The WORST experience from ANY retail store I’ve ever had. San Pedro location and the San Antonio area in general...There’s two guys in there that are super cool and their names are Vien, and Marc from 1604 but other than that they’re awful. I went in and dropped easily over $1200 in product (speaker wires, distributed blocks, amp, focal speakers etc) but their customer service is TERRIBLE. I got quoted for how much it would cost to run the wiring for 3 amps, an Audison bit 1, door speakers and a sub and I got quoted like $700. Instead, I decided to run all of the wires though the vehicle, behind door panels and under seats myself with all of their MESA brand products but not "hook into" the amps or Audison since I don't know the best way to do it all. I explained EXACTLY how the wires were ran, where they were coming from with labelled tape on each wire and helped the tech Little John know exactly what was done to make his life as simple as possible. I simply asked if they could “plug it all in to the amps and Audison” and tune the Audison. They agreed for $280. I was told I could come up there and sit with the guy tuning it to make sure I enjoyed it. I scheduled an appointment with the manager Joe and showed up. I sat there for 35 minutes for someone to even speak to me. I hand over my keys and waited in the waiting room. Another hour passes and I go up front and see my Jeep hasn’t even moved from the parking lot. I ask two guys up front and they spend another 20 or 30 minutes going to the back to ask the Little John what the hold up was. One of the guys comes back to the front and just STANDS there ignoring me. Amazed and furious, I wait 2 minutes and finally say “soooo what’s the word?” He looks at me and says “Little John is finishing up a boat install before he can take a look at it.” At one point the salesman Alex tells me they have to rewire everything because it wasn’t done right. I asked why, the wires were run perfectly fine. He said he didn’t know but that’s what Little John told him. Little John also then stated he wasn't aware that the system wasn't already fully installed. He thought it was ONLY an Audison tuning. I thought "dude, I brought you out to my car and SHOWED YOU and explained everything of my setup. The manager then guilted me by saying “you know normally we’d have to charge you $300 extra to do this work but we’re giving you a really sweet deal with re-wiring it for free." I said "whatever, I just want my audison tuned so I can get out of here" No joke, I sat up there from 11-7 leaving for a dinner break all day waiting for an install to be done. Eventually I get my Jeep back at 7 when they closed and I get in and it sounded HORRIBLE. Worse than stock horrible.
I take it home and after a week or so i cant bare to listen anymore so I call them and ask to have it re-tuned and this time asked again if I could sit with it. I told the manager exactly what is typed above and how I spent ALL DAY waiting but probably the reason it sounded so bad was because Little John had another job to finish up (the boat) before he could get to my Jeep. Why schedule me for an appointment and make me take PTO if you're not even ready to work on it?! They agreed on the phone to re-tune it and gave me an appointment time. I then went out to my Jeep and looked under the seat and saw they didn’t rewire a single thing except MAYBE the remote wire. They simply added zip ties to a couple of RCAs. When I brought the Jeep back up it was a HUGE hassle with them to figure out the invoice before they could work on it because they didn’t know if they actually did the install. Little John now suddenly claims he never rewired anything! I asked why then did I sit there for 8 hours if nothing was done? He reiterated that he didnt rewire anything, he only tuned it. So they wont warranty the work. After complaining enough and explaining everything that happened, they agree reluctantly to re-tune it. 2+ hours pass and I sit with him and begin tuning it to country and alternative rock. I keep giving feedback that it sounds like someone is singing with a Styrofoam cup around their mouth. Keep in mind, I have Focal 165AS component speakers in the front and rear of my Jeep. Little John said he's been trying but that’s the best he could get it because of the singers voice. With nothing left to do but accept his best tuning I thought it sounded “okay” enough to take home. Certainly it was better than the first awful tuning.
Finally, I was driving to Ft Worth for Thanksgiving and my entire system started cutting out and sounded as if someone was blaring a pair of headphones where you only hear the loud bleeding effect. My door speakers stopped working and only the tweeters worked. I looked under the seat thinking something was wrong with my amp and the power cord coming out of the amp fell out of the distro block. Not wanting to deal with the San Pedro location again from all of the hassleI took it to 1604 and Marc the manager hooked me up. He agreed to take a look as much as he could but said that they don’t have Audison software or tools, only the San Pedro store does. The speakers tested fine, Amps had power but he said that no signal was coming off the Audison. He told me MAYBE the power surge from the cord falling out tripped the Audison to turn off the door speakers but to take it to San Pedro to find out.
Called Joe the manager and told him all of this and he said "yeah bring it in and drop it off and we’ll take a look." Brought it in and some salesman pulled up the invoice and again were confused by it. Took them 20 minutes to speak to Alex and Little John ultimately to return to me claiming they have a policy where they don’t warranty products not purchased from them and that they'd have to call Joe the manager to figure out what to do. I told him I'm not asking you to replace my Audison, I need to know why my speaker's aren't working suddenly.
Another salesman from Alabama tried telling me this kind of work becomes a grey area because people bring in products that they didnt buy from the store and Custom Sounds does the install but they begin to lose a lot of money when things no longer work. I almost laughed and I said "well If the work was done right in the first place and you guys weren't so shady with your business practices you wouldn't have a bunch of re-tuning and rework."
Lastly, there's a guy that works there with dark skin and dark hair with a slight bend in his wrist (perhaps a handicap). I would simply use his name but I don't know it so I am describing him in this manner in light of that. Anyways, he just doesn't know enough about Audison products to be selling them, and this showed me that your salesman will say anything to get their commission check. I also know this because he accidentally told me they get commissions. But my buddy was there with me in the store and had some questions between the bit 10 and bit 1. Honestly I did too because I bought the bit 1 simply because I saw it had more channels (possibilities) to it. That salesman said "The bit 1 is a lot better." My friend then asked if they sold the bit 1 and he said they only had the bit 10. Again my friend asked "so which would you personally recommend?" The salesman said "oh I'd get this one right here" after tapping the glass counter with his foot where the bit 10 was displayed. My friend asked "well, if the bit 1 is better, why would you get this one?" The salesman simply restated himself "yeah I'd personally get this one." Um....ok?
I'm beyond frustrated with custom sounds and I'm posting so that everyone can see the horrible experiences (PLURAL) I always have when coming here. Marc and Vien out of the 6 or so sales guys I've dealt with, have been the only people who have cared or tried to actually help. Normally everyone is SO defensive when you have an issue or concern, it's almost impossible to get anyone's attention to help you out, the manager avoids talking directly to you, and the technicians lie to cover their own $@!#% about their own work. This is WRONG!
It's one thing to say "hey we have to rewire everything and here's exactly why, let me show you. Don't worry we will get this rewired correctly, tune it exactly to your liking because we're highly trained, and know that we're always here to help. Especially since you've invested your hard earned money to trust us." Instead I received lies that the wiring was wrong, lies that it was redone, lies that they then never did rewire anything so they dont have to rework it without more money, HASSLE and defensiveness to correct a literal non working system (etc.). :( :( I also posted this similar comment on Google and through your main website's corporate web form. This comment has the most details in it because Google limited by character length and I reworded/remembered more details since the comment to corporate.