PDA

View Full Version : Circut City and what they did to my Evo... UPDATE



Cr0mster
11-21-2003, 06:40 PM
So I take my car into Circut City today to have a new deck installed into my car. Nothing major just wanted MP3 playing ability. I tell the guy that I will be waiting here at the store till its done. Give him my keys and have a seat. I decide to walk inside and look at the new car audio. After a few minutes I walk out and see one of the installers moving my car so he can pull it into the install bay. The only problem is he has now taken off down the ally with the peddle to the floor.

I run out into the Ally and here comes my Evo back down the ally doing about 90-100mph. So I throw my arms out in a WTF style and he burys the breaks. He then rolls up to me and drops his window and like nothing happened says "Whats up?" :banghead: At this point my blood was boiling so I yelled Whats Up???!!! What the f*$k are you doing joy riding my car. He trys to mumble something and I say you were hauling ass! He says no I wasn't I was going like 20mph. I told him I watched my front end dive down from him having to slam on the breaks and that it wouldn't have happend from 20mph on this car. He then said he hit the breaks because he saw a truck coming. So I said ok then you admit you were hauling ass? He mumbles....

So once again I say WTF were you thinking? He says "I wanted to try it out." AT this point I lost it and started screaming at this guy saying you idiot your job is to install stereos not TRY my F'ing car out! I called him many things and then went to find the manager.

This is the best part. This installers reason for driving my car was that he had to road test the stereo to make sure it wasn't skipping. What he left out was that the damn CD player was not even installed yet! How the hell are you going to test that when its sitting in the trunk!

Anyways I talked to the District manager and I am hoping this guy loses his job. My worry is that he may have launched it at high RPMs which I have never done in this car because I want the clutch to work. They said they would get back to me after they investigate this.

Just wondering what you all would have done in my shoes.

Cr0mster

ReHeat
11-21-2003, 07:25 PM
Wow! Sorry to hear what happened to your car, I would be just as mad if I catch someone do that to my Evo. Hope you get some satisfying result from the manager.

I would never let anyone valet my Evo, one valet smoked my 3000GT's clutch once, and I've heard too many horror stories. I would always check my odometer after I take my car in for service, so far my dealer has been good. I stayed and watched when I took my car in for tint job and alarm installation.

You can never be too careful with your Evo cuz you know how many people want to take it for a joy ride.

xxfairenoughxx
11-21-2003, 08:20 PM
How about that evo beatdown everyone keeps talking about in the "run off the road" thread. I'm sure there are at least a couple takers. Just name the time and the place me and at least 2 of my buddies will be there. Lets take over curcuit city....Or maybe I'm just acting retarded...either way let me know.

SolarXclipse
11-21-2003, 09:40 PM
You should beat the crap out of that guy for testing your car. J/K I would do the same thing you did, man. You did great and hope nothing bad happened to your car. You shoulda called me and I can install your stereo for you for free. I never trust any one but me installing car stereos in my car.

MrBubbler
11-21-2003, 10:48 PM
same shit happend wene i took my car to get alarm installed i get the car back with 25 more miles on it and the seats and mirrors were all adjusted diffrently , diffrent radio station etc etc!!!! since basicly i didnt see them do it i told them the just lost a future customer and that i would tell everyone i know about the shadyness of their work! he denied it and said they only moved it into garage and thats why they adjusted the mirors and seat! um bullshit what about the 25 more miles... i revoked payment for the install work and they never complained..!

EvolOne
11-21-2003, 11:06 PM
So I take my car into Circut City today to have a new deck installed into my car. Nothing major just wanted MP3 playing ability. I tell the guy that I will be waiting here at the store till its done. Give him my keys and have a seat. I decide to walk inside and look at the new car audio. After a few minutes I walk out and see one of the installers moving my car so he can pull it into the install bay. The only problem is he has now taken off down the ally with the peddle to the floor.

I run out into the Ally and here comes my Evo back down the ally doing about 90-100mph. So I throw my arms out in a WTF style and he burys the breaks. He then rolls up to me and drops his window and like nothing happened says "Whats up?" :banghead: At this point my blood was boiling so I yelled Whats Up???!!! What the f*$k are you doing joy riding my car. He trys to mumble something and I say you were hauling ass! He says no I wasn't I was going like 20mph. I told him I watched my front end dive down from him having to slam on the breaks and that it wouldn't have happend from 20mph on this car. He then said he hit the breaks because he saw a truck coming. So I said ok then you admit you were hauling ass? He mumbles....

