i think it would be funny to read some stupid stories. So here goes

After a customer stripped out his seats, and cushioning (what about 20 lbs.) out of the back of his civic to lighten the load to gain a few horsepower, he then dropped in a couple hundred pounds of audio equipment.. box, amps. capcitor.. ect..

wheres the logic.

Been there seen that several hundred times, especially after the fast and the furryous movies.

Here's a couple from when I worked at the big blue sh*thole.

Idiot #1

Comes in has an appointment to have front speakers put into his 93 crapilier. Pull the car in check it in and go to give him the price for the labor and parts. Works out to little under $50 for the install, speaker harnesses, and the shop fee. The kid starts trying to haggle the price with me. I tell him this is the price there's nothing I or a manager is going to do for him. So now he starts trying to get me to do it outside of work. First offers me 20, then 30, and finally 50. At that point I say if you're going to pay me 50 to do it why won't you just sign the paperwork so I can do it now at work. The idiot gets all huffy saying that I'm stupid and anyone else would take the money. I'm too loyal to Best Buy and that they would fire me in a heartbeat if it would save them money. Well the last part is true sure, it's retail. This kid was one of those shady people that you know if anything went wrong he'd be screaming saying I did it away from work. In the end he paid the $50 for the whole 10 minutes it took me to put in the speakers. Me 1 idiot 0

Idiot #2

Has an appointment to have a Pioneer 5700 flipout installed. Same thing do the checklist give him the price quote, he signs it. Then I tell him that the unit will be hookoed up so video will not be displayed while the car is moving. He says ok and initials the spot on the workorder that he understands and leaves. Get the screen in, and working. Call the guy up tell him the car is done. He comes in pays for the install and parts, I start demoing the ipod interface, sat etc etc. When I get to the video part I show him the whole parking brake thing and he flips out saying that's not how I thought it was going to work. I thought it would play when the car was moving. Right there I'm about ready to hit this guy. Not only did I tell him that it would not do that. The salesguys tell people that and we have a large sign that says we hook up screens like that right next to the display along with a copy of the statute that says screens in view of the driver cannot display video while the car is in motion. The guy says take it out I'm going to return it. I say ok, but you do understand that the labor and parts you just paid for can't be nor will they be returned. You will also be charged a 15% restocking fee on the screen itself since it's been opened and is not defective. That just sends him over the edge. Management gets involved at this point cause I just can't deal with this guy anymore. He starts mouthing off at the manager, who by the way used to be one of my best installers and he don't take being yelled at very well. So he brings the guy inside to look at the display sine the guy said there was not a sign that said how we hooked them up. The guy sees the sign and all of a sudden just stops jaw drops and says sorry to not only the manager but to me as well. In the end he kept the screen, as much as I would have loved to pull the thing out for him. Hmm $150 for the install, $170 for the gm bose/onstar interface, $150 for the restocking fee, that would have been nice $470+ all because of a wire that I wouldn't ground out for him. Me 2 idiot 0

Idiot #3

A Walk-in. Guy comes in, before either of us can ask him what he wants, he starts yelling at the top of his lungs. GET A F**KING MANAGER IN HERE NOW YOU GUYS F**KED UP MY CAR. We look at each other and just say ok hold on a sec we'll page one back here. Mind you we still have no idea what this guy wants at all. Everytime we say anything to him he just repeats GET A F**KING MANAGER IN HERE NOW YOU GUYS F**KED UP MY CAR. A couple minutes go by manager finally shows up, the same guy from #2. Customer tries to start yelling at the manager(bad idea) manager cuts him off says IF YOU DON'T STOP YELLING YOU CAN GET OUT OR I'LL CALL THE POLICE AND HAVE YOU THROWN OUT. This calms the idiot down. So the manager can finally find out what the deal is. Guy tells him we put an alarm/remote start in his tahoe and the trans went. The dealer says it's becuase the r/s wasn't done properly. So far I'm like ok it is possible for that to happen since there is a wire in the ignition harness that if it's not powered during r/s wil cause that to happen. Manager knowing the same thing says ok do you have the paperwork with you from the installation. Guy digs it out of this big binder that he had with him. As he hands the folded invoice over to the manager The other installer and I just start laughing. Turns out the alarm was put in at Circuit city, not Best Buy. We did his wife's tahoe not his. Immediatley the guy starts apologizing profusely. He leaves and we just laughed about that for about half an hour. ME 3 Idiot 0

