In 2003 I purchased a 2002 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab truck. It had a decent stereo, but I wanted something a little more. Auto Radio was by the place I worked at and I stopped by there and had them install a 2-channel amplifier and a really nice equalizer. It supported 2 tweeters and 4 door speakers all factory speakers and a factory radio. The sound was crystal clear and better than being at a concert. I had superior sound and service and it only took them a few hours.

In December I had someone try to steal my truck and they failed, thank goodness. Anyway I purchased a top of the line Viper Alarm system with remote start to protect the truck and any computer and electronic equipment that might be in the truck. I called Auto Radio and spoke to Greg, who had installed all of the previous stereo equipment. I asked him if they were authorized to install the Viper system and he said yes that they were an authorized to do the installation. They installed the Viper alarm system in a half of a day and it did function and monitor everything like it was supposed to do.

Unfortunately I had someone rear end me and total the truck in July of 2006. Because of having to find the several of the same model trucks for the insurance company for replacement value, I decided to just buy another truck like the one I had previously owned and recreate my old truck. I had paid Greg to remove the Viper alarm system one evening after he had gotten off work and a couple of friends and I removed the equalizer and amplifier out of my old truck.

The new 2002 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab had a Rockford Fosgate stereo, which was a better stereo than my old truck, and it included a subwoofer in which my old truck did not have. I knew that I needed to get another 2-amplifier to support the subwoofer.

I had called spoke to Greg after I had bought the new truck and told him that I wanted to buy another 2-amplifier for the subwoofer. I went to Auto Radio on 8/11/06 and I purchased another 2-channel amplifier to support the subwoofer and made an appointment for August 22^nd to drop off the truck to have the (2) 2-channel amplifiers, equalizer, and the Viper alarm system to be installed. I brought my truck to them the afternoon of 8/21/06 so they would have it that next morning. They ended up keeping my truck for 2 ½ days, by this point I really needed my truck back. When I talked to Greg he said that all they got installed was the alarm system. When I got there the alarm system was hanging by a bunch of wires from the dash. So I had to wait for them to finish installing the alarm system. Well because of the service I had received before I thought it was installed properly and did not check it.

I made another appointment for them to install the stereo equipment and this time they kept my truck for another day and a half. During that time Greg called me and suggested me to get a four channel amp to support all of the door speakers and the tweeter speakers, it was a little more money and I said OK. When I picked up the truck Greg told me that he wired the subwoofer to the 4-channel amp because the 2-channel amp had an automatic cut off and would it could possibly cutoff. I don’t believe that today!

I went back within 2 weeks because of all of the engine noise that was coming out of the speakers, Greg said he would take the truck in back and put a noise filter on the system. He took the truck to rear of the shop and after about 30 to 45 minutes he drove the truck back up to the front and said he installed a noise filter. It was probably less than a month after I had the stereo equipment installed that the 4-channel amp started making a static noise like something was lose. I checked all of the wires that were attached to the amp by a screw with a screwdriver and everything was tight, that is when I knew the static noise was coming from inside the 4-channel amp. I verbally told Bill and Greg on several occasions 4 to be exact that the 4-channel amp was making a static noise. I also do not believe that the 4-channel amp was ever adjusted properly at the beginning. I had wanted more sound to come from the rear doors of the truck and I had them put some new speakers in the rear doors, at that time the rear doors were hooked up to the 2-channel amp and they were fine, although I also had asked them to equal out the sound so there would be equal sound coming from the front and back doors and they would not do it. Bill would act like I did not say anything, which is what he would do when I would tell him about the static noise that was coming from the 4-channel amp too. Or he would say that the way they had it setup was for some kind of front stage settings, but I didn’t like it like that.

