Car Toys

In latter September, I purchased a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe intended to accommodate various HAM radio support functions I’m involved in. I installed a second battery along with the wires needed to mount a HAM radio under the back seat, but was leery about running the wires myself, as I’ve not had sufficient experience in doing such work. At this point I need to make it clear that I’ve used the vehicle for a few weeks, and have had ample time to make sure that pretty much everything is in good working order. On October 2nd, I went to a meeting to discuss a recent success in supporting a 100 mile marathon. Prior to the meeting, I stopped by Car Toys on SE 82nd Ave in Portland and initially talked to Parke Arnold, one of their sales people, to find out how much it would cost to have them run the wires for me. The tech explained that rather than try to run them through the firewall, and down under the center console, it would be easier and just as clean to run them along the doors. I was quoted $65.00 for labor and $6.50 for parts to complete the job, and it would take about an hour. As I live a considerable distance from the SE 82nd Ave store, I decided to go to the closer store at 12195 SW Canyon Rd in Beaverton. I drove down on October 3rd to have the installation completed. The person I talked to told me it would cost $93.00 an hour for a little over an hour to complete the job. I mentioned that I’d had a quote from the SE 82nd Ave store for $71.50 for the complete job. The salesperson seemed a little uncomfortable, and talked to an installer, then told me he would talk to the manager. We agreed on a total installation cost of $75.00. I wasn’t as comfortable with the installers at this store, as they seemed a little unsure of the time it would take, but decided to have them do it anyway as I was going to need the vehicle to provide support for another marathon. The installation seemed to go well, and later that day I completed the installation and setup of the HAM radio I purchased to install in the vehicle. The following day (Sunday) I got up early to get to my support location on time. When I arrived at my location, I went to turn the headlights off, and to my surprise, the knob had been pressed into the dash to the point where I could not easily turn the headlights off. I had to pull the knob out in order to turn it and turn the headlights off (keep in mind that the headlight switch is right next to the area where the wires would have been pulled through the firewall). As I’ve had to perform the same task several times on the previous marathon support, I know for a fact that the light switch was in good working order prior to having the wires run. I took the vehicle back to the Canyon Rd store to ask what could be done about the issue. An installation technician came out to look at it with a salesman and immediately told me that it could not possibly have been the installers as they would not have worked around the switch. I mentioned that they would have had to get under the dash right next to it in order to get the wires through. He still insisted that they could not have been responsible for the damage. I went back into the store to discuss the issue with the manager, and was told he was in the bathroom and would be available shortly. I was asked for the invoice, and provided it. The salesperson stapled the cards of the installation manager and assistant store manager to my invoice and told me that one or the other of them would call me that day (two days ago). I’ve not heard anything back, and at this point I’m not sure that I will. It would seem that the management is taking the word of the installers over me, which I don’t think is very good customer service. I will wait a few more days and see if I am contacted before trying anything. In the meantime, it would seem appropriate to publicize the facts of this case.