hello, i was wondering if anyone used bestbuy to install their alarm system?
ive always like going to bestbuy, but these last experiences ive had with them have put me in a bad mood toward them. first i went there to get a pricing quote for them to sell me and install the alarm on my car. they only have one person in the section and he was brand new. i asked him a few questions on a few different alarms to see what he knew and he knew NOTHING at all. i was teaching him about them and then he would repeat the same thing i just said and with confidence, it was kind of funny. it didn't bother me too much since it was a Sunday and i figured i would just call on a business day and talk to the main tech to get the pricing quote. so i did, the next day i called, waited on hold for 15 minutes, then got passed around to 3 different people who were very short with me and finally they told me the tech was at lunch......you couldn't have told me this with the first person? anyway, they said he would call me back when he came back. it has been one full business day with no call back. I liked that store but one bad experience with me will make me never go to a place again.

anybody have any stories like this? am i over reacting?

is there a place in north county san diego that will install a viper alarm for cheap?

should i go with viper or are there any other alarms out there that are just as good for the same price?

 

totally off topic but...

stories like this remind me of when i go to dealerships and i know more then some of the people about cars (and not just my car).

GENERAL cars, kinda embarassing for them

i asked if the guy had any G35's when I was looking for one and he had to run and check the back of each car before telling me if it was a G35 or G37

 

talking to a sales person in car audio @ bestbuy is pointless, i work there ive been an installer for 7 years and am mecp certified. honestly it depends store by store if you will get a good installer. sucks but thats just how it is anywhere, even if you go to a small shop same thing. atleast at bestbuy if you do find a good installer its lifetime warranty on work and product

 

i agree as well its always going to very from shop to shop. get to know the installer and see some of there work and try to speak to others that have done work under that person or place ... like now im trying to get my best friend to install my remote start, granted i can do with time but ive seen how he works and his **** about his job ive seen him install alarms that he pretty much solder ever cable which your suppose to other shop just cut splice and tab into cable (not a good thing in my opinion)

 

Same here. Depends upon who you get. I have a good guy here in my town as the lead tech - he is knowledgeable in general but sometimes the installations are not to straightforward and he is completely at loss. He is able to call in their main internal support line but that is not as good as someone who has full knowledge and experience.
However, I'll rather have him do the work than I do it myself - I'll probably break one or 2 things.

 

bestbuy is good for tv's, even then the staff done know much.

 

if i were you, try to post in the region forums for recommendation from other members in your area of car audio shops that can do a good job... i have seen all too many circuit city/best buy hack jobs in the past where i was fixing stuff for friends... unfortunately it seems to be the luck of the draw and other members here nailed it, can be different from store to store...

 

I personally have never had an alarm installed but I have had great experience with Best Buy. They can be expensive (depending on what you want done) but would you rather do it yourself?

It all really depends on where you go. Some places you have experienced techs, and some places you don't. I like to talk to the techs and figure out if they know what theyre talking about (you'd be surprised sometimes - one of the best jobs I've ever seen involved an entire stereo setup including head unit and complete speaker installation - and the tech was fresh out of high school).

Car alarm systems are one of Best Buy's "fast food" things. . .i had a friend get his Impala installed with one of those nice cobra remote start things and it took only a day.

 

i am an installer at my local best buy i can honestly say i was the only sales rep that new anything about car audio in my store. my install bay does things right the first time but every shop differs. the good thing about it is you have a lifetime warranty on the work as long as you hold on to you work order

also on viper alarms the labor is included in the price for basic install. doesnt include extras that you can add on

 

i want to go to the one in tampa to get ipod integration installed however i think all they have is the isimple and I think im going to go with a vias unit that allows for video

 

well, i emailed the corporate office explaining the exact circumstances i want through and i got they prompt responses from them. they had someone from there tech department contact me and they worked things out with me(verbally). they said since i had to go through all this trouble they would wave the install of the remote start since the alarm was a basic install which is free. the remote start to install would be 120 bucks! pretty stoked on that. anyway, i went in today after purchasing it online to go and set up an appointment. again no one was there, but i did run into an 'operations manager' and he wasn't sure if they needed to make an appointment or not. so i made him take down my info and what time i was coming in so i don't have to wait. i also explained my situation to him and told him they were going to waive the 120 install fee and he looked very ticked off. im going to be very very pissed if that verbal agreement i was talking about earlier doesn't fall through. just from him saying the things he said to me, i didnt go to the store later that day to do some shopping for some stuff my wife wanted and i knew they carried. bestbuy needs to step up their game, and they will if they live by that verbal agreement.

