Audio Express

This is regarding complaint #[redacted]
               
                On 2/15/16 we had this customers vehicle at Audio Express to fix a few issues...

he was having with his Alarm System. When the vehicle left that day  all electrical issues with the alarm install were taken care of. All of this was accomplished in one business day 2/15/16 and the customer left happy knowing everything was working.
 
We are confident on the resolution of this inquiry  was fixed.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: It would make no sense for me to purchase locks from Nissan and have audio express install them when your company has told me that my problems were due to a poor instal job. If I purchase a product from Nissan I will  have them instal it. I would like all of your products removed from my car for a full refund. 
Regards,
[redacted][To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, the consumer must give a reason why they are rejecting the response. If the consumer does not provide a reason the complaint will be closed Answered]

we have already resolved any and all issues customer was having on 5-5-16.  as well we fixed some wiring issues he had on vehicle from another retailer that could have cause severe damage to vehicle.
as far as we are concerned this matter has been closed and the customer is happy...

 
james

Dear Mr. [redacted],
First off, we would like to apologize for the problems you
have experienced with your [redacted] SiriusXm unit. After speaking with our local
management team in Albuquerque we are also unfamiliar with the exact problem
that you have experienced with this unit. According to...

the district manager he
contacted [redacted] right away once he found that a unit swap didn’t correct the
issue. [redacted] told us that an update to the firmware on the unit was necessary
to fix the problem. That was done by us on 5/21. We also see record of a phone
conversation the next day stating that the update did not fix the problem.
Firmware updates or issues are not something we can control. It’s like a
computer or smart phone that needs an update to operate a certain application.
Satellite radios as well as certain Head Units are the same these days. At this
point our district manager immediately put on hold two brand new replacement
units for exchange of the potentially faulty product at a time of your
choosing, knowing that you were coming in from out of town and he did not want
you to have a problem with inventory availability as this unit is a very
popular item with us. On 6/20 the district manager personally and immediately
swapped out not only the [redacted] unit but also the SiriusXm unit. He also
updated and re-tuned the system with you at our location. On 6/21 the assistant
manager received a phone call stating you were still having the same problem
and we’re on your way down to have us look at it. Now knowing that this
particular unit must be the cause of the problem the districted manager by
phone on his day off okayed the swap of the unit to a new [redacted] unit at no
charge to you even knowing that you are exchanging a unit missing things like
the box and manual so you would not have to return to the store because you
live so far away. The floor and install team that day stayed late to
accommodate you for this exchange. We understand that this experience has been
frustrating for you. We also understand that you live a great distance from the
location that you chose to have the installation done at. Our team in
Albuquerque has done everything in their power to make this experience as
painless as posable even to the extent of allowing you to store perishable food
in their freezer while you waited for your install. As always we stand behind
our installation and product and will do everything in our power to correct any
unexpected or out of our control issue such as this. Unfortunately we cannot
pick and choose the location that our clients choose to visit, as this is a
decision that has to be made by you. We appreciate that you chose us for your
car audio needs and we will continue to give you the best service and products
that the industry has to offer but reimbursing you for travel cost is not
something we are willing to do. Please remember, this issue was not due to our
installation but a freak issue between the [redacted] and the Sirius Satellite
tuner, both made by different manufacturers. We are pleased however that once
we did everything we could, and you decided to try a different name brand
stereo (at our cost) and take back the now used [redacted] unit, that the problem
went away and now everything is working fine. With that being said we are more
than willing to help you out with any future purchases with deep discounts. We
hope we can continue doing business with you. Please understand, once again,
this was not a normal issue, in fact, with the thousands of these units we
sell, this is the first time we have encountered such an issue at all. Please
feel free to contact [redacted] the distract manager at [redacted] to arrange
any such discounts.
Sincerely
Audio Express Management

We have gone above and beyond for our customers regarding this specific scenario. The radio did blow a fuse but to say it caught on fire is quite misleading. Our customer’s told us they have had other people in there after our install and us knowing it worked when it left we can’t say for sure what...

