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<blockquote data-quote="greynolds" data-source="post: 4913795" data-attributes="member: 593834">I stopped by the shop on the way home from work this evening.&nbsp; I&#039;m a bit surprised at what portions of the discussion went well and which didn&#039;t.Much to my surprise, there wasn&#039;t any attempt to justify the shoddy build on the floor that was built above the subwoofers and amp.&nbsp; They looked it over with me and readily agreed that it wasn&#039;t up to snuff (the owner wasn&#039;t around - not sure if that matters).&nbsp; I can&#039;t leave it with them till later in the week (I need a way to get to work...), but the plan is to drop it off Friday evening or Saturday morning and have them work on it Saturday morning.Also much to my surprise, but not in a good way, the guy who seemed like the junior installer attempted to tell me that the antenna was working correctly.&nbsp; He also mentioned that some Toyota&#039;s have 2 antenna cables, one of which is a tiny wire that they can&#039;t hook up.&nbsp; I told him that the inability to receive the strongest AM and FM stations in the area - WBZ 1030 AM, WBCN 104.1 FM, WKLB 102.5 FM, WXKS 107.9 FM, etc. (these are all REALLY strong stations that I&#039;ve never had trouble receiving on any radio, including cheap clock radios) is not acceptable.&nbsp; He then went on to say that it&#039;s normal to lose AM reception on an aftermarket radio.&nbsp; At this point (still keeping a calm voice), I lost my patience and called BS.&nbsp; I&#039;ve never completely lost the ability to tune any of these stations on an aftermarket radio.&nbsp; I&#039;ve done several simple installs (headunit and speakers only - no external amp or subwoofers) in the past and had a system installed by Tweeter in a Honda Accord a while back, so I&#039;m not completely green //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif.I also pointed out the tool marks on the dashboard, which he didn&#039;t seem interested in.At this point, we went back inside and spoke with one of the more senior guys.&nbsp; He seemed to more or less agree with me regarding radio reception, though he did mention the part about the 2 cable antenna.&nbsp; He said that when I bring it in this weekend, they&#039;ll try an external antenna so they can narrow down where the problem is exactly.&nbsp; He also said that they should be able to do something about the tool marks.The radio reception thing definitely doesn&#039;t leave me with a good feeling at this point.&nbsp; If the 2 cable situation is a common thing in Toyota&#039;s they really should have mentioned it to me.&nbsp; However, I know of other people who have installed aftermarket radios in their 2008 Highlanders (some using the same Kenwood headunit I got) and I have yet to hear any complaints about bad radio reception.&nbsp; To me, radio reception is a key feature of a car audio system.&nbsp; It&#039;s nice to have satellite, CD, iPod, and whatever else, but AM/FM is an absolute must have, deal breaker type feature.I&#039;m certainly going to give them a chance to fix it before I resort to anything like calling my credit card company, but I don&#039;t have a good feeling about this.I think I feel comfortable naming the shop at this point for those who are interested.&nbsp; It&#039;s Audio Werks in Tewksbury.&nbsp; I&#039;m really wishing at this point that I had picked another shop.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="greynolds, post: 4913795, member: 593834"] I stopped by the shop on the way home from work this evening. I'm a bit surprised at what portions of the discussion went well and which didn't. Much to my surprise, there wasn't any attempt to justify the shoddy build on the floor that was built above the subwoofers and amp. They looked it over with me and readily agreed that it wasn't up to snuff (the owner wasn't around - not sure if that matters). I can't leave it with them till later in the week (I need a way to get to work...), but the plan is to drop it off Friday evening or Saturday morning and have them work on it Saturday morning. Also much to my surprise, but not in a good way, the guy who seemed like the junior installer attempted to tell me that the antenna was working correctly. He also mentioned that some Toyota's have 2 antenna cables, one of which is a tiny wire that they can't hook up. I told him that the inability to receive the strongest AM and FM stations in the area - WBZ 1030 AM, WBCN 104.1 FM, WKLB 102.5 FM, WXKS 107.9 FM, etc. (these are all REALLY strong stations that I've never had trouble receiving on any radio, including cheap clock radios) is not acceptable. He then went on to say that it's normal to lose AM reception on an aftermarket radio. At this point (still keeping a calm voice), I lost my patience and called BS. I've never completely lost the ability to tune any of these stations on an aftermarket radio. I've done several simple installs (headunit and speakers only - no external amp or subwoofers) in the past and had a system installed by Tweeter in a Honda Accord a while back, so I'm not completely green [IMG]//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif[/IMG]. I also pointed out the tool marks on the dashboard, which he didn't seem interested in. At this point, we went back inside and spoke with one of the more senior guys. He seemed to more or less agree with me regarding radio reception, though he did mention the part about the 2 cable antenna. He said that when I bring it in this weekend, they'll try an external antenna so they can narrow down where the problem is exactly. He also said that they should be able to do something about the tool marks. The radio reception thing definitely doesn't leave me with a good feeling at this point. If the 2 cable situation is a common thing in Toyota's they really should have mentioned it to me. However, I know of other people who have installed aftermarket radios in their 2008 Highlanders (some using the same Kenwood headunit I got) and I have yet to hear any complaints about bad radio reception. To me, radio reception is a key feature of a car audio system. It's nice to have satellite, CD, iPod, and whatever else, but AM/FM is an absolute must have, deal breaker type feature. I'm certainly going to give them a chance to fix it before I resort to anything like calling my credit card company, but I don't have a good feeling about this. I think I feel comfortable naming the shop at this point for those who are interested. It's Audio Werks in Tewksbury. I'm really wishing at this point that I had picked another shop. [/QUOTE]

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