Jeff's Professional Car Audio Repair - Beware
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 9,137
Likes: 1
From: Ontario
Rep Power: 379 
Jeff's Professional Car Audio Repair - Beware
This place is located on 19th Ave. Used them for a few things. Most worked out fine, an EQ had to be repaired twice because they didn't get it right apparently ($65 repair for replacing something on the board). Overall, I thought it was a fair place. The always called me with a quote before repairs and pricing seemed reasonable... until a few months ago.
I bought my Indash LCD off eBay awhile back. When I plugged it in, two rows of pixels were out. I took it to Jeff's who told me the LCD was bad and needed replaced. Quoted me $400 for the LCD, $200 to replace it. There was no way I was paying that, so I sent it to United Radio in New York who replaced the board that controls the screen for $150. Ok, so they're not THAT seemingly compentent. I mean a 400% higher rate to replace the entire thing rather than fix the issue seems a little amateur but oh well.
So I just went to Cali for work and let my Mom borrow my car. I get back and the faceplate is a pain to get on. Immediately, I knew she tried to put it on backwards but I could see nothing visually wrong at all. After 5 days out of town, I just wanted it fixed. So I figured Jeff's could handle this. I drop it off and am told it will take a week and a half just to look at it. Frustrating? Sure, but what else could I do?
So today I get a call:
Caller: Hello, this is xxx from Jeff's
Me: Oh Hi
Caller: Listen, I'm looking at your unit and I can't see whats wrong.
Me: Oh sure, the faceplate is very difficult to put on.
Caller: I was ready to ask you to bring the brain down because I couldn't figure out what was going on.
Me: It's just the face, something is blocking it. If you look on the left there is a gap. Something is keeping it from going...
Caller: OH, I see it. There a little piece of plastic sitting here. Must have been wedged in there and was keeping it from going on. Fixed it (laughs)
Me: (laughs) haha really? Figures. Thanks, so what do I owe ya?
Caller: (asks someone else) Hey what do we charge for this?.... $55 bucks sir
Me: Are you serious? All you did was remove a piece of plastic? You know after all the business I've done...
Guy ends up telling me to take it up with Jeff. So I drop in at 5 today to pick it up. Jeff is right there.
Me: Hi I'm here to pick up my deck. It's a XXX. Listen the guy told me $55 buck on the phone. Please tell me it's not that much to remove a piece of plastic.
Jeff: Oh no, it's.. (looks at paperwork) $54.86 - exact number
Me: Serious? Come on the guy didn't even have to open it up. It was right on the outside.
Jeff: Well we go over the entire unit for you.
Me: Fine
So here's the thing. First off, I feel patronized by saying "It's not $55, it's $54". Secondly, don't feed me a line of "we go over the entire unit". It's not an oil change, lube, and belt check Jeff. I had a VERY specific problem, that you clearly knew NOTHING about. Rather than listen to your repeat customers, you feed them a canned line, even in light of that fact that you tried to charge me $450 more to replace my LCD screen, 3 months earlier,than you needed to. The fact here is that you expect me to feel like YOU'RE the expert when your employee calls ME to find out the problem. Furthermore, I NEVER authorized a repair. I asked for a quote as I ALWAYS have gotten before. Just because the issue was fixed over the phone does not mean I'm obligated to pay you.
This a case of how customer service has gone downhill over the past few years. I work in Advertising for a multimillion dollar company, and I respect how valuable relationships are with clients. I never ask for something for free, just to be fair. Nothing says "Flat $50 fee". They made it up because they needed a number, and used bullshit to support it.
This is how big my faceplate is:
You have lost a customer for life. I've referred a multitude of friends too. The saying is "if a client likes you, they'll tell one person. If they don't, they'll tell two". Well I've just told the entire AZHT.net population. Enjoy my $55. It's the last penny you'll ever see from me.
I bought my Indash LCD off eBay awhile back. When I plugged it in, two rows of pixels were out. I took it to Jeff's who told me the LCD was bad and needed replaced. Quoted me $400 for the LCD, $200 to replace it. There was no way I was paying that, so I sent it to United Radio in New York who replaced the board that controls the screen for $150. Ok, so they're not THAT seemingly compentent. I mean a 400% higher rate to replace the entire thing rather than fix the issue seems a little amateur but oh well.
