Holy turds, I was called to observe a troubleshooting procedure on a vehicle that was rigged somewhere else...

When i arrived I could not believe that they butchered a simple rear camera install, CAN wires cut, 2 relays wired up... it looked worse than a best buy install...

****ATTN ROB****

who should get the bill, the shop that did it, which is Virginia somewhere or the manufacturer (ICON TV) who modified the Command screen.

They tried soldering the RGB but burnt the traces off the board then they just double sided taped them instead

What hacks....

I am going to repair the circuit board tomorrow for them... then make the camera work as intended....

Moral of the story, Watch out for Icon...


http://www.esotericsoundandperforman...view_album.php

 

jbondox,

The folks who asked you directly to work on the car should get your bill - whether it is the car owner or one of the installation shops responsible for the mess, or someone who was asked to clean it up.

The car owner, if he gets stuck for your repairs, should go after the idiots who actually did the damage; this may have been more than one installer, from your description - the ones who did the RGB modifications, and the ones who cut into CANBUS wiring and the relays. The owner's damages would be the costs over and above the cost of the equipment itself, and installing the equipment properly in the first place (plus the costs of rentals while his car was down if he incurred such costs).

On the other hand, if the people who contacted you are one or both of original the installers, they should absorb the costs of repair and (if they're smart) not pass the cost onto the owner of the car. Each organization that screwed up the installation would be responsible for its portion of repairing the mess.

That's how a Small Claims Court would likely see it. If the car owner has questions, or if the matter is above the limits allowed by a small claims court, he should consult an attorney. In most states an attorney is not required to bring a case in Small Claims Court, but one needs written proof of damages (all of the bills, including comments about what was necessary to fix it, and a brief comment as to why - e.g., "repair 3 improperly soldered RGB connections, $XX.") The way you write your bill can help the owner prove his case (it helps to explain the great photographic documentation you provided).

 

a update, I repaired the board, removed all of their BS, ran the command through every test to ensure proper operation, fixed the wood grain trim also, then did the video conversion .

Also i repaired all the wires in the factory harness... the morons were even grabbing the wake up wires, spliced into the aux audio input for a ground????!!!!

however everyone that I asked that did the install, Icon included, denied responsibility. The vehicle was done in Arlington VA, the MB dealer subs it out to some shop there, maybe called A! or something to that effect.

It has vizualogic headrests in it, while I am at it, I am redoing those also, they just ran the wires all funky, installed the AV box near the battery, plus whe this vehicle leaves I want no complaints or issues. Further i am going to hook the rear AV out to the front screen and aux connector also. might as well while i am there

 

Of course. So the owner's recourse is to sue the dealer (unless the dealer absorbs these extra costs). If the dealer absorbs them and the cost to him is no more than the cost of doing it right in the first place (presumably the amount for which the dealer agreed to do the job initially), there are no "damages." Chalk it up to a bad experience, and be happy you were around to fix it properly.

If additional costs are passed on to the owner, then 1) the dealer is an idiot; 2) the owner's recourse is still against the dealer; let the dealer bring the sub contractor into court if he wants the sub to share in the costs.

In any case, you get paid by the people who contracted with you to fix the problem.

I HOPE the dealer wasn't American Service Center. I used to have my car serviced there - but nothing esoteric.

 

wow, thats just horribly bad... but then again i have a feeling that we will be seeing many more of these in the coming years. The problem is that there are still some mercedes dealers that are holding onto the old way of doing business, meaning farming the aftermarket work out to the cheapest guy (do you have S&S out there?) and then getting a nice kickback when a major f**kup happens. the difference is that the couple hundred dollar screw-ups of yesterday have become the multi-thousand dollar mega screw-ups with todays highly computerized vehicles. there are very few guys out there like us who can do this type of work properly and reliably and the dealers are beginning to recognize this.

as far as billing the work out i always bill the client directly unless the dealer has pre-approved the work and agreed to pay beforehand. most dealers dont want the liability which is why they farm the work out in the first place (as opposed to hiring an aftermarket guy to work in house) so they will push to have the aftermarket shop pay, and they in turn will try to get the RGB guy on the hook. the interesting part is that if the dealer worked the aftermarket stuff into the vehicle purchase, or even just took payment for the job then they are usually legally on the hook.

in a case like this i would bill the client at full price with the understanding that they will be recovering the costs from the dealer and/or aftermarket shop. write up a quick report detailing exactly what you found and what repair work you had to do and attach the pics as well. then send the client back to whoever they actually paid out the money to, hopefully the dealer since they will be much more likely to get positive results there.

if the dealer and/or shop will not pay then as skylaw pointed out small claims court is ideal for recovering the costs. you basically take another copy of your report and get it notarized so that it can be submitted as an evidentary brief which means that you dont have to go to court. from there its pretty much a done deal.

 

haha wow bro, can u say AudioOutlaws lol, nah they aint that badm , but they really were just tryin to make a complicated and intracit system "simple"


any pics of Lebron Jame's car yet, did u even start?


ALSO...... did u find that disc for me, theirs a guy with a 2005 update disc i might buy for 17, whats teh differance from that and a 07 disc(sorry its off topic but u know what i mean J)



ALi

 

You are correct about everything you said, Rob, except for one ambiguity - from the preceding, we don't know who the client is, the owner or the dealer. The client will be whoever asked him to do the work, incurring an obligation to pay jbondox.

If the owner asked him to do the work he bills the owner; then the owner's recourse for the extra costs is against the dealer. If the dealer recognized the mess, and asked jbondox to fix it, he should bill the dealer. If the dealer passes the additional costs on to the owner, then the owner's recourse is still against the dealer. If the dealer eats all of the additional cost, then everyone should be happy.

What jbondox doesn't want to do is bill anyone who didn't ask him to do the work. That will create a mess for him that would waste his time to straighten out.

You are absolutely right about documenting the work done, including the fact that it to correct prior improper work by another. That will not only protect the owner, ultimately, it will protect jbondox.

 

For the benefit of those of us using MB Dealerships in Virginia, can you provide us the name of the dealership (even through private message) so that we don't make the same mistake? THANKS!

 

It was in the Arlington area

From what i heard they sub'd the stuff out to a supposed 12v specialist shop, obviously they don't QA the 12v shop. If I was to ever find that crap in my new car... I would drive the car through the front door giving it back to them...

the sad part is, this is how 12v specialists been doing things for years, and they wonder why more people are doing it themselves... I wouldn't trust any shop in my area with a used Ford Pinto and a bunch of plastic Fisher Price tools... Well of course i would have Esoteric, but that is a given...

I still stress about that car, because the monitors were messed up, no audio on the right channels... still a half arsed install on that... and i am going to have to replace it when MB gives me a call when the vehicle and gear arrive...