Bad Job?

Over the weekend I took my car, amp, subs and speakers to a local  "car audio specialist". I have fitted many systems myself over the last few years, and have seen loads of installs to know what is a good and bad job. Ordinarily I'd have done it myself but It's an almost brand new car and I figured there was less chance of it being destroyed if I put my hand in my wallet and gave it to a "pro" to hook up. Left car with them and returned 3 - 4 hours later. I didn't (but should) have checked the work before I left. For 4 speakers, and sub and amp (amp already fastened and wired up to pre-existing 2x12" sub enclosure) the just labour cost £100. I didn't give them a budget - just a job to do and that's the price they gave me.

Got it home and;:o):

• ALL cables (RCA/speaker/Power) taped together and in a big snake run down one side of the car
• Glove box won't shut without extreme violence because of wires shoved in one corner
• wrong size spade connectors used on speaker terminals
• Sub output on head unit wired up to mids input on amp, mid outputs on head unit wired to sub input on amp (with colour coded L and R plugged in the wrong way round)
• Cables in boot/trunk not cut to length and left in a tangle bar a bit of gaffa tape (which had fell off) sticking some of the cable to the rear shelf
• Power wire secured to fuel and coolant lines in car with 1cm of bare wire sticking out of fuse holder
• Speaker wire in the terminal on the amp, but not screwed on so it fell out when amp was moved.
• Half inch scrap on top of a mirror fron Magnat Combat amp
• 3 inch scratch on wing mirror
• Couple of interior trim fastners missing

Apart from the damage and lazy cable tidying (or lack of) my main beef is the cables down one side. I've spoke to the installer who insists he's done a decent job and shouldn't have run power down opposite side to signal without being instructed to do so...by doing this would have doubled install time!! .

My own thought's are that he is talking from his rear and is an idle installer who rushed the last job of the day. I would be grateful of other's opinions on the quality of the install and whether I may have been expecting too much from the mythical "pro" install.

Thanks for reading.

tcss]T wrote:

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ere was a thread here about 6 monthes ago that determined that noise bleeding from power cables to RCAs was a myth. The rest of the job sounds shoddy though.

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Not true, go back and re-read that one.

Sounds like an absolute nightmare. Get your money and hopefully some pride back.

Thanks for your replies

Yeah talked (shouted) at the Manager about it after I'd been stewing over the weekend, then the Installer. Not a nice chap - just wouldn't accept that it made sense to separate the wires, agreed to book it in for Saturday to look at and hung up on me when I was going through the list of problems. Logged a complaint with Trading Standards too incase they don't sort it out first time.

Even with ultra high end recording studio or home hi fi gear where cables with more shielding than the space shuttle and power conditioners are used to filter noise at source (plugged into insolated mains rings), audio and power cables are separated...in the filthy power environment of your average car I'd consider it dumb to run them together.

However matey wouldn't have it and was adamant he wouldn't take the car to bits (i.e. pull off 4 bits of trim) and put them in how I said unless I paid more.

So you'd all agree that I was right to expect better?

Thanks everyone for the replies....Just a quick follow up for anyone interested. Just dropped the car off and spoke to the "I've been doing this 15 years" manager. The discussion we had and his comments will go to my grave. I would have pi**ed myself laughing if I wasn't so appalled.

After much arguing and telling him he was talking crap, he said "yeah, the proper way to do it is to take the carpets up and put the cables down the centre, or to each side, but you didn't ask or pay for the job to be done properly!!"

Oh, and instead of 3 hours, it would have took 7 hours (yes our friend would allegedly take 4 hours to route 1 metre of cable "because of the steering column)  to put the RCA's down the opposite side to the power, and he doubted I would have paid for the work. I was quick to point out he didn't ask, and he lost out because I would have paid if I knew I was getting the work done right.

So if an electrician comes to your house to fit a light or something and gaffa tapes the mains cable across the roof and down the walls to the fuse box....."yeah the proper way to do it is to go into the attic and through the wall cavities, but you didn't say you wanted doing it properly"

So guys you heard it here first, the way to be more productive in your jobs is to only do it right if asked and paid more.

markitzero wrote:

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Thanks everyone for the replies....Just a quick follow up for anyone interested. Just dropped the car off and spoke to the "I've been doing this 15 years" manager. The discussion we had and his comments will go to my grave. I would have pi**ed myself laughing if I wasn't so appalled.