So once again I say WTF were you thinking? He says "I wanted to try it out." AT this point I lost it and started screaming at this guy saying you idiot your job is to install stereos not TRY my F'ing car out! I called him many things and then went to find the manager.

This is the best part. This installers reason for driving my car was that he had to road test the stereo to make sure it wasn't skipping. What he left out was that the damn CD player was not even installed yet! How the hell are you going to test that when its sitting in the trunk!

Anyways I talked to the District manager and I am hoping this guy loses his job. My worry is that he may have launched it at high RPMs which I have never done in this car because I want the clutch to work. They said they would get back to me after they investigate this.

Just wondering what you all would have done in my shoes.

Cr0mster

I am kind of a pacifist.

So I would only have cut his heart out and given him a quick death.

I may be old but I'm meaner than shit.

That f##$$ deserves to die.

I would encourage you to document the event, and have the manager sign off acknowledging what happened. And if you have clutch trouble in the near future, you go back to them and demand they pay and that you'll file a claim with their General Liability insurance.

The kind and loving R2.

leaveit2bevo
11-22-2003, 03:19 AM
Man I never let those bastards at the valet touch my car. When ever I pull up to anywhere where the valet those mofos come running over like a valet race to see who gets to valet my car. There all over it like your valets that right!!! Im like fuck no, half the valets that ive talked to dont even have dirvers liceses much less manual skills.

vroomevo
11-22-2003, 03:31 AM
sorry to hear that. i would feel as if i got raped by stranger!!!
:pissed:
hope nothing really happend to your car.

Ricardon
11-22-2003, 03:39 AM
That's a pretty shitty deal bro! I could see it if it was a performance company using your car for development...they need to flog it a little sometimes. Even dealerships need to "run" the cars a little to test them out. I used to work inside a dealership rental car spot and rode along with the techs on MANY road tests in customer's WRX's. They drive them pretty hard, but sometimes they have to ya know. But for a stereo? i would'nt even let those a-holes pull the car into the bay!! Look at the bright side...The EVO is more resistant to hard driving than you will ever know (I have no problems after 6 track days and over 4,000 canyon miles), and you just got a free stereo system! That's right, you should get no less than a free system out of this madness. Write letters, make calls, ask for heads on platters and they'll give you that thing for free in a second...watch. Get on it now though. Good luck, and if you need any help with this PM me!

kaisho99
11-22-2003, 08:39 AM
I thought "oh...no" when I saw this thread. Dude my blood was boiling as I'm reading and hoping the next line was "...so I grab the jackass buy the neck and threw him out of my car like the punk bitch he is..". :evil:

You got some major restraint there man! Hat's off to you. Definately get his ass fired! That is so jacked up.

I took my wifes POS to Best Buy the other week to get a headunit installed, but drove the Evo to so she didn't have to wait. The install guy while he's checking everyone else in line in was lookin at me in my car and I'm thinkin "hell no you ain't gettin your grubby little hands on this bitch, keep walking spanky". Way too many horror stories from those retail chain places. Never.

perversity
11-22-2003, 09:47 AM
It's sad to read this, and I am truly sorry that this happened to you. I agree that it is hard for all of us to trust leaving our cars in the hands of others.

You should get a free stereo and free installation for a start. you should also write to the Better Business Beaurau and the district head office to complain at the unprofessionalism and wrecklessness of the act. Personally I would have called the police and had the guy for wreckless driving, speeding etc.

BTW, I am a dab hand at installing stereos (check out my install at the next meet). If you don't trust those bastards and you want a hand then let me know.

Cr0mster
11-22-2003, 09:16 PM
Thanks everyone for the support. I am still beyond angry about what happened. I took your advice and started a Paper trail on this. Here is what I wrote to them.

Kevin,

I just wanted to get this in email form so we have the story of what happened in a traceable format.

On Friday Nov. 21 2003 I went to the La Mesa location to have a car stereo head unit installed into my 2003 Mitusbishi Lancer Evolution. I was helped by Lee in the roadshop department. He was very helpful and told me my car would be ready in about 1 1/2 hours. I said no problem I would wait there for my car to be completed.

