Let me start by saying that I've never dealt with a customs shop before. I've never so much as had my windows tinted after-market. I recently purchased a 2013 Suburban however and wanted to make some changes. Initially I just wanted to have some after-market headlights (already purchased online) installed, and maybe get the front windows tinted. Well after calling no less than 5 body shops around my neighborhood, and getting nothing but "no we don't do that" type responses, I decided to see if there was a customs shop around that I could try.
Enter Monster Customs. I found them online and called them to discuss what I wanted to get done. I don't know who I spoke with specifically that first call, but I can tell you that they answered the phone on the first ring and I spoke with a real person, knowledgeable and professional, without having to be transferred to someone else or having to be put on hold to find out "if we do that type of work", something I kept hearing when calling the body shops originally. After discussing the headlights and the tint, they told me that they could get me in early the following day for a quick consultation - that they would take a look at my truck and the headlights and get me an estimate.
When I got to the shop that morning, I could tell right away that their office was the real deal. Not some fly by night enterprise. The shop oozed high quality to me, from the waiting area all the way around towards the office area. We (I asked a friend to ride along, he knows at least a little more about cars than I do) walked in and were immediately greeted by, who I later found out, was one of the two owners, Terry. We walked outside and Terry looked over the truck, the headlights and the tint that I wanted to get done. He made it all very easy and was able to quote me for the work right there on the spot which was nice. We started talking about some other possible changes that I was thinking about, including a 2xdin stereo and a backup camera (for the wife of course), and again he gave me the entire rundown. At this point we went back into their office.
Now he could have just sent us to a table or to a secretary or something to wait and schedule an appointment, but instead as we were walking back to the office he decided to divert us into the actual shop to show us around and show us some of the things they were working on. This surprised me because we didn't ask for a 'tour' or anything like that, Terry just saw that we were interested and took time out of his busy day to show us around. I don't mean to harp on this, but honestly it made our experience even better - here we were with one of the owners of the company and he's giving us a look into the shop and showing us some of the higher end projects they were working on. We'd never set foot into Monster Customs and we were being treated like long time customers, even friends, of the company. Compare that to walking into one of the chain auto stores and talking to the guy at the counter who doesn't really want to be there in the first place - I'm telling you this experience was absolutely top notch.
But I digress. After showing us the shop, we went back to the offices and went over some of the other options I was contemplating. It was all very informal and I never felt like I was being pushed in one direction or another, or being sold to, just being given an honest opinion from someone who knows what the best/viable options are within my price range. In the end we decided on adding the headlights, matching fog lights, front window tint and sun strip, new Excelon 891hd stereo and also adding a backup camera. We set the appointment for the following Tuesday and that was the end of the first trip to Monster Customs.
When I dropped the truck off the following week, I guess it was around 9am, I was told that they would definitely get it all done the same day but that they were pretty busy and to expect a call around 4pm-6pm telling me that it was ready to pickup. That was fine for me because we have another car and I already had a ride back to the office. Well around noon that same day I got a call, from Terry one of the owners, telling me that all the work was done and that it was ready to pick up! I was sure when I saw Monster on the caller ID that there was a problem or something had happened or the stereo wasn't available - since it had only been a couple hours - but that wasn't it at all, they just threw a couple extra guys on the job and knocked it out fast!
To be continued..... read more