Car Audio Warehouse — Local services in Castro Valley

I'm not one for posting reviews good or bad, but after a week of thought I can't let this one go.

I stopped by C.A.W. to get a quote on having an amp and tweeters installed in my car. Michael quoted me a price of $150 labor for the amp installation, I mentioned the tweeters, Michael had to talk to someone, then came back saying it would be an additional $150 to install the tweeters correctly with the crossovers that I provided.

$300 total?....Michael said $275-$300, take between 3 and 4 hours, but they couldn't get to it today so I set it up for Thursday, Michael said show up at 9:30 and they'd get me in & out.

I showed up at 9:30, I think it was John I was talking to this time, I said I'd talked to Michael about getting an amp and tweeters installed, John was aware of the amp, but said he hadn't heard anything about the tweeters.

I had also purchased an amp cabling kit ahead of time (Amazon, $100), John looked at what I had, said I was going to need additional parts, signal integrators, speaker wire and it would take 3 to 4 hours to install.

I asked what time should I expect it to be done, he said they closed at 6 and it would be done before then.

Now the bad part.

They finished my car at 4 o'clock (6 hours) and the bill was $509.

They charged me $400 dollars in labor, $68 dollars for speaker wire and the signal gizmo was a little over twenty dollars. I looked, I couldn't find a $70 dollar roll of speaker wire online, but I did find a 50 foot roll for $49.

I can't say I was totally satisfied with the installation either.

They mounted the amp on the back of the back seat, it's an xB so now when the back seat is folded down I have to be careful I don't stack anything on top of it, I'll relocate it myself at a later date.

That, and all the copper wire clippings I vacuumed up from around the amp, nope, not too happy.

The next day I had to call them to ask what they did with my old tweeters? I was told they threw them away, they did find them, but I had to make a special trip to pick them up.

If I had anything good to say about C.A.W......my stereo sounds a lot better, but still, in the back of my mind I'm wondering if it was installed correctly?

After it was all said & done no one bothered to show me what they did , explain anything or even thank me for my business.

Give them a shot if you want, but be forewarned, I...

good inventory (in an inaccessible part of the store). bad customer service. dishonest sales practices (dealing directly with the owners).

went in for advice. walked out with a "good deal" on an AudioControl LOC the owner claimed would handle my requirements for balanced inputs. I put some trust in this person who runs a business and has years of experience. My mistake.

The "good deal" was actually about 33% more than the recommended sticker price, and even more than that compared to other stores. Nice.

I called AudioControl to confirm the unit could take balanced inputs, after realizing the instructions made no mention of it. They were helpful, but confirmed this was not going to work for me.

When I went back to the Car Audio Warehouse to return the equipment considering that I purchased the product based on incorrect information provided by the store, the owner simply told me that I should not be using the balanced lines anyway and this equipment would work if I kept the stock amp in place. He was not concerned that the primary requirement of my purchase was removal of the stock amplifier. He continued to argue that his method would be better than the one I intended, and that the component was fine for his method (using the output from stock amp). He would not accept that this was not my plan, and that his advice to address my plan was flat out wrong. He even pulled in his installer to tell me my plan was stupid and would not sound as good. OK. fine, still my plan though.

Once they accepted that I would not change my plan into their "improved" plan, we were able to continue talking about a return. Nope. Can't do it. The sales receipt I signed indicated they didn't accept returns, which I was aware of. However, these are extenuating circumstances, since they, deliberately or not, misled me into a purchase that did not fit my requirements.

After much heated discussion with both brothers (?), they agreed to give me a partial refund. They kept about $35. To be fair they did say they'd apply it toward any future purchase I made from them.... These guys love turning the screws, don't they?

I'd pay ANOTHER $35 if I could forget this place even existed. No way I will shop there again, even to get my remaining $35 stolen from my trusting hand.

Don't shop here. These people don't deserve to run a consumer...

I popped in looking for a 3.5in coax speaker to replace my experimental full range driver in the dash of my Subaru. The store owner was very helpful even though he appeared to be assisting two other customers and problem solving an issue with an install. He was able to guide me to a discontinued series of speakers by JL Audio. I originally was looking to get the C2-350x by JL Audio, except he was out of stock on the C2.

I'm glad I took a chance on his suggestion because the sound quality is exactly what I wanted.

Update 4/22/22: I've been back to this store several times. I described the sound issues I was confronting after replacing my door speakers. I had acclimated to the replacement speakers and was finding distortion issues that were becoming aggravating. The owner suggested a Mirus convertible set of speakers from Hybrid Audio Technologies. These speakers were not the top of Hybrid's line but they would work with my audio system and could be reconfigured if I made system improvements later. I was a little skeptical at twice the cost of my previous speaker improvement and slightly smaller size compared to a true 6 3/4in woofer. I installed the new set in the front doors and let them break in for two weeks before pushing them. I noticed during the two weeks they started sounding like a tunnel, then cotton balled, but I was noticing articulated elements sounding as good as my home system. After the new speakers opened up and became more balanced, I pushed them a little and was very appreciative of the suggestion to go this route...