The first speaker that was blown from the 4-channel amp was the subwoofer I did not know that at the time and paid to have it replaced. Then the front speakers (the door speakers and the tweeter speakers) blew. I paid to have them replaced not knowing that the 4-channel was the cause. On 2 different occasions I had asked them to check all of the wiring because of the noise and I also asked them a couple of times to change the wiring of the speakers the way they were supposed to be. The first time I believe that was on 10/24/06 Bill physically looked at my stereo and was trying to figure out what was going on, that is when he saw how the speakers were wired incorrectly (subwoofer, front door speakers, and tweeters were hooked up to the 4-channel amp and the rear door speakers were hooked up to the 2-channel amp). He asked me why it was done like that and told him what Greg said and he just shook his head but did not offer to fix the problem. They never could get the sound, to sound right that day.

Out of frustration I went Extreme Car Audio and paid them to rewire the speakers properly (subwoofer to 2-channel amp and all of the door speakers and tweeters to the four channel amp.) Extreme Car Audio informed me that there was not a noise filter on the stereo system and that the tweeters were blown.

I went back to Bill that day and told him they were blown, to make me happy because I was tired of them working on my stereo system he just gave me the blown speakers and gave me a refund for the purchase of the tweeters. I went back to Extreme Car Audio and they put some new tweeters in for me and also installed a filter that helped the engine noise.

I went back to Auto Radio that day or the next and Bill had a guy named Marvin I think that is his name to adjust the 4-channel amp to sound right. I had to pay them to do a job that should have been done at the very beginning. Bill had Marvin completely pull the amp out of the truck so he could see what he was doing. Marvin had the sound perfect at one point but the was a bunch of distortion due to damaged speakers and so he changed the adjustment so that the stereo would only play high notes and low notes, no mid range sound. I drove around like that for a couple of weeks mean while this whole time the amp is steadily making the static noise 90% of the time the truck is moving. The 4-channel amp would only make this noise when the truck was moving causing whatever is in the inside of it to jiggle and short out. I went to Auto Radio and I explained to Bill that Marvin had the sound adjusted properly but then he had changed the adjustment to cover up the damaged speakers. A good way of explaining this is “If I went to a eye doctor and I had purchased a new pair of glasses with a new prescription and I after a couple of days I go back to the eye doctor and tell him I still can’t see. His response of instead of checking the prescription is suggest I put some tape on the side of my face to pull my eyes back into squint to improve my vision.”

Bill’s response was that he had just discovered some kind of gadget Clean Sweep called that would stop the problem because the problem was in the Rockford Fosgate stereo not the amp. He told me that if I wanted to purchase it for $350.00 he would install it for free or I needed to get another stereo. Bill also said that if I did this he would replace any damaged speakers and he would replace the 4-channel amp, but if I didn’t buy one of the two items he would not warranty the speakers or the amp. So I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to go with the radio because it was a little cheaper. He said that the radio would be satellite ready as well. Later I found out that with either stereo I would still have to purchase a $150.00 satellite kit to get satellite music.

Meanwhile I had a passenger in my truck leave the back door ajar and it did not show up on my remote for the security system when I locked the truck. So I tested the rear doors and they were not being monitored at all by the Viper security system. 

For Bill’s convenience I recorded the static noise that would come from the amp because he was the only one that worked in the front of the store. I also presented him with a letter stating all of the things that were wrong with the security system and the stereo system asking for him to fix it all on the 12/05/06. I played it for him on 12/05/06 and made a appointment to come back on 12/12/06. I was not able to come on 12/12/06 and I postponed the work to be done till 12/19/06. When I arrived at Auto Radio the morning of 12/19/06 I turned off my truck and set the alarm system and preceded to unlock the front doors and open the driver door and nothing happened until I shut the door. At that time I went in and got Bill to come out to the parking lot so I could demonstrate that the alarm system was not monitoring anything. I hand wrote that on the letter I had first presented to Bill on the 5^th and I asked Bill to sign the letter but he refused.

I was at Auto Radio all day waiting for them to fix everything. That afternoon I went into the back where they do their work and the technician had the new radio put in the truck. He proceeded to brag to me how he got rid of all of the engine noise. And that was because when he pulled my old stereo out he found out that the whole system was wired off one channel of the Rockford Fosgate stereo. The Rockford Fosgate stereo has 4 channels and 1 subwoofer channel that he said was bad and causing the problems. I feel that when this defaulted wiring technique was discovered I should have been giving the option to either keep my old stereo or continue with the new purchase, especially since I had asked them prior to this to check the wiring. I can tell you that I would have chosen the original Rockford Fosgate Stereo.

