Sounds On Wheels — Local services in Spokane Valley

I am choosing to leave a review more for Bob than anything else, as it is sad that after approx. 25 years of business I will have to go elsewhere for stereo purchase/install. I have been going to sounds on wheels since I was 18, probably took 4 or 5 of my own vehicles and recomended COUNTLESS friends to go there! So when I purchased my dream 1968 Chevelle recently and picked out a retro deck and custom speakers, of course- go see Bob, naturally. My son & I stopped in, I was told Bob is not here, and he's about to retire. Wow, that stinks, but Cory will take care of me. I told him Bob has always done me solid, fair, I have always been fully satisfied & happy with Bob in the past! Now I had to buy this retro deck and 3 custom speakers from Custom Car Autosounds online, $562.00, cause they are the only products that can be installed in 1968 Chevelle w/o cutting up the car. Like I said Ive always bought my stereo stuff thru Bob, so I knew I would paying more for installation, cause I didn't buy it at Sounds on wheels. Also I had a 10" sub box and amp to wire up in trunk. I had bought the 10, box and amp years ago at sounds on wheels from another truck. So all in all, I was thinking maybe $500, $600, or $700 hundred maybe tops to install....After all it was a deck, 3 speakers, sub, and amp. Cory listens to what I need, wrote numbers, explai ed nothing to me, and Bam it's $1060.00 + tax....So around $1155.00 or so!!!!!! Wow, again, oh and 2 of my speakers hadn't arrived yet, so he wanted to install the following day, just run speaker wire to the location and I WOULD INSTALL THEM...WHEN THEY ARRIVED....$1155.00 & AND I FINISH IT UP? wow, SMH. Meanwhile he could not even remember the make of my 68 Chevelle, and runs my card for $500, deposit i guess?? So when I called today for my $500 refund today Cory says why aren't you going thru with install?? Well much too expensive I replied, after talking to a couple people w/ a ton of experience and who also were surprised that this happened at Bob's Sounds on wheels.

Cory then replied oh well I can knock the price down a little bit and maybe I added an extra kit 'YOU DO NOT REALLY NEED"....oh and the best was "we need to build a custom holder for my amp" Which I never asked for.

What really sucks here, is he never even explained or quoted me anything prior to me saying NO AND REFUND PLEASE!!

But this is sad to me, cause for all those years, I just automatically went to Bob, it was just a given. And now I cannot, I know Bob made money from me, he made it honestly... But I never felt like I was getting "BENT OVER" until this last time...Sorry for the length, and if I could have left 0 stars I probably would...

I was quoted $700+ to do an amp and sub install just labor. I had all the new quality parts needed so it should have only been 2-4 hours tops. I guess the rate here is $200/hr+

Edit after owner replied: I ended up going to another reputable shop because they acknowledged what I asked for and charged me half of the quote I was given here. I had all the intentions of leaving my truck in your shop but not for that amount. Specially when I had ran the back up camera wiring and mounted it, so only one signal cable needed to be plugged in while the amp install was being done. The fact the amp had a bass knob which I had also mounted was also an extra fee. It seems my provided equipment was not good enough and the sales guy was upselling all his in house stuff to avoid installing the monster cables and top of the line wires I had included. I want to make it clear nothing I brought in was cheap equipment, all the terminals, the power fuse, the custom subwoofer box, the P3S subs and amp were the best I could find for my application. You said the sub and amp install install was only $300? That's reasonable, I was never told that. Yes I did request the crossovers to be installed since I already put in the Infinity Kappa speakers so I wouldn't of mind, like most folks paying an extra couple hundred for a $500 in total labor of that job to be completed. But to look at me with a straight face and say that $700 was a starting point drove me away. Perhaps other folks are ok with paying $700-1000 for said services, I am not. And I'm not the only one commenting here about the extensive labor rates. Two other shops were more than happy I had done most of the hard work of the install and knew a basic amplifier and sub install with some wires to look over doesn't cost $700. People are easily persuaded to accept that rate others are not. Thank you for replying if you want me to delete this post let me know, but you should know about how...

Price: To install 4 speakers, wiring and and amp, they wanted $354. Compared to 4 other places, ranging from $140 to $422, this was $58 over the average, with only the $422 being more. Bad advice 1. Brian impressed me by manoeuvring all about the interior to study the set-up, and said amp would not fit beneath the passenger seat—where all amps are most naturally at home. He said it constituted some safety violation that they would not accept liability for. Brian suggested underneath the cargo bed, which confines it to an airless spot not much larger than the amp itself. The amp manual says it needs to be installed in a well ventilated spot. I tested the fit myself, and found it fits without any problem under the passenger seat. Bad advice 2. Non-Brian guy said my cable was inferior CCA and not true gauge. The product description made all the right claims about CCA and true gauge (so I doubt his insults and think this was only an attempt to sell in-house stuff). Bad advice 3. Said my 0 gauge cable was too big, my amp would only take a maximum of 8 gauge wire. Granted, 0 gauge is too big, but Crutchfield and the amp manual both said 4 gauge was maximum. Bad advice 4. Said I needed 35 ft of 9 wire. A Crutchfield advisor said this seemed way too much, recommended 20 ft. Another attempt to sell in-house stuff. Bad advice 5. Said the 12 ft of RCA I brought was too long, that I needed 3 ft of RCA wire to connect the LC7i to the radio/head unit. (Clear case of trying to sell their in-house stuff.) Another installer I ended up at said this was wrong, that RCA wire connects the LC7i to the amp (so wrong about that too), consequently, needed to be 6 ft. Had to return the 3 ft wire. Bought a 5 ft, installer who said I needed 6 had to turn my amp around to reach, so he was dead right. 5 bad advices = no way I let this...