And another one

Went to work this morning. Opened the shop got it ready for my first two appointments. The phone rings, I pick it up the guy on the phone tells me we put a Viper 791 in his car. The remote isn't working and he can't get the alarm to disarm so he can start the car. I ask him if he remembers where we put the valet switch he says no (of course). So I find out what kind of car he got he says 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Dale JR Edition. I remember this guy, a real tool. I tell him where I put the valet switch and how to disarm the alarm. He says ok hangs up and I dismiss it. An hour later I get another call, same guy still can't get the alarm to disarm. I ask him if the alarm starts going off as soon as he opens the door. He says I don't think it is. I'm thinking ok somethings wrong with the door trigger maybe. So I tell him to open the trunk to set the alarm off then to try the valet switch. He says ok hangs up. I dismiss it again operator error isn't it great. About 2 hours later I hear the bay door open and slam shut. My other installer says something I couldn't hear being upside down under the dash of a car. All of a sudden I hear this guys voice yelling and screaming how we messed up his car and how we were going to pay for a new car and how he was going to kick my ass. I get out of the car I'm working on. The tool sees me and just starts flipping out. I'm not even listening to him at this point. Once he stops yelling I ask him where the car is. He says it's on a tow truck and will be here in a minute. Mind you he also tells me we will be paying for the tow. The tow truck pulls up and I go talk to the driver. The driver tells me the guy was cursing and everything wouldn't even let the tow driver try to disarm it. At this point the customer has come outside too. I ask the driver if he'll let me get up on the flatbed for a minute. He says ok. I grabbed the keys from the customer. Set the alarm off, disarmed it put it into valet mode, and had the car running without even coming off the truck. I turn around shoot the customer a look and say it's working now. So customer says well my remote still doesn't work. I look at it. Appearantly he dropped the remote and the antenna must have cracked off. He superglued it back on. I tell him the damage to the remote isn't covered under the warranty and he'll have to buy a new transmitter. My other installer by this point has called one of our managers to help deal with this guy. So of course he thinks he should get a new transmitter since it was only 4 months old and we should still pay for the tow. To make a long story less long he ends up paying full price for a new remote and the tow. I feel much better now. Oh and by the way under normal circumstances I would just exchange the transmitter, but hey be an ass to me why should I go out of my way to help you.

nice one.

not to bright installer:

so its a little slow in the bay at cc, so I grab the phone, and call the other line in the shop, disguise my voice and say "yo foo, you just installeded a antanna in mI car" the bright installer says "you sure it was me" .. "yeah, you got glasses and brown hair right"... installer says "yep". Right then a fire truck sounded in the parking lot of the mall, and since that customer just left, i said "well my car is smokin, and is on fire"... "the fire department is on its way, you better get over here and fix this shit or I'm gonna sue you"

no sooner then the word sue came up, the installer grabbed his tote full of tools and high tailed it out of the bay to find the guy. He must have been gone for 15 minutes before returning and everyone else in the bay was laughing, he finally figure it to be me and told me he was going to get the russian mob to kill me for that. lol

one more for my boss at the time.

Install manager

so customer comes in complaining about something, I turn to the manager and say, "come on princess, lets check this one out" the manager nearly falls on the floor cuz he really isnt the princess type. Customer looks at the two of us and you can just tell in her eyes that she is wondering if this was the best stop to make today.

