I was going to write this: "What part of the world are you in? I would
be glad to recommend it to anyone I run into that's looking for a good
retail opportunity."

But, having seen the reference to NY and MA, I am now having a HUGE
problem believing that there are not ANY competent shops in those very
heavily populated areas. The good people at Rich Inferrera's Car Tunes
come to mind... and I am sure I could call a couple of people I know
that live in MA and come up with several more qualified referrals.

JD

Mark Zarella wrote:

Ok. I don't get the national picture. I guess the only valid conclusion
then is that the area where I currently live and the area where I last lived
are completely void of any competent installers. As I mentioned elsewhere
in the thread, in my area there is not a single shop that advertises in the
yellow pages that can do a competent front door component installation in my
car. I've checked them all. All but two said that it could not be done.
One wanted $50 just for an estimate. The other did the work, and it came
out subpar in almost every conceivable way. Note that I've done the install
correctly in an almost identical car (installation-wise) with very similar
equipment. I know it can be done.

Where I lived last I never needed any work done in my own car. But I had
work done for others' cars at various points, so I know what the local
market was doing there as well. When you face incompetence and outright
deception as often as I did, it's not unreasonable to assume that there's a
large contingent of ripoff artists and ignorant people out there working on
cars. A monkey can put in a radio. But when it comes to having custom work
done, especially front speaker installations, I just think the talent level
is severely lacking. At least in the parts of NY and MA that I've queried.

"John Durbin" wrote in message
.. .


I have probably less direct contact with installers as a customer than
you - beyond the fact that I typically do my own installs anyway (17
years of practice has to be good for something), I haven't taken a car
to a shop in a long time. However, both my kids have several times in
the last few years, and overall were treated well by the businesses.

Beyond that, I do have the inside track on what our 14 or so techs feel
on this subject, and they spend hours on the phone with installers all


day.


Only thing that I will agree HAS changed is it now takes just minutes to
get on the internet and complain about a bad retail experience - not
saying some of those aren't legitimate mind you - and instantly
thousands and thousands of people have read that info and possibly
changed their opinion of the profession.

Hell, I just read a thread about a guy that had a bad experience from
taking his car to what I know personally to be one of the best shops in
the area. Everyone has a bad day occasionally, but that's not grounds
for indicting the whole industry.

JD

Mark Zarella wrote:



I'm with Ed on this - I think you are overstating your position and in
the process doing an injustice to many installers around the world that
ARE better at their jobs than you are giving them credit for.




Many? As an "outside observer" looking in from a customer's point of


view,


I just don't see the expertise and dedication to putting out quality work
that I saw, say, 5 or 10 years ago. I just don't think these people take
pride in it anymore. Of course there are some that do, and some that are
very good at what they do. I never said there wasn't. But from my own
observations, I think the percentage of good installers is rapidly
dwindling.