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Do your self a huge favor . . . if you are in the need for any car electronics, spend the few extra bucks and find a Tweeter. This company is a joke!
I purchased a car starter and alarm in the winter of '07, which the Jo-Di's in North Haven, CT, installed All together, between the hardware and the install, ran me close to $500. I trusted this place even though I purchased a stereo system from Tweeter a few years back and had no problem with it because Jo-Di's had been in busniess in North Haven for over 25 years!!! Anyway, right from the start, it didn't work. When I pushed the button to start the car, the engine would start and then immediately turn off. When I brought the car back to have them fix it, I was given a totally bogus reason why it wasn't working properly. I was told, "It didn't work because we installed it in a warm garage and it's too cold outside to keep the car running." WHAT?!?! I took it with a grain of salt and trusted them when they said it was fixed.
I got the car home and the starter worked for a few days, and then stopped again. Now the started didn't start the car at all. I took the car back for a second time. They made some more adjustments and told me it was fixed . . . again. I drove home happy, again taking their word for it. By this time, winter was turning into spring and I had less of a need for the starter. So, it would only make sense for something else to malfunction as it did.
By April or May, I began to notice that the remote would set the new alarm that Jo-Di's installed but not lock the doors. What good is an alarm if the doors can sill be opened anyway. I took a deep breath and drove the car back to Jo-Di's again just to find that the location had gone out of busniess!!! Wonder why!? The 1-800 number was on the door as well as the number for the Orange location. I called the first number and explained my situation, as the voice on the other ened attempted to ease my frustration. She told me to go to the Orange location, as it was the closest one and speak to the sales manager. She said he was very good at what he does and I will leave a happy customer.
Now, understand that I live in North Haven. The store in Orange is about 30 mins away from me. I reluctantly drove there and explained my situation again. The manager told me that he would be happy to swap out the system for a brand new one as he "could not tell what the problem was." He said it would be easier to start fresh. NICE!!! Now we are getting somewhere. Or not. Joking with my girlfriend in the parking lot, I wanted to make sure the new system would work, thinking for sure it would, right? It was barnd new! Of course not. I ran back in pretty upset as the manager realized they must have forgotten to attach a vital plug in the engine bay. He came out, plugged in whatever he had to and I left again.
A few weeks after I had the new system installed, I went to deactivate the alarm so I could get in and drive to my 8:00 am class. When I did this, the factory alarm began to sound. Not only was it going off, I could not turn it off (let's remember it was 7:30 in the morning). I tried starting the car, and even put it into drive and the alarm was still blairing. I had to disconnect the battery just to get it to stop. So, now I had to go back to Jo-Di's . . . again. Thing is, when I plugged the battery back in and tried to open the doors, the alarm would sound. I had to drive all the way to Orange with the alarm and blinkers going off as people were moving out of my way as if it were an emergency. With each beep, I got increasingly upset.
I walked into the store at opening and threw the keys at the manager and insisted the system was removed from the car, as it was still beeping outside the front door and the little hoodlums they have working in the garage began to creep out to see what was happening. He had already known about ALL of the problems I had and very quickly accepted to remove it and refund me all of my money. I accepted his offer as well and took a written receipt of what was going to take place as I was told I would be contacted by the corporate office the following day in order to get my information so they could send out a corprorate check.
The next day rolled around and I was contacted. Ironically, the womam who I was speaking to was named Jodi and she was some sort of big wig at the company. Among her first words were, "I'm sorry you were misinformed sir, but you are not getting your money back." I felt my blood begin to boil. She explained to me that the original Jo-Di's in North Haven was a privately owned location and not affiliated with the rest of the locations. Yet, it was advertised on the main website, the sign out front had the same name, logo and the 1-800 number on the door when they closed led me to the corporate office. Go figure. read more