happened but still we installed a new radio and replaced the fuses the day they brought it in. The customer’s existing wiring we believe to be the root issue as well as other people going into the Audio Express install after it left thus avoiding any and all warranty or liability. They believed the subwoofers they had us install which were brought in literally glued together were blown due to our installation. This is entirely inaccurate as they are broken and attempted to be repaired with a hole in the middle of the woofer cone itself prior to our installation. Bad speakers can stress any stereo or amplifier and cause fuses to blow so the vehicle WONT catch on fire. Knowing all this we have a deep love and respect for all our customers and yesterday I personally offered them two brand new Kicker Comp 15’s which retail about $150 each at no charge in lieu of a refund and they gladly accepted. I’m surprised to get a letter from the Revdex.com after GIVING over $300 in merchandise in an attempt to retain a customer and to help them feel the love and respect we truly have for our customers within Audio Express. Thank you for your time.

Dear Revdex.com; this is a very different situation for us. In our 40 years, this is the first time we have come across a situation such as this. Of course our goal is to always take care of our customers in the very best way possible. We are fair and take pride in going the extra mile for our customers,...

many times even when we know we’re not at fault is certain situations.
With that said, here is as brief an explanation and response as I can give. We recently started a chat service on our web site. It is strictly designed to help our potential customers to set an appointment to come into one of our stores with a scheduled appointment so that they don’t have to wait and we can help the person right away. Also if they decide to make a purchase, we then have the installation scheduled for them beforehand which is something we couldn’t do before. The chat service is done through a third party, the people chatting are not car audio specialist, they are specialist at setting appointments as well as connecting potential customers with the right person when they have questions that the chatter cannot answer, such as what will fit their particular vehicle or how much it will cost to have it installed.
Now with Mr. [redacted]’s chat situation; we experienced something that we have never experienced before in the short time we have offered our CHAT service, and that is about half way through the chat, the connection was lost. Because of this, a new chat was started and the conversation continued. When the appointment and over all original CHAT was sent to the store that Mr. [redacted] chose, only the first part of the chat was sent. So the manager only had access to the original chat, and in that chat, there was nothing said about price. Again because CHAT is so new to us, and we have never experienced something like this, when Mr. [redacted] came to the store for his scheduled appointment and stated the pricing that he expected, our store management looked at the CHAT conversation and explained to Mr. [redacted] that no prices were quoted, as well as the fact that our chatters do not offer any type of pricing during the chat sessions as they do not know pricing at all. They showed Mr. [redacted] what they received on the chat and that was what they had to go by. Mr. [redacted] was not happy with the answer and was adamant that there was more to the CHAT session then what we had been sent or what we had access to at this point; and refused to show us the rest of the conversation he had.
The store manager began to make calls, he was unable to contact anybody who could help at that time and explained this to Mr. [redacted] he further explained that he would continue to research and once we had answers, we would get back to him and do our best to work something out. Even though our policy with CHAT is no prices quoted, and that’s how it’s gone each and every chat thus far, in the nature of customer service he offered Mr. [redacted] a very aggressive discount with the hope that we could work together and meet somewhere that worked for both parties. What he offered was to install the in dash CD/DVD player for $1.00 even though our web site posting plainly showed that it did not come with a $1.00 installation. The installation price for this unit is normally $55.00 when purchased from us, otherwise it’s $110.00 for the installation of the head unit. He also offered to discount the price to install the backup camera, the minimum charge for this is $65.00, [redacted] offered it for $40.00. way below our posted price on our web site for the equipment and the installation that Mr. [redacted] was interested in.
Some vehicles do require extra parts to complete the installation while others do not. Once again there is no way for the CHATTER to know this. Obviously if a vehicle requires extra parts because of how the vehicle was designed by the manufacturer, those necessary parts cost more. Again, not all vehicles require these parts, and those that don’t, obviously don’t have to pay extra for them. They are never included with the price of the product purchased. Once again [redacted] offered Mr. Shader a deep discount on the needed installation parts. Mr. [redacted] refused the good faith deep discounts and demanded we honor the “price quote” he had received during the chat. To remind you, the CHAT information that we had only included the original CHAT before the chat was disconnected and a new chat was started. I arrived back to work after being gone for a few days, It was either the same day all this happened or the following day. I looked at the original chat, as they are all CC’d to me as well as the management team at the store that the customer chose to deal with during the chat. What I received was exactly what the store received, and on it there was NO agreement to pricing etc…At this point I contacted the person who works for and is in charge of the Chat team we work with. He saw what we saw, once again because the original chat was disconnected and a new chat was started.