So I just went to Cali for work and let my Mom borrow my car. I get back and the faceplate is a pain to get on. Immediately, I knew she tried to put it on backwards but I could see nothing visually wrong at all. After 5 days out of town, I just wanted it fixed. So I figured Jeff's could handle this. I drop it off and am told it will take a week and a half just to look at it. Frustrating? Sure, but what else could I do?
So today I get a call:
Caller: Hello, this is xxx from Jeff's
Me: Oh Hi
Caller: Listen, I'm looking at your unit and I can't see whats wrong.
Me: Oh sure, the faceplate is very difficult to put on.
Caller: I was ready to ask you to bring the brain down because I couldn't figure out what was going on.
Me: It's just the face, something is blocking it. If you look on the left there is a gap. Something is keeping it from going...
Caller: OH, I see it. There a little piece of plastic sitting here. Must have been wedged in there and was keeping it from going on. Fixed it (laughs)
Me: (laughs) haha really? Figures. Thanks, so what do I owe ya?
Caller: (asks someone else) Hey what do we charge for this?.... $55 bucks sir
Me: Are you serious? All you did was remove a piece of plastic? You know after all the business I've done...
Guy ends up telling me to take it up with Jeff. So I drop in at 5 today to pick it up. Jeff is right there.
Me: Hi I'm here to pick up my deck. It's a XXX. Listen the guy told me $55 buck on the phone. Please tell me it's not that much to remove a piece of plastic.
Jeff: Oh no, it's.. (looks at paperwork) $54.86 - exact number
Me: Serious? Come on the guy didn't even have to open it up. It was right on the outside.
Jeff: Well we go over the entire unit for you.
Me: Fine
So here's the thing. First off, I feel patronized by saying "It's not $55, it's $54". Secondly, don't feed me a line of "we go over the entire unit". It's not an oil change, lube, and belt check Jeff. I had a VERY specific problem, that you clearly knew NOTHING about. Rather than listen to your repeat customers, you feed them a canned line, even in light of that fact that you tried to charge me $450 more to replace my LCD screen, 3 months earlier,than you needed to. The fact here is that you expect me to feel like YOU'RE the expert when your employee calls ME to find out the problem. Furthermore, I NEVER authorized a repair. I asked for a quote as I ALWAYS have gotten before. Just because the issue was fixed over the phone does not mean I'm obligated to pay you.
This a case of how customer service has gone downhill over the past few years. I work in Advertising for a multimillion dollar company, and I respect how valuable relationships are with clients. I never ask for something for free, just to be fair. Nothing says "Flat $50 fee". They made it up because they needed a number, and used bullshit to support it.
This is how big my faceplate is:
You have lost a customer for life. I've referred a multitude of friends too. The saying is "if a client likes you, they'll tell one person. If they don't, they'll tell two". Well I've just told the entire AZHT.net population. Enjoy my $55. It's the last penny you'll ever see from me.
i have taken things there with no problem as well.
even though it was a quick fix you dont know how much time was spent trying to figure out what the problem was with the unit. 99.9% of the time there is a minimum charge to just look at the unit.
when i took in my reciever it was $40 just to look at it. when i go to a customer site i charge a $50 trip charge and $75 per hour....one hour minimum. its $125 just for me to show up. i do waive my trip charge if im there over two hours though
they should have told you the minimum charge when you dropped it off
even though it was a quick fix you dont know how much time was spent trying to figure out what the problem was with the unit. 99.9% of the time there is a minimum charge to just look at the unit.
when i took in my reciever it was $40 just to look at it. when i go to a customer site i charge a $50 trip charge and $75 per hour....one hour minimum. its $125 just for me to show up. i do waive my trip charge if im there over two hours though
they should have told you the minimum charge when you dropped it off
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 9,137
Likes: 1
From: Ontario
Rep Power: 379 They have ALWAYS called me with a quote. Instead, the guy called ME to identify the problem and noticed it while he was on the phone with me. What was he gonna do, put the plastic piece back? lol The place is a joke.
Re: Jeff's Professional Car Audio Repair - Beware
go to ultimate electronics and ask who does their service...its a placein tempe off kyrene and warner....rta, rco...something like that. they fixed my Denon reciever.
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