ummm, who fiddled with the gain and then the woofer pooched?

Anyways - as exciting as the annual BigBox vs. Indy discussion is - the question was about product...

 

DAMN MR2NR...I wish I lived in BC..you'd be doin' all the work on my car....sounds like you give it your all..offer smart alternatives(even if it doesn't benefit your shop) and have the utmost confidence in your installers...and obviously know your .



..this is the diffrence in big box stores and small shops.

I guess knowledge is key...most of the knowledge can be found on this site about almost any small shop in Canada.....Big box stores are sometimes a gamble.

Is it logical to say that paying for overpriced gear installed at fs or bb would equal to paying for(at the same price) gear installed at a reputable small shop that would probably sound better?

Also bet you would learn a whole lot more from a small shop then a bbs....I have.

My best point would probably be..after dealing with a small shop(and everything going down well)more than likely you made an aquaintance(if you weren't bein' a dick) This aquaintance will keep you in mind on upcoming sales, promotion..etc. because they know what else you wanna do to your car or whatever.

bbs forget you the day you leave.

 

dukk - haha i know that would sound like a rookie mistake but i didnt have any of the settings past the first couple lines, thats why i was so disturbed. if i had the gains cranked i would take all the blame, but even so, i looked at the manual myself afterwards and noticed with the ohm i have running, you needed the jumper cables but the packages were untouched (noticed this once i got home), then relying on what faith i had with fs i did the tuning. the idiot even had one of the wires connected to channels that werent live.... thats dumb.. one wire was in the positive rear channels, then the negative was connected to the front channels that werent being given power. i hardly doubt i was at fault.

but dukk is right, my pennys worth is that i find in my experience, the small shops give the feeling that they want to help you (maybe because they ARE small?), they took the time to explains to me before they agreed to install my stuff. At fs, i got snobbyness, they gave me quick few word responses like they didnt even want the job or to speak with anyone.
the way i do things now, is to just know the technical stuff about what you want before you go in, for example: asking the nice folks here... plus, having a good basis will also let you know if THEY know what theyre talking about

 

Quality of the parts at FS and BB depends on what you buy. as stated aove, for the most part they only have entry to mid level equipment at best. I also for a stretch worked at a Best Buy as an installer, pay was great full benefits etc etc.. Installation policies were so focused on speed of installtion they really did not allow you to do a proper clean job with things. a Soldering iron was not in their vocabulary.

As far as sales staff go in the car audio departments, hey really just hire anyone that mentions they like cars. Formal training in the specifics is non-existant. when I was there I spent alot of my tiem training the sales guys in common sense and very basic ohms law and such. Most sales guy just believe what's written on the cover of every box. and that a 300W peak speaker, "PUTS OUT 300 watts of loudness". Some even though that that a 50 wattx4 radio with 300 watt speakers ment you had 350 watts at each speaker.

Thankfully there really are a few Best Buy and futureshops out there that are really on the ball, usually because they had an oldschool installer there whipping everyone into shape.

Their installer hiring policies also are poop since in canada thy have to hire certifid installers and an MECP basic certification was enough to get a job as an unsupervised full time installer. While MECP is a great certification to have, it by no means makes someone an installer.. it just teaches the bsic theory and teaches you how to safely work on a car without setting it on fire. It's prep course for an apprenticeship really. Alot of FS and BB locations have these guys as the installers, apprentices who are tasked with installing remote starters and audio in som very electronically complicated vehicles and very often things get damaged.

the 2 FS locations near me have horrible reputations for their install bays. The one about an hour away has a great installer..but the sales staff, even the "senior" sales guy has no understanding of how anything he sells actually works.. or what any of the numbers actually mean.

I asked the guy what the sensitivity rating meant for a pair of components his exact words were: " that's just junk they have to print on the box, they are 220 watta speakers so they are really powerful and sound really good"

 

wow some of the coments on here are cruel, stupid, true and well just not well thought out.... i install at f.s. and have been installing since 90. i have no problem directing customers to our competitor if i feel Jeff can service them better than our shop, there aint alot that i havent come across by now, but i still learn everyday, i am proud of the gear we sell. most of it is very reliable with few problems and at a price MOST consumers are willing to spend. and being big has some disadvantages, but i sure like knowing that if you need servicing, f.s. will help you at over 120 locations across canada. thats something that the independance cant touch... ok so you save a buck or two with them, but that counts for nothing if you smoke an amp 500 miles from your installers shop!!! that being said..every shop, small or large has had installer problems. its just the nature of the beast, so deal with it.... we cant carry every brand, we choose to leave that to independents.. our warranty is second to none. period. and most of our stores are very reputable..sorry for the odd one but dont judge us from crap that was done 5-10 yrs ago... we wernt perfect but are trying to overcome one hell of a bad rap in this industry and think that what we offer to the public draws customers in not only to our shop, but to the independencs as well so they can price check...

 

ummm I think this discussion sorta went off topic. Hey I am still learning from all of this.

 

This statement is incorrect. In ontario at least. In this province(0N) you need a A.E.A.T(Automotive Electronics Accesories Technician)certified installer on the premissis any time a remote start or alarm is being done. If not you can be fined up to $5000 and be shut down for up to 30 day's. A.E.A.T certification is managed by the government of ontario just like a mechanics licsense, so if your a small mom and pop shop if you don't have one of these guys on hand you can be shut down. The cost of having one of these guy's on staff is not cheap. I know what our install lead makes and he's not poor by anymeans. All the FS in ontario have at least one(All the FS's with install bay's at least) I'm not sure about BB though. That's the way it is in ontario anyways, may be different in the other provinces

 

Did not know about Ontarios specific laws, but in the province of QC my above statement is 100% true. When BB came to the province My g/f(now wife) worked at the second location they opened. A year later BB added 7 stores and that's when I jumped on board and I opened up one of the sotes, set up the shop, set up the demo oards etc..and worked 2 months after it opened. I was the only installer up untill 2 weeks before I elft, where the hired a someone with an MECP certification that had no business being within 10 feet of a car. Of the 13 applicants for the installer position, none were certified, a few were good candidates but lcked certification so this guy was hired solely based on certification. In his first week there he caused around $1200 in damages to vehicles, and all but one of his jobs returned. Sometimes their hiring policies can be scary. SOme futureshops and BB's have top knotch installers, I thik the bad installer problem really shows it's face more in newer locations.

 

Yeah it's true about the hiring sometimes. For the sales guy's they've got to start hiring the guy's who are into cars and who care. Not guys just looking for a pay check. Our sales guy's don't even know who makes what car?! who makes a corolla? And these guy's are giving out quotes for remote starts! Bottom line if your going to shop somewhere big box store or not, talk to the installers. If we don't have what you need we will direct you where you can find it or try to get it for you. At our FS, we have access to other stuff as well and will help you to get what you want. You just have to make sure that your budget can cover what you want. It seems that at the big box stores we get alot of customers who say they want a system that sounds like mine but they only have $300. Big or small you cant do much if they can't afford it.

 

people here are not talking about specific store, but fs/bb in general, which customers don't have good experiences with. i'm sure there are a few stores with awesome installers and sales person who knew what they were talking about, but just not that many. There are things that are good about big box retailers, such as requesting service wise, you can pretty much go to any store, however, they all have their strong and weak points, such as car audio install at fs/bb, as well for example, car service bay's at canadian tire. I know i would never have my car serviced there, not even for an oil change, not even for free.