So a few weeks ago I ordered a new radio for my B5 A4. I was tired of having to park the car to change the cds in the trunk, and the cassette ipod player....was worth about 18 bucks.

So i went to best buy, and hung around the car audio section just waiting for a worker to even show themselves. No one came. So i walked over to the TV section and asked another worker if anyone was working in car audio. he said 2 people were then radio'd them to head over there. Walked back to car audio, waited another 10 minutes, then left. I'm not their bitch and they dont deserve my money for making me wait.

I go to Ultimate electronics, which is within sight of best buy, and as soon as i get to car audio there is already someone asking me what im looking for. I pointed out the radio, which was 30 bucks cheaper there as well. So, I bought it. I told them what kind of car i had, and they said that it would take about 2 weeks for the adapter kit to arrive. I kind of expected that, not everyone has an audi.

My point with that was that Ultimate Electronics seemed pretty superior to Best Buy in terms of customer service.

Then, this last wednesday, the part came in, and i took my car to have the radio installed. The whole process took about an hour (it was nbd, i watched the new alice in wonderland on a tv that was 1/3inches thick). When he was finished, i took a look.

First thing I noticed was that the radio basically was taking over my dash. The guy who installed it told me the piece they ordered "didn't fit my car". So instead it looks like he just cut a few pieces of plastic and wedged the radio in my car. The guy who did it looked like he was my age (17) and the guys who helped me out the day I bought the radio were probably late 20's. Something there led me to believe that either he (the kid) didn't know what he was doing or he was trying to save money.

Upon first looks, the radio didn't look that bad, but it could have been a lot better. So I drove home. I didn't really listen to the radio on the way home, guess I wasn't in the mood. Later that day, when my dad came home, he was excited about the radio and wanted to see it. So I take him out to my car, and long story short, he ended up noticing a bunch of stuff about it that i didn't pick up on.

First off, the radio doesn't "snap in" like you would expect. In fact, you can pull the whole thing out with one hand. Now we all know that can't be right.
Also, the big piece of plastic around the outside of the radio (refer to pics) was hiding several chips in my wood finish. It looks like the ******* that pulled my radio out just used 2 screw drivers. I know for a fact that there is a tool made to pull the radio out, in fact, ive seen someone do it on my car, no damage done to anything. But that was uncalled for.

So i don't know what happened exactly, but to me it seemed like the kid chipped the wood when pulling out the radio, so instead of admitting his mistakes and doing it the right way, he decided to cover it up with a shitty piece of plastic, hoping that since im just "some dumb kid" that I wouldn't notice. I mean i know i didn't initially, but would he honestly have thought that for as long as ill have this radio that i never would??

So later today im going to call up there and tell them basically all of this, and have them either 1) fix the radio and replace the finish on my dash or 2)return the radio and replace the finish on my dash.

has anyone else ever had a problem with ultimate electronics like this? or anyone?


tl;dr version
i went to best buy for a radio. no one even helped me so i went to ultimate electronics. their radios were cheaper but they ended up screwing up my car. now my radio looks like crap and im not happy about it.

[/rant]

picture time (click for larger view)


excuse the quality, these were taken on my blackberry.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad luck. I used to be an installer for a custom audio shop and we deffinitly didn't carry all the kits needed to do every possible install out there. But in your case, they should have ordered the correct kit which Scosche makes: part number AU2300B. Or the Metra Kit: part number 99-9100.

I would get a quote from your local Audi dealer for a new dash panel to replace the one they damaged and bring that to them and make them fix it. They should have orderd the correct part and been more carefull with the instalation.

 

well I am first going to talk to the manager at Ultimate Electronics about this situation, but i shouldn't even have to do that. this whole thing is ridiculous.