I asked him to go as far as he possible could to research this matter, I needed a guarantee that there was no other chat connected to this chat that offered or agreed to any type of pricing. The CHATTER himself believed that the original chat was all there was himself. So they went to the top of the chain at the company that supplies the chat server which is located in India. I was not aware of this fact, we never had a need prior to this matter to research any chat like this. So it took the people in India I believe two days to research this matter. That of course is after trying to contact them and find the right person to talk to considering the time difference between Arizona and India. They were able to find the second part of the chat, which was assigned a different chat number etc…The fact is the CHATTER did not offer any specific pricing, what he did do however is answer a pricing question from Mr. [redacted] by saying “correct”. That was enough for me and at this point we contacted Mr. [redacted] as we promised we would once we had researched the matter and got to the bottom of what happened. We offered the exact pricing that Mr. [redacted] demanded, even though doing this would cause us to lose money on the transaction, we were happy to do it. All we asked Mr. [redacted] for originally was the needed time to research the situation fully.
Mr. [redacted] refused our offer stating he would never allow us to touch his vehicle. He then demanded that we pay him  for his time at $75.00 per hour as well as gas money for driving to the location that he chose to deal with. We do have locations much closer to Mr. [redacted] by the way, but he chose our Tempe store. We were more than happy to offer Mr. [redacted] the pricing he demanded once we were able to research the matter. He refused and of course that is his choice. We will not pay for Mr. Scahder’s gas or time. Our store management could only go by what the actual CHAT letter said. And that we had made no mention of pricing or an agreement made to pricing that Mr. [redacted] stated. Our management team did however offer to deeply discount the items installation cost on the spot and during the original appointment scheduled even though the actual CHAT in question that we received said NOTHING about discounting our offering or agreeing to our already very low and discounted posted price for this equipment on our web site.
Sorry for the long response but I felt it necessary to give as much information on this matter as possible. We are very sorry that this happened, I believe we went over and above at every step by offering major labor discounts initially as well as the exact demanded pricing after we researched the matter and found that there was a second part to the chat. I would also like to say that we got right on this and did everything we could to find out what happened as quickly as we could, and we communicated with Mr. [redacted] what we were doing and that we would get answers as quickly as humanly possible.
There was absolutely NO “bait and switch” as Mr. [redacted] has stated in various bad reviews he has written on [redacted] and others I believe. We do not and never have, in all our 40 years of business operated that way! As I said, we are here to serve our customers and we take a lot of pride in doing just that, always striving to do it better than any other car audio shop in town! All we Asked for and all we needed was a little time to research what happened. We offered an amazing discounted price in case he wanted to get it done the day of the appointment and offered the exact pricing he wanted once we did research and got answers.
Oh and I personally called Mr. [redacted] after he refused our last offer to our area supervisor, he didn’t answer, I left a message on TWO phone numbers we had for him and gave my name, number, position and email address with no response to this day.
Thank you for your time in this matter.
[redacted]
President Audio Express

Good afternoon,

In regard to Mr. [redacted] We have had some multiple run in’s with Mr. [redacted] regarding his purchase and have to date done everything we could possibly to take care of [redacted]. What [redacted] doesn’t share or express in his complaint is he has...

personally cut and destroyed product which was not in any condition for repair or replacement, but we went ahead and swapped it out to keep Mr. [redacted] happy. The entire product [redacted] purchased has a manufacture warranty but [redacted] doesn’t want to deal with the manufacture, instead he returns to our stores with threats and demands a refund. We have tried to help [redacted] multiple times and this last time we asked offered AGAIN to swap his radio even though he didn’t purchase our in store replacement and we have already swapped out his radio once before as he was saying it wasn’t working. Mr. [redacted] has had this product in his vehicle since March of 2014 nearly 7 month and since we have already swapped out his stereo once and gave him a new camera for the one he destroyed. We do not offer refunds on product which has been installed and we have done what we can to take care of [redacted]; but [redacted] refuses to have us look at his vehicle to determine what the problem is. If Mr. [redacted] would like for us to go through his install and check the product we will be more than happy to do so, he has a labor warranty until March 2015. On or about October 15 [redacted] offered to replace the radio if in fact it was defective, but If not working due to abuse we will be forced to turn it over to the manufacture at that point. So please contact us so we can get this resolved.