 

I've had a love/hate relationship with my Best Buy. 4 years ago they sold me a Kenwood stereo under the premise that the installation would be 100% free. I took it in for the scheduled installation. They took my car in the bay, i proceeded to wander about the store and look at all the fancy crap. In about 5 minutes the ******* came and got me and told me he was going to charge me $150+ to install the stereo, because my car required a 'unique' part to install it and have it work. Absolutely would not work without it. I said ***** you and got out of there with my car and my stereo. I took it home and had it working in 30 minutes. Granted, the previous owner of the car had installed a stereo and completely fubard the wiring(Instead of buying an adapter for that model of car, he just cut off the factory plug and wired the new stereo to it(and wired it all wrong btw). It still was an easy fix for anybody who can read the manual and knows how to splice wires. It worked great for me for almost a year until an internal failure in the stereo. Best Buy's warranty was up, but Kenwood's warranty was still good. Of course by this time, my receipt was gone, so I called up best buy(i had paid electronically), and asked them if they still had a record of my purchase(which they did). They told me to come on in and get it. This is an 80 mile drive for me. Upon reaching the store, the ******* at the counter told me he couldn't print out the receipt(OH WAS I PISSED). I sat there and made an *** of myself for 15 minutes and walked out of there with the receipt. Kenwood took care of the rest and i enjoyed my stereo for the rest of the time I owned the vehicle.

Fast forward to May 2011, I call in about getting the Viper Keyless entry installed on my LS400, and they kept putting me on hold, and forwarding me back and forth between sales and automotive. This happened 5 or 6 times over the course of 2 weeks before I got an appointment set up and got my system installed. I'm very pleased with the install and with the system. Took only an hour maybe. But their customer service is an absolute joke. The employees at this particular Best Buy are just worthless, except for a few who i really liked.

 

I can't even guess the number of times I've said this.

True Story:
My buddy and I went there to look at head units for his car. He wanted an AVIC D3 and I already had one so install would have been very easy for us. He wanted it bypassed for video in motion.

They were offering free install that week for orders over whatever amount and he asked the departments manager if they could do the bypass, and he said no not on that head unit. He said it could absolutely not be done on that radio. Other's but not that one.

I said it could and it was fairly simple. He said no it can't be. He's "been doing this for (X Number of) years. I again told him it could be and I'd be happy to show him. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

He told me he didn't know what kind of background I had but it was insulting for me to talk to him about thing's I knew nothing about. Like anybody else I wasn't too pleased to hear this, so I told him flat out he was wrong. I'd put a thousand dollars down on it I was so confident. He said he'd like to see me prove him wrong.(Like that would have been tough to do in 2008 with 9 Million internet threads on bypassing the D3)

I said wait here. I'll bring my car around, to which he called me an @sshole and walked away.

I like to do my own work, but now I won't even use any parts from BestBuy to do it. Make's my work feel dirty now.

PS....My is300 install will be done this week.

 

Best Buy can be a hit or a miss in my opinion. Some stores will have bad installers and poor customer service, while others will have excellent installers. My suggestion is to see if there are any other shops that specialize in car audio and alarms. If you can't find any other shops, talk with the installers at Best Buy to see how experienced they are with alarm installs.

 

I had my car radio installed once by them way back. It was in their ad saying buy cd deck and get free installation. Well, I did that deal and my installation bill came out to $100. The ad meant by free labor work, but parts cost extra. But that kinda my fault, cause I did not know anything about radio installation back then.