a bit of advice… if you’re thinking of purchasing a new car stereo and/or speakers and you’re not competent enough to install it yourself, let the pros do it for you. and by pros i mean the legit mobile audio houses, not the local retail electronics chain.

i just had my front speakers and stereo replaced in my 91 accord by the ‘professionals’ at best buy and i probably could have rendered less damage had i done the job myself.

first, i dropped off the car at 5:45 for a 6pm installation appointment. they didn’t get started until almost 7pm. i went for a walk through the nearby mall, which i still am not fond of, even after all these years. malls just creep me out. i returned to best buy at about 8:30pm, and they informed me there was an issue with the power, but they solved it and the car was all set.

so i climb in the car, back out of the bay and notice my lovely self-retracting seat belts are not working. hmmm. i knock on the door and and inquire as to whether they deactivated the belts. “nope,” was the reply. so we pull the car back inside and the technician starts checking things. after about 25 minutes he finds the problem - a blown fuse. he replaces it and everything seems to be in working order.

during the inspection i noticed two orphaned wiring harnesses that looked suspiciously like the factory set from an early 90’s honda. hmmm again. i ask the tech whether they were to my car and he said, “yeah.” then i asked why he removed them since i had purchased the proper mates so they wouldn’t have to cut anything. he claimed he didn’t see them. they were nowhere to be found in the bay, but he told me i could ask for a refund at the customer service counter. luckily the other tech on duty found them and i reclaimed my 8 bucks.

once in the car and on the way home i felt a little burned, but at least the stereo sounds good and seems to work properly, as well as my seat belts. you would think after my numerous experiences with auto service, both as a customer and as a service provider, i would have thought twice about this. i’ll probably spend the next month wondering if my seat belts will fail again, or the windsheild wipers will fly off and stab the tire of a passing vehicle, causing the driver to lose control and careen through the median and into oncoming traffic.

lesson learned. next time i’ll cough up the extra dough to have a real car stereo establishment do the job.