Anyone install car audio/video @ best buy/future shop?
 

If you have, how did it go? How much did it cost? Thanks.

I had my first system done at the now closed A&B Sound. Sloppy.

I say go visit an RS sponsor :)

I'm NOT HIGHLY recommended....
Not about the Price$, it's QUALITY!
Well depend on what kinda installation U looking for... basic headunit install or custom?
A lot of indenpend stereo shop can competīt the Price! and Quality!
Most of our RS members Goal is....
Treat your Car Better!!!

What can I say? Reputation speaks pretty loud as far as I'm concerned. If price is your bottom line and you are not concerned with quality, service, good advice, skill, experience, knowledge-base or people that care about your needs, then yeah go for it!

Or you could pay slightly more (or even the same!) and get all of the above if you visit a sponsor.

X2.

HAHAHA

Independants are usually similar in price but far more experience in the industry. Not to say ALL box store installers are bad, but most are not very experienced.

If you're bringing a simple car in to get a cd player installed, no big deal. If you're looking for something a little more specialized then definately go to an independant.

Plus you'd be supporting the local economy and not some huge corporation that doesn't really need the money.

Us car guys in the industry aint in it for big money thats for sure. So every bit helps.

:)

I went to FS for a simple deck install and it took them all day, ( 4 hrs )
God knows what they were doing

Even better was me seeing some grade 10 kid doing installs on someone's car as part of career prep for high school

STAY AWAY !

hahah thanks i got the idea. i'll try somewhere else. :)

*waves*

We're in Richmond

I find it funny that just about every installer I know had their start somewhere, and guess where?

If not, they were trained by those who at one time, worked/trained at FS, BB, A&B Sound, etc. The cream always rises to the top.

I know of an awesome installer who still works at FS part time. Another good one use to work there not too long ago. Anyway, I'm not saying go to one of those big box stores.......... you're taking a big chance when you go.

Agreed! Please never install anything at Futureshop/Bestbuy.

I've seen some of their subwoofer installs and it's a serious freakshow :rolleyes:
BUT, their deck installs are pretty standard.

I know that Audiolines does really good work. A few of their cars were featured in car audio magazines.

Heh heh.

There's a ton of local shops that have been featured in magazines. What used to be good, sometimes isn't always good. There's pros and cons to every shop.






On a side note: Does anyone even know how much FS/BB/Visions charges for deck installs? Whats their hourly?

Broadway futureshop has a good install guy. I work @ futureshop but i wouldn't do most work there unless at broadway.

i once walked into a bestbuy install bay asking if they sold small 12v backup batteries (i was desperate). the guy looked at me funny then asked me what a backup battery was. he then proceded to tell me that the alarm runs of the 12v car battery.

speaking of bad installers:

i once picked up a broken alpine deck that was power cycling. after replacing the internal amplifier, i found that it was still cycling. upon further inspection, i noticed that the previous installer wired the front/rear speakers together. lol...the installer thought he could bridge the speakers on a deck. btw, the installer was TAM's Electronics on Kingsway. i suggest people NOT go there.

in my old protege5 beater, the previous owner had a stealth alarm installed. he then modified the thing to add more features. it looked like a gong show so i had everything removed. by the time the job was done, i had a shopping bag completely stuffed full of wiring and a floor pan that had 50+ holes from sheet metal screws.

They charge $49.99 for a basic deck install, $99.99 for a basic double din. If there is any extra work to be done, they charge $60.00 an hour on top of it. They also charge a misc. fee for anything else that isn't covered by the other charges. I always thought that they were cheaper than us little independent shops, but they're not by a long shot!

SoundsGood was in the last PAS magazine for work done and trophies won.

I was speaking with an installer in Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago. He was installing a GPS beacon for us and needed to do a simple negative trigger connection to a PTO light. There were two guys working on this and neither one of them knew how to measure for a ground at the PTO light.
Took me a while to encourage them to have a closer look since they both though the light turned on with two positives...