Thank you in advance

good morning,

in regard to [redacted]'s complaint we have tried to address all of his concerns but have not been given the time or day to do so , when [redacted] came in at 5 pm we had already filled the day up with installs and being we only had two hours before closing, didn't give us...

enough time to do anything. we requested [redacted] to bring the car in allowing us enough time to work on it he refused and said he wouldn't be back. 

From the beginning of the sale [redacted] requested a refund on his sales due to thinking he paid for tweeters which he didn't and at the time we explained we had a no refund policy. So in lieu of him wanting a refund we adjusted his invoice and added a pair of tweeters at no extra charge for the product, but requested he pay the labor in which he agreed. 

When [redacted] brought his equipment, his amplifier had all the wires still attached to it someone had simply cut all the wires instead of talking the time to unplug them upon removal. From what my technician explained to me one of the cut wires was a cat5 which was the cable for his bass knob. when we did the install there was no new cat5 cable or bass knob present to install so the claim of us throwing it away is false! in the event we did throw a cable or knob away we would have replaced it anyhow.

We reached out a few days after [redacted] left in hopes of resolving any concerns he had explaining we would do whatever it took to make him happy, explaining there would be no charge since he had our installation warranty.  but [redacted] refused and said he was going elsewhere to get it looked at which voided all of his warranty with Audio Express by doing so. 

he still has a manufacture warranty which is applied until 3-2015

in hopes of still trying to work [redacted] we will be willing to give him in store credit on the tweeters he removed  but we are not offering anything further as the rest was labor for his own product power flo and an alpine power pack which nothing is wrong with it.

sincerely

In regards to [redacted] and his issues our stance is we have gone above and

beyond to take care of him and on each occasion he has made matters worse than

what they are. [redacted] has a history of abusing the electronic product we’ve

installed for him, has been abusive to our...

employees including violent threats,

and manipulates the truth. He has blown his speakers and even though it fell

under a “customer abuse” scenario we still gave him brand new product with no

charges including the labor. As a company, we take responsibility for the car

and the condition it came in. His car has had several issues unrelated to

anything electronic. He has had his friends by his own admission uninstall and

reinstall his lights, thus voiding any warranty or liability of our company as

stated on our receipts.

[redacted] brought us his car faulty and not working and it is our stance when he tried

to re-install his lights he damaged his head-light housing resulting in the HID bulb

falling out and melting the casing around it which caused the smoke which he calls fire.

That is why he came in and in that moment we tried to help him out and swapped

his HID lights for him even though he obviously broke them out of good faith.

Regarding [redacted]’s character he has cancelled his credit cards after his purchases trying to hurt

both our company as well as the credit card company on more than one occasion

and in good faith we have put that aside and tried to do our best in helping

him out. the hid lights are plug and play, making it a simple install and should  wouldn't

cause any of the issues he is stating. we sent our lead technician to his home to look at

his vehicle and found nothing wrong so our suggestion to him was to take the vehicle to

a dealer and have the vehicle looked over. and if the dealer felt it was caused by the plug

and play product we would need a call before anything was performed so we could get

ahold of the manufacture of the product to send a technician to look at what happen.

