and for the next couple days and didn't want to have to go without having music to listen to.

lspker wrote: Did you ask the shops for advice on ways to wire your system or just for the parts?

No, I didn't ask for advice. I suppose I just expected them to come forth and offer then advice and tell me the easiest, cheapest way to get it done since I was doing it myself. I go by treat others as your'd like to be treated and that's exactly what "I" would have done if I were the car audio salesman. The salesman at the first shop was trying to get me to let him finish it, so he could charge me for it. What some, if not most, small businesses understand is that not everyone has extra money to either spend on purchasing merchandise or services. I understand they are a business and have bills to pay themselves, but sometimes not making a sale upfront and showing restraint on being pushy will bring bigger and better sales down the road. I've learned that in business myself. The salesman at the second shop did go through and explain how to hook everything up using that audio inverter thing(Peripheral SVEN4 is the name) and was nice about it, but he was adamant that I needed this device or it "WOULDN'T" work and for this reason is why I'm wized at the second shop. I told him that I just didn't have the extra money and was irritated about now having to spend more money and he was empathetic about it and said something like, "Yeah, sometimes unexpected things happen like that and it sucks......." Now, if the salesman at the second shop simply didn't know that it was possible to just bypass the factory amp completely by taking it out of the truck completely then maybe I'm wrong in my assumptions of that stores business practices; yet for some reason I just don't believe that he didn't know about bypassing the factory amp because he said he'd installed audio systems in many 4Runners including my year 4Runner.

lspker wrote: Both shops may or may not know about this bypass, it is difficult to judge someone level of knowledge in a short conversation. But again, if was a harness that adapted to the factory amp, they tried to sell you what you asked for.

True. I guess I expected them to say, "hey, if you just unplug the factory amp then that wiring harness you bought on eBay will work just fine." They wouldn't have made a sale, but I would have respected their honesty and that, to me, is what sets businesses apart for me. If a business is nice, respectable, HONEST and has the highest prices in town then I'll still buy from them because I know that they'll be "up-front" with me on any business transaction I make with them. That's the way I do business and I expect other businesses to do the same, but, sadly, it just doesn't work that way. Some businesses care more about making money that they do about the happiness, well being of their customers.

lspker wrote: I know that there is no way that I can tell what another shop has in stock, but we have 5 shops within 4 block and we treat the other shops the same way they treat us. (If they refer customers to us, we will send them people back, if they don't, we don't)

Sure, most businesses work that way. I'm pretty good at reading people and the first shop I went to seemed like they were some shady characters and would lie, steal, and cheat just to get your dollar and those businesses I stay FAR, FAR away from!! The second shop was really nice to me and I'll probably go back there, but when I do I'm gonna tell that salesman that if he didn't know about bypassing the factory amp then he does now because I just told him right then and there. When I do that I may just wait a week or so and call back and pretend to be a different customer with the exact same situation and see what he says. If he were to try and sell me that Peripheral audio inverter thing after me asking him, "can I just bypass the amp?" then I'll know that shop is shady too and just keep on going until I can find a trustworthy shop that won't tell me anything just to make a buck!

Wait a second your getting mad for a business trying to make money. They didn't exact try to rip you off. You could have retained the factory amp and probably would have better sound. So as I see it they were in fact not trying to rip you off but help you achieve better sound. I know I don't give out advice for free so I can see why they wouldn't either.