Long story short - guy takes his 2007 Civic to Circuit City for a major radio install, Circuit City allegedly messes it up, guy takes his Civic to the Honda dealer and Honda tells him that Circuit City caused over $12,000 in damages, parts and labor. Circuit City won't do anything to fix.

Link to thread:

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/garage/86748-vtecnicals-circuit-city-road-shop-installation.html

Link to autoblog:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/28/carsumer-advocacy-ebay-winner-m3-update-and-circuit-city-allege/

 

this is no joke, the same thing happened to me. i went in to get a subwoofer installed, and they caused over 1000 dollars worth of damage. when they drilled through the firewall to get the power cable from the battery to the back of the car, they drilled through the brake booster, which essentially controls the entire braking system on the car. did they tell me they drilled through the brake booster when i came to pick it up? NO! the radio was blasting when i picked it up, so before i drove off i turned it down and noticed a hissing noise. when asked what it was, they played dumb and insinuated that my car was making that noise when it came in. long story short, i had to drive to the honda dealership, who held my car for 7 days before they could fix it. the repair was 700 dollars, and i racked up a 300 dollar rental car bill while my car sat at honda. when i finally got the car back, it turned out circuit city had installed the dash wrong after the subwoofer install, and the fans were either on full blast or nothing at all. i had to go back to circuit city to have them fix the controls. after all that was done, i had to file the claim against circuit city's insurance company for 1000 dollars. before this episode, i had given circuit city roughly 3000 dollars in business. since then, i havent set foot in any of their stores.

 

Hmm... This gives me a bad feeling cause i gotta go back to circuit city to get my in dash navi system fixed. When they installed my eclipse avn-5510 they put it to far back and everytime the screen opens to change cd's or dvd's it hits the metra kit. Also the circulation switch thing keeps moving from side to side. If i have it to the left it wants to go to the right. When i put it to the right it wants to go to the left. Hopefully i wont have any crazy problems like the op and post above. Thanks for the info though. It may be to late for me though.

 

wow...im glad I do my own work in my car >.>...at least i know if something happened to my car it was my own fault rather than some idiot who doesn't know how to install radios...I've never taken my car to any place to install my audio equipment and probably wont for a long time...

 

Circuit City sucks on so many levels. I won't step foot in their stores!Circuit City Cuts 3,400 'Overpaid' Workers - washingtonpost.com

 

Most chain stores are like that.
They're all about volume.

 

:( :( :( :(

 

So did you get your $1,000 back?

 

hey you can fix that they prolly just didnt get te tension right on the linkage-
open your glovebox- you dont even have to take it off-
empty it out tho lol
and pinch the sides in-
it should flop down
you can see the cables just un clip the one for the switch, and put the switch all the way to one side- and then re-clip it in


0-=-=-=
also circuit city sux, so does best buy-
do it yourself or sit there and watch them do it lol

 

I will not even walk into a Circus (HAHA) City - no one will help you and they totally ignore the customers.

Cat: x

 

You're better off working on your own car, you're more than likely just as trained as the guys they stick in there at places like CC and BB.

 

Thanks for the info on how to fix it. I actually have to go back to CC for sure now cause my wife is going to take my metra kit and Navi system for her fit. She uses it more then i do anyway and now i can do what i originally wanted and put in prosport gauges with a regular din CD player. I will do that myself but CC has to do the Navi so i dont lose my warranty. Thats the last thing i need is my Navi to die and them not cover it.

 

yea i actually have no complaints with their insurance company. after faxing them my bills (repairs + rental), i had my check within 3 days. but the point is, i shouldn't have even had to deal with their insurance. it's not like a subwoofer install is something foreign to them. it's all they do!

 

in defense of circuit city and best buy I have a very good friend who is a former Circuit City Road Shop employee and is now a Best Buy Supervisor in their car audio dept. This just like any other service can be good and bad but the majority of the people working in these places are actually trained and good at what they do. I've seen first hand some of their awesome work.

 

all those stores...bestbuy, circuit city, or any other major stores that sells car audio and does installation hires highschool kids or dropouts who has no experience in car audio and are basically self taught.

For example...I use to work at bestbuy and upon hiring they hired my cousin also. at the time he knew a bit of car audio but through experience and getting certified on his own he began to know more and is really competitent and does clean work.

 

I can agree that some of the employees at CC and BB are total idiots but there are others that actually know what they are talking about. The guy that installed my system in my Buick a few years ago did a great job and it was completely free of flawes. I even popped open the dash just to see and it was all beautifully done. To bad the infinities were junk and i kept blowing them. haha. That was my mistake though for expecting infinity reference subs and surrounds to hold up to my high listening volumes though. Also i have never had any issues with there insurance so that is why i went back to them with my fit. I have went through countless amps, speakers, decks, and even wiring and they have always given me new stuff and usually an upgrade for free. After reading all of this i will prob start going to actual audio shops and get everything done just for some CYA action.

 

It's just how chains are I guess, even like food with McD's or BK - get 90% of of it right and you're all good

 

lol when I was working at best buy people would always complain about circuit city's car installs. One guy had an alarm installed there and they made a mess with the wiring (exposed wiring, electrical tape for connections).

 

yah, really depends on the individual doing the install and their managers
allocating the proper staff to do more challenging jobs.

but they are based on speed so they will not hesitate to start
drilling when needed...which could potentially become a major issue.

 

Update: as of last week Circuit City's third party insurance is taking about $10,000 of the bill..