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View Full Version : Good Car Toys experience...Bad Best Buy experience...


Mark_H
04-07-2008, 11:14 AM
Bored this morning so I thought I'd throw this up here...Sorry it's so long!...

Yesterday I began the task of installing a new JVC CD player that I bought at Wal-Mart(I get 10% off their:)) into the Civic I've been driving. I bought the plug 'n play harness while I was their too. Note: The Civic didn't have a stereo in it when I bought it, I assumed the factory harness etc was un-cut and ready to go. I was wrong, the factory car stereo harness was hacked to living hell and on top of that the damn plug on the antenna cable was broken. The antenna was the main issue, I needed a new plug end to get pressed on somehow. The other wiring mess I could deal with but really didn't want to. I have a Best Buy and Car Toys pretty close by so I set out to see how much either place would charge me to fix the antenna plug.

Best Buy:
The guy in the car Audio department was an idiot. He knew absolutely nothing about my simple question. He had to call the one installer on duty on the phone since the installer was inside the trunk of a car working on an install. Three phone calls later I had my question answered and it would be $18.00+ tax to get the plug fixed and they could "probably" do it that day. Needless to say I left and headed to car toys.

Car Toys(Fort Collins location):
Initially the manager was indeed an idiot when I asked him about the plug. Luckily an installer was walking buy and said "oh yeah, let me take a quick look" He as a younger Dude(I should have got his name) and he came out and said yeah no problem, $15 out the door I can have it done in 5 minutes. He went on to say the mangled wire mess that I was half-way through repairing was a mess and he could take care of it for me for an additional $15. I was ready to say go ahead, since I thought the price was more then fair and worth the reduced aggrivation for me with primitive tools and kind of limited stereo install experience.
Then I realized, the JVC deck I bought was bottom of the barrel and so I asked the guy if I can talk to a salesman about maybe just grabbing a different/better CD player while I was there and returning the JVC to Wal-Mart. He's like "come on back I can help you". Their policy is that any deck over $100.00 gets free install(the Civic doesn't require a dash kit for an extra fee). I found a nice little Kenwood Cd player for a whopping $79.00 that I honestly liked. I asked if he could do the free install if I got that deck and he said sure.
So all said and done I got my antenna cable fixed, mangled harness fixed, Kenwood deck w/ installation for $119 out the door:) I was extremely happy with the deal and felt the guys went out of his way to help me out and hook me up.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!!!:)
Mark

nicklk
04-07-2008, 11:19 AM
Did Car Toys try to get you into a new cell phone plan?

Mark_H
04-07-2008, 11:28 AM
Did Car Toys try to get you into a new cell phone plan?

Nope, not single word about phones.

Redteg
04-07-2008, 01:43 PM
Its kind of hit or miss. I've dealt with the one by Park Meadows in Littleton and I think its kind of shady how they wheel and deal. I bought a car down in littleton that did not have a stereo in it and wanted one for when I drove up to Fort Collins that night. They charged me $25 for the install of a $200 Alpine deck (whatever) and offered to install the ipod cable adapter for $30, to which I said no way in hell. Then the guy said he'd do it for $20 because it was "pretty easy" to which I proceeded to tell him no again. Then, I got charged $60 for them to fix the antenna plug, which I guess was damaged. Looking back on that I could've fixed that myself with a $10 part and about 5 minutes of time.

I can't complain about the quality of their work because upon installing the ipod cable (which took literally like less than 2 minutes to install), it was a very clean install. But then again its not rocket science to put a deck in a car.

I don't like wheeling and dealing with those cheese balls, the fact that they charge different prices for different people pisses me off.

But then again, I can only speak of the people I've dealt with at that location.

monicle
04-07-2008, 02:08 PM
you could have done the antenna yourself. the antenna wire behind the stereo is just a male to male wire that connects to a female antenna port under the dash on the drivers side. im sure they just replaced that 2 or 3' long cable.

Nate
04-07-2008, 03:02 PM
you could have done the antenna yourself. the antenna wire behind the stereo is just a male to male wire that connects to a female antenna port under the dash on the drivers side. im sure they just replaced that 2 or 3' long cable.

This isn't true before 96. Pre EK it's one long ass cable so you either have to fix then end or put a new antenna on.

Redteg
04-07-2008, 03:11 PM
This isn't true before 96. Pre EK it's one long ass cable so you either have to fix then end or put a new antenna on.

Thats right

Evil_SpeedRacer
04-07-2008, 03:26 PM
I had this problem a couple of times, and went and got the little amplified unit at radio shack. I just set the little unit on the dash and said fuck it too though....

Overall it was an easy install... I am pretty savvy when it comes to car stereos, but I have never tried to mess with the antenna plug on the car end of things. It reminds me of a coax cable, suggesting that it requires special tools. I have replaced the antenna with a direct replacement on the fender and ran the wire down, but nothing satisfied like the easy amplified antenna on the dash fix....

BlueFang08
04-07-2008, 04:05 PM
Well at least you didn't take you car to Circuit City:

12k worth of damage to this poor guys Civic
http://consumerist.com/373753/

desireems77
04-07-2008, 08:21 PM
Its kind of hit or miss. I've dealt with the one by Park Meadows in Littleton and I think its kind of shady how they wheel and deal. I bought a car down in littleton that did not have a stereo in it and wanted one for when I drove up to Fort Collins that night. They charged me $25 for the install of a $200 Alpine deck (whatever) and offered to install the ipod cable adapter for $30, to which I said no way in hell. Then the guy said he'd do it for $20 because it was "pretty easy" to which I proceeded to tell him no again. Then, I got charged $60 for them to fix the antenna plug, which I guess was damaged. Looking back on that I could've fixed that myself with a $10 part and about 5 minutes of time.

I can't complain about the quality of their work because upon installing the ipod cable (which took literally like less than 2 minutes to install), it was a very clean install. But then again its not rocket science to put a deck in a car.

I don't like wheeling and dealing with those cheese balls, the fact that they charge different prices for different people pisses me off.

But then again, I can only speak of the people I've dealt with at that location.

Ugh, I had the exact same problem there a couple of weeks ago. I'm sorry, but their "free" install wasn't so free after all of the BS they try to talk you into. Sorry, but I'm not willing to put up $800 on a basic stereo and alarm on a car that I bought for $3000 3 years ago...:P