Best Buy Installation

[Jakeeck 10+ year member]

ya i am gonna do it myself.. i wan just wondering why it was so much less for best buy.. i got quoted 800 for a shop to do my simple install so when i heard $200 i was like wtf..

but yes i understand now.

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

first off, 800 to do a head unit, amp and install a box is out of hand. The shop clearly didnt want to do the small job, so they just named a price. Only way its a deal is if the box is full custom glass or whatever, then it is worth 800. If not, then they need to piss off period, and Id SERIOUSLY consider doing future business with them period.

 

[JohnnyStan 10+ year member]

first off, 800 to do a head unit, amp and install a box is out of hand. The shop clearly didnt want to do the small job, so they just named a price. Only way its a deal is if the box is full custom glass or whatever, then it is worth 800. If not, then they need to piss off period, and Id SERIOUSLY consider doing future business with them period.

please stop posting

 

[SRim23 5,000+ posts]

so why doesnt every1 just go to best buy then? i understand a shop would know what they are doing a little better but still.. im sure best buy installers know what they are doing also

My girlfriend bought a car from a friend of ours thats a CC installer. He and his friend who used to own his own shop did the install on it. the car looked amazing, fiberglass box, subfloor for the amps... looks amazing. i just spent the last 2 days cleaning up the install (terrible battery and amp connections, 3 capacitors for only 900rms, and 2 of the subs wired at 4 ohm, 1 at 2 ohm, 6.5 inch mids in 6x9 holes with no adapters and 2 screws holding in the mids) and there was more....... just a bunch of stuff you would expect "professional installers" to do right especially considering it was his car! he didnt even get his own install right...

yes there usually mecp basic certified. only thing i would go there for is a head unit install.

the HU was probably the only thing that was done right.

 

[Ken448 10+ year member]

please stop posting

right after you stop using up oxygen

 

[Rudy 10+ year member]

ummm OK? Essplain how that is possible? I suppose all of the connections just fall apart after the work expires as dated on the receipt?

I've seen it. BB and CC installs range from fine to incredibly bad. A guy who lives across the street had BB install a complete system in his car. He called me over to show it off. I sat in the drivers seat and the first thing I noticed was the one inch hole drilled through the firewall with an 8 gauge power wire running through the bare hole - no grommet, nothing. I could see the pavement through the hole.

The we looked under the hood. The power wire wasn't fused at the battery and it wasn't secured. The way they ran it, it was in direct contact with the negative battery terminal.

Looked behind the back seat and the grounds were attached to the floor with 3 drywall screws. Before I even saw it, his car died pulling out of the install bay, so they sold him a cap.

The guy is an electrician, so when I showed him the problems, he understood the potential. We fixed things enough to be safe. He drove back to BB and apparently went off. They fixed the install, Dynamatted his doors and trunk, threw in an alarm and a pretty nice flat screen TV for his house. He ended up pretty happy, but the original work wouldn't have lasted long at all. As soon as the sheet metal cut through the power wire insulation at the firewall or the drywall screws worked loose, he would have been done.

 

[Hybrid90accord 10+ year member]

i dont understand why most people think that Best Buy/circuit city/fry's/Brandsmart installers dont take pride in there work, and run wire incorrectly and use bad grounds and that because its a small shop that they must do great Custom work and there installs are gonna be 10x's better and that the small shop installers dont make mistakes. i worked for a tweeter company and small custom audio shop(mom and pop shop). Honestly most of my install fixes were from the smaller shops then the mass retailers like best buy, when i was at tweeter. ive seen some cleaners looking alarm installs and amp installs come out of best buy and frys then most its all depends on the location and the installer not the company as a whole....or the shop as a whole cause i have install pics from many small shops and i have the pics to prove it in my "worst install you have had to fix thread"

 

[MisterE 10+ year member]

ANY shop can mess up any car
a local shop here has messed up MANY cars.

