CUTTING TO THE CHASE: I'm looking for a good car audio installer in Northern Virginia (
not MD or DC). I live near Tysons Corner and work in Fairfax (Fair Lakes). I've already been to Hurley's in Tysons. Also, I know how to use Google and am not just looking for names of places: personal recommendations only, please!
THE STORY: My OEM stereo is broken. I think some liquid got in through the CD slot when I inserted my cell phone holder after getting it washed a month ago (i.e., it was my fault).
The tuner works and the steering wheel controls work, but the display is completely dead and none of the buttons on the head unit work (except power/volume).
Hurley's Auto Audio in Tysons is super close to home and literally next door to the place where I take my dog for daycare twice a week, so I took my car there two weeks ago. The manager (Gary) immediately struck me as being a jerk, but the younger guy behind the counter (Brian) seemed cool. They sent it out for repair and it got reinstalled on Saturday, but absolutely nothing is different: it's in the same condition as when I brought it in. They only sent the stereo and not the faceplate (why? in short, Gary's a jerk), so the next step is to send
everything back and have the repair place try again.
I didn't have time for that on Saturday; plus, taking everything out will render the heat/ac controls inoperable so at the very least I want to wait until the weather cools down for good. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that instead of trying (again) to get it fixed I'm going to upgrade: I have my eye on a
Pioneer AVH-X4700BS (or something like it).
I told them I wanted to settle up, because I was going to wait a while and when the time came I might go to a place near work (Car Stereo Systems in Fairfax). They didn't charge me a dime -- not even for the labor, which I thought would have been totally fair. That and the location are the only reasons I'm even
thinking about maybe going back there. I have questions about upgrading, and I don't think I can take dealing with Gary again: I'm a detail-oriented "bottom line" kind of person -- tell me my options and exactly what's involved in each -- and that guy wouldn't know a bottom line if one bit him on
his bottom line (he's also one of those old guys who thinks it's ok to call women "dear" and "sweetheart," but that bothers me less than his general attitude/shitty customer service). I was able to talk with Brian sometimes, but unfortunately it's impossible to avoid Gary being involved.
So, where should I go?
There's a lot of options! Has anyone been to Car Stereo Systems? There's a place in Chantilly called Driven Mobile Electronics that gets great reviews on Yelp: anyone used them? Hurley's gets mixed reviews, with most complaints being along the lines of "Gary's a jerk" and "they didn't do it right the first time but then they fixed it." Are they actually as good as anyplace else and I should just suck it up and go back there?