After much arguing and telling him he was talking crap, he said "yeah, the proper way to do it is to take the carpets up and put the cables down the centre, or to each side, but you didn't ask or pay for the job to be done properly!!"

Oh, and instead of 3 hours, it would have took 7 hours (yes our friend would allegedly take 4 hours to route 1 metre of cable "because of the steering column)  to put the RCA's down the opposite side to the power, and he doubted I would have paid for the work. I was quick to point out he didn't ask, and he lost out because I would have paid if I knew I was getting the work done right.

So if an electrician comes to your house to fit a light or something and gaffa tapes the mains cable across the roof and down the walls to the fuse box....."yeah the proper way to do it is to go into the attic and through the wall cavities, but you didn't say you wanted doing it properly"

So guys you heard it here first, the way to be more productive in your jobs is to only do it right if asked and paid more.

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This is so sad it's funny! Hate to hear you got bamboozled by these creeps. Just let them know that not only will you not come back to them for any other work, but you'll tell everyone you know not to come to them for any work. They'll get the message pretty quickly!

Well, can't say that I am surprised, but I have now picked car up from being "repaired". Those who take a pride in car audio installation may want to cover their eyes;

• Instead of rerouting the signal cables to the drivers side of the car - power wire has been cut at each end and new power wire sloppily installed down drivers side (yes the old wire is still attached to the signal cables)
• No grommet on bulkhead so power wire is chaffing on bare metal
• Bare wire sticking out of amp terminals, and strands of power wire are hanging out and touching metal of the amp casing
• Amp case now has several more deep scratches
• All cables power and signal are now tightly bound into one big thing with insulating tape
• Trim panels not replaced
• Berries from a tree in the trunk/boot..mmmmmmm poisonous.
• Car covered in more bird crap than I have ever seen.

Pictures are available to anyone who likes horror.

So now I have dodgy and dangerous install. Wicked. Oh well, you live and learn. Monday the quest for refund and compensation begins.

Here for your viewing please, 2 select highlights from the boot install. Please note this is the car minutes after being picked up from a pro installer after I had complained about a dodgy install.

In the first picture...yes that is the rear seatbelt left in the boot/trunk, and the green squiggle highlights the power cable going down passenger side cut at each end with a new one shoved down the drivers side.

Picture 2....no comment.

This is the fine work of Technicar in the UK. To quote the website. *ahem* Technicar offers a high degree of expertise in the installation and sale of all audio products...and now here's a bit more of that expertise.

I think it needed a bigger hole.

Maybe I'm being a bit picky here, but For a company with high degree of expertise...at least learn how to crimp a spade connector.

I shall now get off my soapbox and quit whining about my crappy install.

markitzero wrote:

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This is the fine work of Technicar in the UK. To quote the website. *ahem* Technicar offers a high degree of expertise in the installation and sale of all audio products...and now here's a bit more of that expertise.

I think it needed a bigger hole.

Maybe I'm being a bit picky here, but For a company with high degree of expertise...at least learn how to crimp a spade connector.

I shall now get off my soapbox and quit whining about my crappy install.

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I would keep trying to get your money back because you could have done that install in less than an hour yourself it's soo crappy. You're not being anal... that really is a bad install.

Like you said, power needs to be run on the oppisite side of the signal cables, a grommit should be used where the power cable passes through the firewall, cables need to be neatly ziptied togethor, connectors should be crimped or soldered properly. Other things that they probably did wrong and need to fix are the amp's ground location, the power cable's route through the engine compartment, and replacing the bodypanels properly.

Post their e-mail address so that we can all send them an e-mail about what we think of their hack installation methods. I am sure it will make it to other forums as well. The overwhelming flood of e-mails to their business might wake them up. Next I would take some more digital pics of the work at the worst possible parts instead of the pickiest parts, then I would make a point form note of the rest of the work, make it into a 5"x5" ad format and take it with you to the shop on Tuesday. Take with you a copy of your local newspaper. Inform him that this is the ad you will be paying for in the paper that comes out next. Ensure that you also have a quote from the paper as to the price of the advertisment, a business card will help to prove your point. Seems that they believe their shat don't stink and that what they say goes. Nothing says shat stinks like what I have read and seen and I sure as heck hope that they see a post like this. Wake the FAK up you guys, you are doing yourself more damage than good by not listening to a customer. Show them this thread as well, send them an e-mail with a link to it.

Man if I had a hack job come out of my shop like this, I would be all over it until the cows came home to ensure that whatever was done wrong was redone properly and to the customers satisfaction.