How to pick a shop or installer

[tech12volt]

First let me say I am no writer by any means. So I am sure my grammer is off and so on. i do not need any literature lessons. LOL

It seems in the past year or two I have noticed alot of my customers( who have purchased either an enclosure or audio equipment from my website )have taken their pride and joy vehicle to a shop and dropped it off. Went to work or whatever they do and daydreamed about the awesome system they were going to be listening to when they picked their baby back up. Only to be woken up from that daydream with an install nightmare when they actually pick the vehicle back up.

Now do not get me wrong . Not all shops do bad work and not all installers are hacks. I have been installing for 17 years now and I know atleast 100 great installers all over the country. But it seems the quality of car audio installs has really suffered as of late. So I get about 10 to 20 emails a week asking if I know of a good installer in the area or how do they choose a good installer/shop. There are no guarantees on anything but here are few things you should look for and be aware of .

You can not just pick an installer. You have to pick a shop that backs its installer and pays them properly.

1. Certifications do not mean anything unless they are master certified. And even then its no promise of great work. But almost all master installers I have ever met have been top notch installers. These are written test and its hard to pass. When I took and passed mine there were only 30 in the country but that was years ago. Im sure there are way more now. The other certifications just mean they can read a book and answer some multiple choice questions. Some of the worst installers I have ever hired and worked with have been MECP certified installers.

2. When looking around the store look to see how many holes the shop has in its sound board. If they can not afford to stock the store they can not afford to pay the installers very well .

3 Ask how the installer is paid .It may seem bold but its important . If paid on commission . Turn around and leave instantly.

4. Do not look at trophies or photo albums and assume they know what they are doing. See what the trophies are for and how old they are.And the pictures mean nothing.
The installers who did the trophy installs could be gone. Or they could be for spl in 1993 .

5 If they have a demo vehicle listen to it and ask who built it. Ask some things that only the bulider would know. Like are the comps run passive or active. Believe it or not . I have built demo vehicles for many shops that I did not work at.

6 Ask to see the installer that would be working on your car and chat with him. Ask him what he has in his car and if he has a system ask to listen to it.
Some great installers can not tune a car to save his or her life.

7. Ask if someone could escort you into the install bay and take a look around . See if things look pretty clean.If they have cars taken apart look to see if the parts are with car are if they are strung all over the place. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO LOOK FOR!!!!!




8 check with other shops for price quotes. just to make sure you are not getting high or low balled. Too low of a price is usually much worse than a high price.

9. When you find an installer and shop you want to use . here are some things you can do to prevent mishaps.



Talk with the installer about every single detail of the install . Where everything will be mounted and so on.
The night before you drop off the car make a list of everything you want done and leave it with the installer with a phone number and tell him if any thing looks like it will not work the way you guys discussed it to please call you before going further. Also leave a 1 use camera and ask the installer if he can take some photos of the install before all the panels are back on and stuff. I have seen some great looking installs untill you start removing panels and discover Ray Charles must have wired it.

When picking up the car do not do it 5 minutes before they close. Make sure you have enough time to listen to it and look it over . Listen for any noises like engine noise or turn on Pop. Make sure all the stuff in your car works properly . power windows, AC, power seats, wipers. EVERYTHING.

Hope this helps some people and if any of you need some help picking a shop in your area hit me up. I will only suggest a shop if I know for sure they do good work.Again there are no guarantees everyone has bad days .

[tech12volt]

You guys feel free to add anything I have missed oe share your experiece with shops. Good and bad. I think good shops deserve the exposure.

[alexisd]

Nice ,James and you rigth on the money.Before we use a shop in the area.My son always go there nice guy's and good quality work.But since we start to do some locals competitions,we learn some trick's and our way around to save some money.And do a lot of things by ourself's.Even with the system that we build in our camry 08 we win some good competitions,and all the work was done by us.That been said mean if you can learn you can do it too.And is always good to meet good people if you in the car audio or home audio.