I think some people just love to be sheep and follow what other people say

btw did you know that FI is the best thing ever!!??!?!??

igggggzactly. its different with every location and every installer. generalizations make you sound smart! ive seen tons of HORRENDOUS and SCARY looking work come from custom shops... does that mean that just because they dont all have the same name that all custom shops are terrible?? oooooo, thinking hurts my brain

 

[KyleBechtold 5,000+ posts]

Bestbuy has a i want to say lifetime work guarantee.. So if something happens to your equipment from there faulty work they will replace it.. They did my first h/u install cuz my dad bought it there and it was free.. when i went to replace my headunit i looked at there install and they did a great job.. soldering heatshrink proper connections... everything was good.. people just like to agree on something as good or bad and are such followers they won't speak against the crowd.. All these people saying oh its bad blah blah blah.. most probably haven't even had anything installed by them..

 

[Saint211 10+ year member]

Lol... a lot of ignorant people in this thread... and a lot of stupid generalizations.

Most of the shitty work I've repaired has been from mom and pops. A couple places around here do the absolute ugliest alarm/keyless/rem start installs.

Best Buy's prices are almost always cheaper than mom and pops on labor.

They offer lifetime of the vehicle warranty on all labor. They have lifetime warranty on both labor and product for alarm/rem start/keyless. They also offer 4 year service plans on equipment. As far as I know, the longest warranty offered by a mom and pop around here is 3 months... just enough to get yo through one cold ass winter.

Every installer makes mistakes or has bad installs once in a while... even the best.

I have worked for them. I guess it JUST HIT ME. I should give up car audio because I dont know anything about it.. period. Even though Im always on here helping people by sharing my knowledge. Moreover... I just realized im also a community college drop-out(?) that cant even run a power wire.

Some funny stories:

Got a sat radio that a mom and pop supposedly "installed." They didnt even know where to tap for ACC power so they wadded the power transformer up in the fuse panel and ran the wires so it looked hooked up. And they also didnt even have the simple gm and reverse gm adaptors so they wouldnt install his FM direct. Several panels were damaged.

Got a deck hooked up incorrectly by a mom and pop. They attempted to tap the fusebox(ugly) for ACC power. However they tapped a low cureent line and it kept blowing fuses as wel las eventually blowing teh radio somehow. Maybe because they used the wrong WIRE harness in the vehicle. Well ,the saturn harness WILL work if you make it work, but it doesnt integrate wit hthe data system so he now has a constant oil temp, tire pressure and airbag warning readout. His door trigger is damaged somehow.. so ti wont shuit the radio off or prompt door chimes.

But those dont even come close to trumping do it yourself failures.

 

[Super Pickle 10+ year member]

lol how about the story's some of us have heard of unique autosports making some awfully bad installs? There was a thread on here a while back about how they used duct tape to hold speakers in and stuff in one install, and there were pics of it..

My mom had a satellite radio put in at a local car toys and they did a SUPER solid job and with buying the unit only cost her 20 dollars extra... i would trust my car there.

My buddy got an XM thing at the local CC here, the guys put the wrong antenna adapter in, said that they needed a new part and that it would be temporary and they would call when it came in.

Comes in, my buddy goes back, they somehow solder or something the two antennas together to make uber bad antenna, buddy goes to a local CA shop around here and they go "well heres your problem, you got 2 antennas and both arent the right ones for this job".... ended up giving him an antenna and installing it for 25 bucks.

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Before I even saw it, his car died pulling out of the install bay, so they sold him a cap.

I thought your friend was an electrician? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[Bender. 10+ year member]

so why doesnt every1 just go to best buy then? i understand a shop would know what they are doing a little better but still.. im sure best buy installers know what they are doing also

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[pentavolvo 10+ year member]

hey if u want a hand im like 1.5 hrs away toss me a few bucks for gas and ill drive up and help u out, make sure its setup nice and clean

 

[jluv 10+ year member]

If they can get that done in 3 hours then that price is where it should be. I would never let anyone from Best Buy get anywhere near my system, though.