PLEASE READ MY EXPERIENCE. I purchased an alarm with remote start. My truck has worked with no problems 160,000 miles until audio express installed an alarm / remote start. I started my truck with the remote and the starter stayed engaged while the truck was idled smoke came out from under my truck. Audio express said it was impossible and could not happen basically called me a liar. I quit using the remote start unless I can see the truck. Then lights were staying on at this point I wanted the alarm uninstalled because I have problems I never had before. Before the alarm was removed I started my truck with the alarm and I forgot accidentally hit the breaks and now my truck has not started in almost a week. I had towed to two different shops. TIPM computer replaced now the main engine PCM computer is also not working. This is going to cost over $5,000.00 to repair and audio express claims it was not the alarm. Both mechanics said it had to be the alarm. The alarm was not installed correctly and the vehicle computer was grounded damaging so far TIPM and PCM computers alarm also erased my transponder keys. Truck still not running I had to file an insurance claim. This is my experience I will never use this company and will tell everyone I know NOT to use this company.

At this point this is where we stand with Mr. [redacted], he is using and abusing the powers of the Revdex.com in a wrong manner.

At this point we have offered Mr. [redacted] a resolution and he is upset we are not giving him free product. So please  close this case since we will not be refunding any product or giving free product away for free. If he wants to accept the offer of free labor than he can reach out to our location he keeps visiting. As well he has not mentioned any dash issue each time he has visited the store, we believe it is from normal wear and tear which he and I spoke about in the past. Which I can forward you email threads that he and I have sent back and forth if you like.

 

Thank you very much.

 

If he would like to follow up as in our last conversation to take the vehicle to a dealership and get it diagnosed to determine any fault on the plug and play product and once again if the dealership finds anything wrong with it to [redacted] at [redacted] before anything is done.

we have done what we can and have offered a solution, we are taking our stance on this and consider this case closed .

thank you

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

 

Regards,

Fact of the matter is that audio express had ruined my car, no way to justify that all I needed was a stereo deck for my system they installed it and ruined my car my dash is ruined and my front speakers are ruined I dont want this buisness to ever touch another one of my cars ever! I dont want nothing else but my money back they ruined my car I spent over ten grand on! there is no excuse for poor buisness practices it should of been done right the first time around! shame on you!

We have gone above and beyond for our customers regarding this specific scenario. The radio did blow a fuse but to say it caught on fire is quite misleading. Our customer’s told us they have had other people in there after our install and us knowing it worked when it left we can’t say for sure what...

happened but still we installed a new radio and replaced the fuses the day they brought it in. The customer’s existing wiring we believe to be the root issue as well as other people going into the Audio Express install after it left thus avoiding any and all warranty or liability. They believed the subwoofers they had us install which were brought in literally glued together were blown due to our installation. This is entirely inaccurate as they are broken and attempted to be repaired with a hole in the middle of the woofer cone itself prior to our installation. Bad speakers can stress any stereo or amplifier and cause fuses to blow so the vehicle WONT catch on fire. Knowing all this we have a deep love and respect for all our customers and yesterday I personally offered them two brand new Kicker Comp 15’s which retail about $150 each at no charge in lieu of a refund and they gladly accepted. I’m surprised to get a letter from the Revdex.com after GIVING over $300 in merchandise in an attempt to retain a customer and to help them feel the love and respect we truly have for our customers within Audio Express. Thank you for your time.

Good afternoon, my name is [redacted] and I am the Arizona Regional Manager of Audio Express. I’m VERY sorry that we failed to respond to the second...

response from Mr. [redacted]; had I know, believe me, I would have sent a response straight away. But it was a miscommunication between the President of our company and I.  We have been in communication with Mr. [redacted] since day one and he has made appointments now a couple different times to come in and get a few things changed around in his vehicle.

 

After a thorough investigation by my employees and I, what we have found is …

 

Mr. [redacted] brought his vehicle into our Chandler location originally and was quoted a price to swap his factory radio for an aftermarket and was quoted a price which was higher than what Mr. [redacted] wanted to spend; so Mr. [redacted] went to our Maryvale location and purchased the radio and did not purchase the vehicle adaption harness which retains the factory amp. Instead he purchased the basic harness which required bypassing the factory amp and using the power from the head unit which was purchased.  He contacted me looking for a solution due to not understanding what he was being told by our Maryvale location and wanted a second opinion.