I went inside the store to look at some stuff and then came back out about 2 minutes later. At this time I saw Steve Velasquez backing up my car to move it into the service bay.

I was watching him back it up and instead of bringing it into the bay he took off down the back ally at a very high rate of speed. I ran out into the ally and a short time later I saw him speeding back towards the store. He had to have been doing somewhere between 80-100mph when he saw me standing there with my arms out. The reason I say this, is due to the fact that he hit the breaks hard enough to make the front end of my car dive towards the ground. This car has a VERY stiff suspension and you have to be really traveling at a high rate of speed to make the front dive down like that.

He then pulled up to me and rolled down the window and asked "what’s up?" I then said yes What’s up??? Why are you joyriding my car. His reply was that he wasn't. I then said you were hauling ass. He said "No I was not." I said you made the front end of my car dive down, you have to be flying to do that." He then said well I saw a truck coming." So I said "ok so you admit you were speeding but you saw a truck coming so you slammed on the breaks?" He started to say something but I then said "What the hell were you thinking?" He said and these are his exact words. “I wanted to try it out."

At this point I yelled at him telling him my car is not there for him to try it out. I told him his job was to install a stereo not joyride my car. I asked who his manager is and he got hostile and said He is not here!

I then went inside and Spoke with Jeff M. One of the managers. He heard what happened from me and then went and asked Steve why he did it. Steve then made up some story that he needed to check if my CD player was skipping which you can tell is a lie since no one had even installed the CD player yet. He said he had to test it at a high rate of speed and under heavy acceleration.

After this I was charged for the work done to my car. I then called the corporate phone number to try to speak to a district manager. I was put in touch with you Kevin and we discussed what happened and you were told my side of the story.

Please keep me informed of what is going on with this situation. I have spoken to Mitsubishi and they said if he did rev my car up to anywhere near 5000 rpm or more and popped my clutch he may have caused damage that will ruin my clutch and I will have to get it replaced much sooner that I would have through normal use.

The fact that he could have either crashed my car, hit someone else with my car, or hit the truck that he saw coming really upsets me to a level that I almost never have been to in my life. This was hands down one of the most unprofessional things I have seen ever anywhere. I brought my car to this location trusting that I would be taken care of and the utmost care would be used with my NEW car. If he did indeed launch my car with the motor revved he will have voided my warranty with Mitsubish Motors which is completely unacceptable. I look forward to hearing how this will be resolved.


Perversity and Solar I may take one of you guys up on installing the rest of my system. I still have speakers and a amp to hook up. I just wanted MP3s for a long drive I am doing for thanksgiving. Thats why I went to have this installed. I will keep you all posted on what happens.

Cr0mster

Ricardon
11-22-2003, 11:43 PM
Nice job. I expect that you will receive a full credit...can you say free system!! If not, you keep going up the ladder. These people just want you to go away, and it's not going to cost them that much for that to happen. Get that fucker fired too! Although I can't blame him for wanting to drive your car hahahhaha!!!

Cr0mster
11-23-2003, 12:13 AM
Well here is the problem on a free system. I supplied the head unit myself. I bought nothing at circuit city. Was just having them install it.

perversity
11-23-2003, 08:08 AM
Good luck getting your money back. At least you will get some satisfaction with that. And if you still need a hand let me know. I did a full amp rack, speakers in all 4 locations, tweaters, re-wired the sucker etc.

EvolOne
11-23-2003, 11:47 AM
Well here is the problem on a free system. I supplied the head unit myself. I bought nothing at circuit city. Was just having them install it.

And I was going to post kudos to Rich for his coolheaded approach to this thing. And now I must revert to my previous quasi-homicidal position.

I really think you ought to get SOMETHING with $$ on it from Circuit City. There is no excuse.

But it does also give one pause to think about the benefits of ECM's that permit switching between maps...The valet map woulda taken the fun outa this trip for that guy.

And for Bevo's comment. I cannot imagine turning my Silevo over to ANYONE except a certified mechanic. Period. As my spouse knows, I'll walk a mile to avoid door to door parking. Parallel is the only way for me. And I prefer to have 1/2 a carlenght between me and any mofo in front or behind. The wife parked behind el caballero in his trailer hitched truck, which soon became his back up feelders and trashed her bumper.

