I sure appreciate a store that provides electronics of this caliber at a fare price. Please though, explain to your store manager in Farmington, NM why he should not be installing stereo equipment any longer without further training.
I have been having problems with my Sirius Stiletto SL100, which I purchased from BB. I also had them install the unit. The first install seemed to go well, but for the problems that are currently not diagnosed. For the sake of argument, I will assume that these problems were not with the original installation. The Sirius unit was under warrantee, so I received all new equipment and took it back to BB for install. The manager informed me that they would not reinstall the unit for free. He stated that if I had purchased the warrantee from BB, they would have had no problem reinstalling the unit that I purchased from them.
Ok, I guess, although not very customer service friendly. I installed it myself, with relative ease, and the unit worked for a few more weeks. Then the same problem cropped up as before, “antenna not detected” and no satellite service. I purchased a new antenna, no joy. I called Sirius again and they told me that BB should have reinstalled it for me NC. Sirius mailed me a prepaid installation card and told me to take it to BB so we can rule out any possible installation issues on my part.
I set up the install appointment and arrived at BB on the appointed day. They took all my equipment and said they would be done in an hour or so. About twenty minutes later I got a call from the install technician that he was missing a part. I came back to the garage area to speak to him personally. He was courteous at first, saying that an adapter was missing from the power adapter that plugged into the docking station. Sure enough it had been lost. “Well no problem right? I will just buy a new one”, I asked. How much could it be? He told me that BB did not have this part and didn’t carry it. Did I mention that all the parts for the original installation were furnished by BB in the first place? I told him this and then he said that Sirius doesn’t sell their power supplies separately. I asked the technician how BB installed it in the first place. I pointed to the power supply, a box with a red adjustable voltage dial. No answer, just a puzzled look, and then he told me that if I had the original cigarette adapter, he could use that. I was hesitant to relinquish the cigarette adapter for the purpose because of what he said earlier about Sirius not selling their power supplies separately. He may have called them power supplies, I may have called them adapters, but we were not confused about the item being one in the same.
I got in my trunk and pulled out the adapter. I figured that I could just splice another jack onto the cigarette adapter when I got one and he could use that jack for the install. It wouldn’t affect my adapter in the long run right? Well NOW COMES THE INTERESTING PART. The technician tells me that he is going to use the original adjustable transformer box with the red dial, in line with the Sirius cigarette lighter and he will solder wires to the metal tip and side blades of the plastic male cigarette adapter and stuff it behind my factory car radio. Not to mention this is by no means a “professional installation”. The Stiletto is a portable unit. It is made to move from vehicle to vehicle etc. If my hard to obtain cigarette adapter is hard wired into my car, that pretty much defeats the purpose of my Stiletto. I tell the technician that I think this is not a good idea. Why would you use two transformers in line anyway? Why not just cut a small section off of the end of the cigarette adapter with the jack and splice the thing to the original transformer with the red dial. The technician tells me that any splice would decrease the voltage and might cause the docking station not to get enough power. Did I mention that the adjustable power supply has a red dial? Use your multimeter and dial the power into what it needs to be. He points to some insignia on his sleeve and says that this is how the CIA or the NCAA or some acronym has certified him to do it. Around about this time, it becomes obvious to me that I know more about this installation than the technician. This is a difficult position for the customer to be in when you just want the installation right and it is obvious that the technician is not going to do a professional, if even safe, job. I told the technician that I wanted to speak to his manager.
The manager comes in and we basically have a repeat of the above story. He argues with me about whether he ever denied my install after Sirius sent me the new parts. The technician then tells me he has done this install this way on hundreds of vehicles! The manager says that HE has done hundreds of installations this way too except for the extra transformer in line!! I just love these types of statements. Why do people seem to think that if they have done things for many years or many times over, it makes it right? All this statement seems to indicate to me, is an admission that the technician and his manager have allowed shoddy workmanship like this to go on without correction for years. It is probably a serious violation of electrical safety to do this, and by the technician and manager’s own admission, hundreds of times. It might be wise to contact the recipients of this installation in order to prevent electrical mishap, injury, lawsuits, and God forbid, loss of life.
The technician then begins to pick apart my install, which I had basically taken apart anyway to try to troubleshoot the original “antenna not detected” error on my satellite radio. He looked at the car antenna and saw that it wasn’t attached. I had left it that way so when I used my FM transmitter function to play my Stiletto through my car radio, I didn’t get broadcast stations bleeding through. The close proximity of the Stiletto was sufficient to be picked up on the car radio without the car antenna attached. The MP3 function still worked. The technician says, “No wonder your antenna was not detected, its not even hooked up.” I am usually a patient man. I should have packed up my things and left right then, but he still had my dash in the passenger seat. THE “ANTENNA NOT DETECTED” REFERS TO THE SATELLITE ANTENNA, NOT THE CAR ANTENNA!!!!
I told the technician to button the dash back up and never mind about the installation. I am sorry this is so long, but I have actually left about half of the goofy things this manager and his technician said out. The manager obviously either trained the technician, or both were trained by the same person. I was instantly thrown into the position of questioning the professionalism and technical ability of both these individuals. I don’t like being in this position, but it is my car and my radio, and a very poor plan was made by BB; I had to step in. Now what? Where do I stand now? I called Sirius and they say BB’s way is not an acceptable install, but want a professional install.
Elizabeth-BBY
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