I had him return to our location in Chandler to get a review and I asked the install manager to let me know what he found. When I was informed I was told he had blown front speakers and that Mr. [redacted] requested that we put the 150 dollar harness at no charge and replaced his speakers for him since he felt it was our fault they went bad. I spoke to Mr. [redacted] and informed him that either with the 150 dollar harnesses or the basic one it wouldn’t cause his speakers to blow.

He and I spoke and he was returning to the Chandler location so our installer could verify his claim on his broken panel, I explained to Mr [redacted] if its not bad due to normal wear and tear that we would look into fixing if in fact our employee broke it due to installation and he was returning to purchase more equipment to upgrade his stereo system; then we didn’t hear from him until our employee Jesus contacted him and he said he would be in that weekend, which he never returned.

Then another week went by and he came in saying he would return that Saturday again to purchase speakers and we were waiving the labor charge of 37.50 to install it, we even offered to sell him the Harness and waive the rewire labor of 80.00. Mr. [redacted] agreed to dismiss the Revdex.com complaint and drop the Yelp review when he was in our store on 12/20/13 but to date he still has not returned, from my understanding he was awaiting an approval from Progressive which is one of our finance partners.

 

While we would have most definitely preferred this not to escalate to where it did,  we have tried and offered solutions  and provided the very best customer service possible in order to rectify the matter as quickly as possible. I can say we have done everything short of refunding Mr. [redacted] to make sure he was taken care of even with a customer who made it nearly impossible, I believe we continued to offer the very best service possible and I’m proud of my team for that.

 

Thank you for your time in this matter.

 

Complaint number [redacted]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The camera was only a minor part of the total issues with the install and ongoing failures. Audio express failed to install the system correctly from the original purchase. I did remove the camera, due to fears of causing more issues and being refused by audio express to look at what might be wrong. The cost of the camera is less than 1% of the total pupurchase and had it been installed properly, would not have failed. 

I have taken the truck to a different installer for inspection. They have verified the original install and 8-10 supposed fixes (at a large cost to me), were not complete and / or not done correctly. They found that 75% - 80% of the installed product was done incorrectly and not functioning. Some issues (too many to list all) were main power and ground wires not secured or connected properly, the placement of the sub and speaker are incorrect causing failures, the install of the camera was so haphazardly done with wires placed between moving parts, they were surprised it worked for more than a day, and the manufacturer's part were not the cause of ANY of the issues. 

Audio Express did not provide the product that I paid for from the beginning, nor did they ever correct the issues or errors after 9-10 attempts at my expense. They have defrauded me and knowingly sold me a broken and failed system from day 1. 

Regards,

Good afternoon,

In regard to Mr. [redacted] We have had some multiple run in’s with Mr. [redacted] regarding his purchase and have to date done everything we could possibly to take care of [redacted]. What [redacted] doesn’t share or express in his complaint is he has personally cut and destroyed product which was not in any condition for repair or replacement, but we went ahead and swapped it out to keep Mr. [redacted] happy. The entire product [redacted] purchased has a manufacture warranty but [redacted] doesn’t want to deal with the manufacture, instead he returns to our stores with threats and demands a refund. We have tried to help [redacted] multiple times and this last time we asked offered AGAIN to swap his radio even though he didn’t purchase our in store replacement and we have already swapped out his radio once before as he was saying it wasn’t working. Mr. [redacted] has had this product in his vehicle since March of 2014 nearly 7 month and since we have already swapped out his stereo once and gave him a new camera for the one he destroyed. We do not offer refunds on product which has been installed and we have done what we can to take care of [redacted]; but [redacted] refuses to have us look at his vehicle to determine what the problem is. If Mr. [redacted] would like for us to go through his install and check the product we will be more than happy to do so, he has a labor warranty until March 2015. On or about October 15 [redacted] offered to replace the radio if in fact it was defective, but If not working due to abuse we will be forced to turn it over to the manufacture at that point. So please contact us so we can get this resolved.

Thank you in advance

we have already resolved any and all issues customer was having on 5-5-16.  as well we fixed some wiring issues he had on vehicle from another retailer that could have cause severe damage to vehicle.
as far as we are concerned this matter has been closed and the customer is happy...

 
james

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait until for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,