Went to Charles, the owner, to get a quote for installing 4 speakers into my mom's Cadillac for her birthday. He gave me a detailed quote, writing down what he said the size of the speakers needed would be, their price, with separate column for his labor cost. Several weeks wait for an appointment, during which time I called and asked him the cost if I were to purchase the speakers myself. He assured me the quote would be identical, simply to subtract the cost of the speakers from the total. So I purchased the sizes he'd specified. As these were bass heavy speakers, I also purchased some foam dampeners, to prevent the bass from shaking the paneling. On the day of the appointment, I brought all of these to him and asked him to please install the dampening rings before dropping in the cones. He said, "OK."
Hours later, I return and ask him if he was able to run the deck back to the factory amp in the trunk, saying, "Yea, that's actually a pretty good amp back there. A Bose. That was the year Cadillac Delco first partnered with Bose."
Charles flatly said, "No. That's no Bose. Cadillac's never had Bose anything."
I wasn't in the mood and said, "Oh, OK. Yea, I swore I'd read the deck and amp were Delco Bose. No matter."
But he continued insisting he was right, again and again. "IF Bose had anything to do with that stereo, it would have had Bose written all over everything!"
I started getting annoyed and said, "Oh, yea, I must have misread when I pored over the entire history of the 1996 Cadillac Eldorado stereo system. My bad!"
He then told me he wasn't able to put in front speakers because "You bought the wrong size." I told him those were the sizes he'd assured me fit this model and year... "Not my fault" he said.
Oh well, I then asked if the dampening rings I'd bought went in alright and he said, "No, because I didn't put them in!"
"What? You didn't install them??"
"No. Because its my policy not to install things that are a useless waste of time and money. Those things don't do anything! There's no panel buzz from a speaker like that!"
The sheer gross pompous egotism now blatantly oozing, hostile, from this little man! Especially after he'd assured me he'd install them. I was kind of reeling from his response and, later, wished I told him, "Oh. OK. Well, how about you go back and take out all the speakers you just put in, and fucking do it all again! This time, actually doing what I'm paying you to do. I don't care about your fucking opinion, I'm paying you to install the components we agreed upon."
But I just bit my tongue, telling him I could not return the dampening rings. That I just lost that money.
So we go to settle the bill and he hands me something MUCH higher than the quote we'd agreed upon. Hundreds more... Somehow (even though he installed less than half of the components he'd quoted me for!) I asked him what happened to our quote. He said, "Oh, yea, those speaker prices I gave you were actually parts and labor combined. So it comes out to more." (Total bullshit! My quote had shown parts and labor in two separate columns!)
So I paid all the extra money he was suddenly asking for and got the fuck away from him. The first song I played to test the new speakers... And, sure as shit, the goddamned back panels were vibrating loudly with that ugly tone I'd paid so much to ensure they wouldn't.
Fuck this pretentious, petty, uneducated "installer" who refuses to install what you've paid him to. Take your business elsewhere, seriously!
I'd heard stories about what a conceited dickbag this guy was for years, but I simply had no idea!
PS
The trunk enclosure he'd taken apart fell apart the next day! Its all hanging down with wires, ugly. I tried to put it back together, but it just keeps falling down.
I consider this eyesore to be a lasting reminder of my experience with Advanced Mobile Accessories. read more