This is a few years back. I had a customer that swore the CD player I put in her car would keep playing music, even if she turned the car off and took off the detachable face. She made a huge fuss about how this has been driving her nuts for 3 days now, and if I cannot fix this immediately, she wants her factory radio reinstalled, of course, free of charge, and a full refund on the CD player. I went to the car, opened the door, heard the music, which was coming from the rear speakers, opened the trunk and turned off the portable boombox she had in the trunk from going to the beach 3 days previously.

Had another customer who stated the cd she inserted in her cd player would not play, and now the cd would not eject, either. So I pulled the dash bezel and removed the cd she had managed to force through the tiny gap between the top of the cd player and the dash from the nether regions of her dashboard. There were 4 of them back there.

Had another customer who stated the cd she inserted in her cd player would not play, and now the cd would not eject, either. So I pulled the dash bezel and removed the cd she had managed to force through the tiny gap between the top of the cd player and the dash from the nether regions of her dashboard. There were 4 of them back there.

Wouldn't happen to have been a hyundai would it? I get that one ALOT up here.

Damn, you're good. Elantra.

You'd think after the 'radio ate my cd' you wouldn't insert another, let alone 3 more.

customer comes in with an overhead dvd player. says that the dvd she inserted is stuck and wont go in or come back out. after pulling it down and looking in the dvd slot, there is 3 dvd's pushed together and forced 90% of the way in. Now mind you this isnt one of those... here try this one.. that didnt work try this one... she actually put 3 together in at one time. so a pull with a pair of needle nose pliers gets em out and she is off and running now.

Makes you wonder how they can operate a vehicle.

working at a local big box type store, customer comes in saying how years ago his alarm was installed and isnt working anymore, we asked for receipt, no receipt.. we asked for the key fob, no key fob anymore.

After looking underneath and telling the customer that if we dont find the problem to be the alarm we installed he was going to pay $50/hr we find an ungo alarm, and hand the customer a bill for $50 in labor since this company never carried ungo. Enjoy

i love these stories.....oh and about the cds behind the dash.....mitsubishis are pretty susceptiable for that as well. i had a lady do that and i pulled 11 cds out from behind her dash. she came in all pissed off because the cd player we installed last month keeps eating her cds...all 11....and wont eject any of them. i pop the dash piece off on her galant and theres a pile of cds on top of her radio and all over the place behind it. wow did she feel dumb.\

i also had these two blonde girls come in last year after christmas wanting to get her deck, 4 speakers and 4 channel amp installed. so we asked her, "ok, do you have the receipt?" she handed us a receipt with the labor and everything pre paid...but one problem, its a receipt for circuit city. so we tell her...this is from circuit city, we're best buy. they both look at us all confused , look around the shop and waiting room and at us again and say, "oh my god, this is best buy....but can you still install it for me?" we said yeah, but we have to charge you for it, she got upset again and asked, "why, i already paid for it" so we had to remind her again that she was at best buy and circuit city has her money. WOW, i cant even imagine how she finds her way out the front door.

I sed to have that happen all the time at bestbuy. Kinda funny some of the reactions you get when you tell the customer they're at the wrong store.

yeah, a couple of my friends that worked at the circuit city a block away sometimes got our customers and we got theirs...kinda funny when you stop them and tell them where they are.

Quotes time!!!

Lastly, maybe I will spend another $3,000 because I can....

I tapped the reverse wire to the brown/yellow wire in the thickest bunch of cables I found leading to the rear of the car.

Going from the "kick panel", well, we all call things like that different things. Ask some honda guys and the kick panel is the same as the kick plate, which is what covers the ECU. Being a Prior honda guy, thats what I was expecting.

Yes, kick panel is so universal and common that in 10 years of automotive experience I have never heard that piece refered to as kick panel.

Never did I say 10 years in the automotive field.

the names have been changed to protect the ignorant. MORE will come as i stumble onto them!!

hey, those sound very familiar

Damn the idiots you installers have to deal with are incredible. Good thing I dont work a service job.

You have no idea.