good car audio shops - becoming a thing of the past?

[Knowmadic 10+ year member]

Customer service trumps everything, people will be more then willing to buy from you if you have A+ customer service, because that is how your name starts getting around. Just look at Crutchfield, sure they are pricey, but **** their customer service is legendary.

 

[Dub7sonoma Premium Member]

I typically do work by myself but when it comes to box building or something I'm clueless on I'm willing to pay a premium. My.local shop charges 300 bucks for a custom box for my t-top storage area, but I had seen there boxes before and knew they were quality. Heck I looked inside mine the other day and the attention to detail was crazy. The dude took 6+ hours on my box. It was worth the 300 vs a hack job for 150. The one thing that sold me was there customer service though. Absolutely 100% top notch. Every customer that comes in there they call by name. They only.sell you what you need and not useless crap. The guys actually care about the hobby. I go in there just to talk sometimes. Btw, I'm 18 and work a minimum wage job and still am willing to spend that much for quality.

are you talking about BB?

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

The trend today is by stuff cheap from distributors online and put it together yourself.
I saved loads of money that way. Never paid anybody to do anything for me.

This is the information age. Google is the new library. Learning to do stuff is as easy as 1 2 3. No need for "experts" anymore that charge $100 for an amp install.

i tend to agree with this while i do agree with custom work a good shop has lots of value but i do feel shops charge a lil to much for basic installs,you go in and drop 3 400 bucks on a amp and have to pay another 100 to put it in maybe thats a fair price idk but it seems like alot to me,so i had to learn how to do it myself caues when the install cost more then the product im puting in i decided to teach myself how to do it

 

[Full Tilt 10+ year member]

Pardon me?

You're preaching lol

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Price matching the Internet is not necessary for car audio shops to survive. Potential customers of a shop should be sold on the shop, not the equipment alone. It's the shop's failure to provide value that gets people upset about equipment prices. If your install bay is putting out hack jobs for high labor rates, on top of perceived high equipment prices, they're doomed to fail. That's a business management and staff training problem. Some people simply should not ever work on paying customers' cars.

 

[d77543020 10+ year member]

Customer service trumps everything, people will be more then willing to buy from you if you have A+ customer service, because that is how your name starts getting around. Just look at Crutchfield, sure they are pricey, but **** their customer service is legendary.

this is true but is there anyone on this car audio site that buys from Crutchfield?on a side note i know the one and only reason to go into a shop is the warrenty but i have notice a lot of these dealers are now 1.charging the customer to ship back a defictive item that was purchased or 2.wont do a in store swap and they send the item back and customer has to wait kind of defeats the purpose of a warrenty if i have to wait or pay for shipping

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

are you talking about BB?

No a place called audio edge.

 

[Ahmed Johnson]

Pardon me?

Oh, I'm sorry. I mean I agree with you and that was well written. I was looking on the smd sight and I think I saw your video with the ct sounds amp and the white pick up. If it was, did your truck ever get recovered?

 

[WhatsAminiTruck]

I had to go through a few bad experiences and a bit of wasted money to find which shops hired people like me and which shops knew what the **** they were doing. I was just in the local shop yesterday (the good one), and someone walked in who just came from audioexpress trying to find a better deal.

He was like, "I can get 2 pioneers rated at 3000watts for $150... Why would I pay $200 for a single 600watt Memphis?"

 

[des343 10+ year member]

Price matching the Internet is not necessary for car audio shops to survive. Potential customers of a shop should be sold on the shop, not the equipment alone. It's the shop's failure to provide value that gets people upset about equipment prices. If your install bay is putting out hack jobs for high labor rates, on top of perceived high equipment prices, they're doomed to fail. That's a business management and staff training problem. Some people simply should not ever work on paying customers' cars.

I disagree a shop should be more focused on making money on the work they do than the profits from the equipment matching online pricing still leaves a good bit of room for profit all the same..as o stated imo most audio especially the JLs and Sundowns and (more quite a long list Imo) are far overpriced as it is I don't buy those products new by any means I will NEVER own a sundown product for example until I find then at a worthy reasonable price...I'm certainly not going to pay a premium to a shop for equipment that has quite a premium even at their lowest retail price ...

 

[des343 10+ year member]

I had to go through a few bad experiences and a bit of wasted money to find which shops hired people like me and which shops knew what the **** they were doing. I was just in the local shop yesterday (the good one), and someone walked in who just came from audioexpress trying to find a better deal.
He was like, "I can get 2 pioneers rated at 3000watts for $150... Why would I pay $200 for a single 600watt Memphis?"

True story tho that's exactly how I feel

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

I disagree a shop should be more focused on making money on the work they do than the profits from the equipment matching online pricing still leaves a good bit of room for profit all the same..as o stated imo most audio especially the JLs and Sundowns and (more quite a long list Imo) are far overpriced as it is I don't buy those products new by any means I will NEVER own a sundown product for example until I find then at a worthy reasonable price...I'm certainly not going to pay a premium to a shop for equipment that has quite a premium even at their lowest retail price ...

We're going to disagree on this forever, but I wanted to give you the benefit of a reply. I've said my piece about "overpriced" equipment so many times online and it never changes anyone's opinion.

 

[Dub7sonoma Premium Member]

No a place called audio edge.

ok I have never been to that one, I do all my own stuff. I think BB said he knows you. I met him through craigslist and have found that he is a great guy

 

[Steven2002]

The internet has killed local car audio shop sells. Before, there was a profit made in selling gear. Now they can't sell and rely on their installs. Many shops have folded up shop. We still have local shop but they are extremely expensive on installs and they don't like installing gear they haven't sold to you. I've learned to do my own installs. It's a shame it's went that way but what can you do?

 

[NuckinFutz 10+ year member]

ok I have never been to that one, I do all my own stuff. I think BB said he knows you. I met him through craigslist and have found that he is a great guy

Yes I've met him. He helped me out a lot. Set my amps with his dd-1 for free.