This Fosgate stereo has a 6-disc cd changer built in, it has on the steering wheel remote controls, it shows in digital the station, the song and artist playing the time of the song, and the time of day, at one time. It has the ability to do an automatic scan and set the radio stations automatically and offers several search options, and the options play normal, repeat 1 song, play random songs off 1 cd, or play random off all of the cds in the changer.

The stereo Bill was making me buy plays 1 cd at a time, it only displays the radio station number, and to see the time you have to push a button, it only offers repeat, and it comes with a little bitty remote control that gets lost more than it is used. This stereo does not come close to the quality of the Rocksford Fosgate stereo that was originally in the truck.

Well the technician working on the truck was acting like he was finishing up and I went to Bill and asked him about replacing the amp and the damaged speakers. Bill got upset and so did I and we did have a heated discussion about the speakers and Bill did replace them only after he asked the technician if he thought they were damaged. When it came to replacing the 4-channel amp Bill refused to replace the amp claiming there was nothing wrong with it, even after I had played the recording for him. Bill did have a guy I had never seen before come to the Auto Radio and hook up the security system to monitor the doors. I have tested the doors and the rear doors work fine, the front doors do not work on an average of 1 out of every 4 times.

I have contacted Directed the company that makes the Viper system to see if Auto Radio is authorized to install the Viper and they are not, I have printed up the search results from their website to prove this. By telling me that they were an authorized to install the Viper Security System, Auto Radio has jeopardized the warranty by false representation as a authorized dealer. Not only did Greg say they were authorized but Bill also claimed to be authorized the last day I was at the shop 12/19/06.

All together your honor Auto Radio has had my truck without my presence at least 5 whole business days, I have been at Auto Radio with the truck close to 60 hours trying to get these problems resolved. I have spent so much time at Auto Radio it had become embarrassing for me to discuss it with friends and associates. Something else your honor is I told Bill I was self-employed and that my truck was an office on wheels and it’s image was very important to me. There have been so many times that I have had clients ride with me with radio off but the amp would be making the static noise so loud that we would have to raise our voices to talk over the noise. The day I went to Extreme Car Audio I was ready to have no more to do with Auto Radio, but because of the amount of money I had spent with Bill and Audio Radio I was trapped to continue with them. So far as the tweeters have been replaced twice, the front door speakers have been replaced 3 times, the rear doors have been replaced once but they are now hooked up to the 4-channel amp and are more than likely damaged, and the subwoofer has been replaced once. In the beginning the subwoofer was hooked up to the 4-channel amp and it may be damaged. The way Auto Radio has the 2-channel amp adjusted you can’t even tell there is a $200.00 subwoofer in my truck. I feel that that is a cover up and I want it replaced. The door and tweeter speakers are all blown to the best of my knowledge and the 4-channel amp is still making the static noise all of the time. The 4-channel amp is connected directly to the battery and because it is malfunctioning it sends waves of too high of electricity to the speakers damaging them. It was only within hours of my last visit that the speakers Auto Radio replaced on 12/19/06 were blown again.

I would like to get all of my money back for the malfunctioning and damaged equipment and all labor charges because what I expected to pay for was professional service and I have not received it. I have a total of $1745.97 that has been spent so far on this stereo and this total does include the money I spent at Extreme Car Audio for the tweeters and noise filter. I have an estimate from Extreme Car Audio to replace all equipment and to get the security system working properly totaling $1045.00. This totals $2790.97 the remainder is for having to drive around with amp driving me and anybody that was in my truck nuts and some compensation for the time and money lost having to either not have my truck and all of the time that I spent at Audio Radio because they didn’t do the job right the first time.

This statement is from 

Durenda Wood                 3/21/2007

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CALL BILL AND LET HIM KNOW YOU FOUND MY STORY ABOUT THE STEREO AND ALARM INSTALLATION! (770) 498-1990