I even write down the license platenumbers of people who are parking close in large vehicles. l.....oh well.

drmosh
11-23-2003, 01:38 PM
Boost controllers that reduce the boost to 5 psi also work for this type of situation.

Having an OBD II datalogger also allows me to log everything. If someone did that in my car I would know the exact RPM and speed and duration they took it and I would have solid evidence.

Cr0mster
12-05-2003, 04:24 PM
Well today I heard from the store director. He told me the kid that drove my car is no longer working for the company. He asked me if there was anything else I wanted and I told him a refund for the install would be a great start. I told him I would get back to him after I talk to Mitus about what they think I should do from a clutch stand point.

Anyways I was wondering what you all would ask for in my shoes. Please be serious and not crazy amounts of stuff. I am just trying to gauge what I should do here. I am thinking of calling a lawyer and asking for a legal opinion. The other thing I can see is they would want this problem to go away and not show up in every net auto forum so they might want to take care of me quick. Tell me what you guys think.

Cr0mster

kaisho99
12-05-2003, 04:37 PM
Glad to hear they canned the little bastard.

leaveit2bevo
12-05-2003, 04:54 PM
Hey if you can milk a free clutch out of circuit city do it, not to mention a refund.

GokuSSJ4
12-05-2003, 07:13 PM
some people have no respect for others properties . Thats the reason i watch everything went i take the car for service . Because of things like this , you can not trust people .You had every right to be upset , its your baby and you want to make sure is well taking care off . That's one of the reasons went i got bought my car i got it with 6 miles and even the plastic cover on the seats from there storage place (from the dealer) . People attent to drive the living crap out of the Evo .

gt40
12-06-2003, 02:38 AM
I am kind of a pacifist.

So I would only have cut his heart out and given him a quick death.

I may be old but I'm meaner than shit.

That f##$$ deserves to die.

a classic response from us old school folks...

AD_LIB
12-16-2003, 02:29 AM
I used to work for a botique car stereo place, and we never di anything like this to anyones car. And we had some sweet rides come through there. Not only is it unprofessional and disrespectful..its super dangerous liabilty wise for the company. The cool thing is alot of times we would do a system and ask if we could ride along in the car to do a system demo...you would be suprised at how many guys would just trust us to actually DRIVE their cars (even open it up a little) after we treated them and their vehicle with care and respect. It just goes to show that these chain places are looking to hire cheap help and do volume buisness...in the end you as a customer dont matter to them...there are 50 other suckers waiting to get banged on the head so why bother. It costs more to go to a botique place, but in the end alot of times you will get better service and a more knowledgeble staff...its worth the extra $$$ IMHO.

perversity
12-16-2003, 10:01 PM
As far as what you would expect:
1 clutch replacement if you feel that the kid really destroyed the clutch - be fair
2 to see an internal document put in place to prevent this from happening again.
3 refund for install for sure!

Good luck

ItsStockOfficer
12-17-2003, 12:37 AM
I would say....and no offense intended....calm down. One clutch drop will not cause clutch failure any sooner then normal driving would have. It does not cause a significant amount of slippage, and the real thing that destroys these clutches is their inability to dissipate heat, warp, and then start grabbing merely the outside of the friction surface. In fact, you could probably launch once every 2 hours for the rest of your clutches life and not lose a thousand miles on it. This is not my uneducated opinion, I have gone through 2 ACT clutches and other brands personally in 11 sec daily driven 4g63 powered cars, and I have replaced more then I like to think about....

Just let the manager know that you were dissapointed, and move on with your life. You don't deserve a whole lot ethically because what he did caused no damage. You deserve some compensation perhaps for the potential, but the reality did not occur.

ItsStockOfficer
12-17-2003, 12:42 AM
And for Bevo's comment. I cannot imagine turning my Silevo over to ANYONE except a certified mechanic. Period. As my spouse knows, I'll walk a mile to avoid door to door parking. Parallel is the only way for me. And I prefer to have 1/2 a carlenght between me and any mofo in front or behind. The wife parked behind el caballero in his trailer hitched truck, which soon became his back up feelders and trashed her bumper.

I even write down the license platenumbers of people who are parking close in large vehicles. l.....oh well.


Ha, if a certified mechanic is anyone at a Mitsu dealership, your eliteism is ironically going to be the cause of your own cars death. I have never met one who could diagnose a vacuum leak, let alone fix my car.