Not Happy!

Fleur · Post by **Fleur** » Thu May 17, 2012 2:32 pm

I just took my car in to get an alarm installed. I pick it up and discover the next night when I turn on the lights, that I now no longer have dashboard lights. So I ring the guy, he says "it probably wont be anything we have done but bring it in and I'll have a look". So I do. Finally he comes out and says, "we have checked everything, power is going to the dash, so something is the electrics just must have gone. Suggest you take it to an auto electrian". I say, "so it's just a pure coincidence then, that the dash lights stopped working after you pulled the dash apart and fiddled with the electrics to install the alarm?" He said "yes".
So, I'm driving home all like grumpy and stuff, and my dash board, instrument cover starts bobbing around. I put my hand on it and the thing is loose, I see something flapping down out the corner of my eye and put my hand down and a 5inch piece of my dash falls off into my hand! The dash is smashed! Great! So, I have had it in being looked at today by an Auto Electrian who said clearly an earth is now missing, probably used for some other wiring when installing the alarm. So now I'm on my way over with the bill and a broken dash to see what they will do.

Bwarp · Post by **Bwarp** » Thu May 17, 2012 2:56 pm

Ouch! That sucks a lot!
I dunno why the alarm company would play stupid like that as its only broken since they've played with it. I would look forward to the reaction when you hand them the auto sparky bill!!

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Thu May 17, 2012 3:49 pm

post the name of the company so no one uses them again!

harlansmart · Post by **harlansmart** » Thu May 17, 2012 4:14 pm

I'm interested in this as I am about to deal w/ a local alarm fitter to the tune of $630 to upgrade and improve my set-up with considerably more features - I've made it clear I expect a very high standard of work and to be honest my primary concern is probably smashed plastic pieces and fittings etc... my car's very black and is very hot and the dash and so on is brittle and cannot handle any abuse.

Name the company and you might save others - no point posting if the company remains capable or ruining another dash imo (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Bwarp · Post by **Bwarp** » Thu May 17, 2012 4:16 pm

Name and shame!

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Thu May 17, 2012 4:59 pm

Oh if you need a new cluster cover for the speedo, I have one spare lying around you can take off my hands for free.

warrior · Post by **warrior** » Thu May 17, 2012 5:43 pm

for $630.00 I would expect a hell of a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do you need to spend that much on an alarm? Does it come with a private 24hr pit bull in the passengers seat?

Fleur · Post by **Fleur** » Thu May 17, 2012 5:58 pm

Ok, well actually I used these guys cos a read on here they were good.
Hotwire - Kelston.
To be fair, Andrew is a very level headed guy. I took the bill and the broken dash. I did get the "well it was old and cracked and .....(basically suggesting - pretty stuffed, what do you expect)" number, but when I shook my head and said "No, it was not cracked and it was soundly fitted before I came here, and now it's broken" (so don't pull that one on me) he quickly said he would source a new one for me.... so that's good, lets wait and see how he goes. However he was not convinced when I presented the bill and the suggestion that I still believed they had interfered with the earth that was now missing from the dash. He has taken a copy of the bill and has left a message for the guy who fixed the electrics.... so who knows. Will keep you posted.

Fleur · Post by **Fleur** » Thu May 17, 2012 7:06 pm

Angreal, that would be awesome. I presume the black round dash cover over the control panel is the 'cluster cover'. So yes this is the piece that has broken. What part of the country are you in?

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Thu May 17, 2012 7:36 pm

that part is easily broken in fact im pretty sure mine is only holding on by a whisker. it doesnt rattle so i can live with that. i had to replace my center one around the stereo/heater controls as that fell to bits when removed.

ican sympathise with the installer in some ways, but he should have been more up front about the damage and mistake

WideOpenThrottle · Post by **WideOpenThrottle** » Thu May 17, 2012 8:10 pm

Yep- mine broke too when i sneezed!!

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Thu May 17, 2012 8:27 pm

now theres something i dont want to picture! must have been some sneeze!

sprsta · Post by **sprsta** » Thu May 17, 2012 8:38 pm

http://www.hopehickman.co.nz/

ask for Brendan
Tell him Cole sent you

he will fix it for you if you cant get hotwire to sort it

Mr. Shine · Post by **Mr. Shine** » Thu May 17, 2012 8:49 pm

Fleur wrote:I did get the "well it was old and cracked and .....(basically suggesting - pretty stuffed, what do you expect)" number, but when I shook my head and said "No, it was not cracked and it was soundly fitted before I came here, and now it's broken" (so don't pull that one on me) he quickly said he would source a new one for me....

And rightly so! If it was old and cracked then all that means is more care should have been taken, or they should have called you and let you know so they knew whether to proceed or not.

However he was not convinced when I presented the bill and the suggestion that I still believed they had interfered with the earth that was now missing from the dash. He has taken a copy of the bill and has left a message for the guy who fixed the electrics.... so who knows. Will keep you posted.

You left it in their hands to meddle with the dash electronics to fit a new alarm. You picked it up and had issues with the dash electronics. They're liable.

Give them a chance to fix the situation and you may come away a happy customer though, but if they give you all sorts of excuses and crap, tell them you're taking it elsewhere to get fixed and if they want to refuse to foot the bill for the repairs elsewhere then you'll take them to the disputes tribunal.

Chilling_Silence · Post by **Chilling_Silence** » Fri May 18, 2012 8:53 am

Yeah luckily in these matters you're covered under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, so the initial wiring issue has to be resolved by them, as does the broken dash replacement, none of which will be any additional cost to you. As mentioned if you're given the runaround, you're well within your rights to tell them you plan on taking it elsewhere to get satisfactorily resolved and under the CGA they'll be liable to foot the bill for it.

If they don't play nice, have a quick read up here: http://www.consumer.org.nz/reports/cons ... antees-act

Sorry to hear about how badly its gone for you, that sucks

broomfish · Post by **broomfish** » Fri May 18, 2012 7:14 pm

I had a similar issue when i had an alarm fitted by warlocks (which had fitted alarms to 3 of our previous cars without issue).

after the alarm was fitted i went out for the night and when i went to go home found the lights didnt pop up. fortunatly i knew how to manually wind up the lights. when i check the next day, the pop up control relay under the dash was unplugged. coincidentally it was right next to the new alarm module. i plugged it back in and phoned them to let them know and got the 'no way is it our fault, its pure coincidence' not a biggy as it was an easy fix.

then, the car got relegated to a weekend driver. after 2 weeks we would go to use it and the batter would be flat. looking at the alarm the was a relay which was for the fuel pump kill which i suspected to be on when the alarm was on, so it was drawing power when the car was sitting there. phoned and got a 'people always blame the alarm and its always something else' routine and they wouldnt listen to the results of my tests, but would come and check it out and find the cause for $90

End result? got so annoyed with it i ripped it out and had nothing for a while until i brought in some alarms from one of my suppliers and fitted that myself with better results than the professionals.
http://www.broomfish.co.nz/product_info ... ts_id=4676

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Fri May 18, 2012 8:45 pm

my car came with a "professionally installed" alarm that was placed just behind the ignition barrel and all the fuses were easily got at...yeah like they will never look there for an alarm...muppets.

when i start using my car again in the summer, its getting a GPS tracker put in

Bwarp · Post by **Bwarp** » Sat May 19, 2012 12:42 pm

warrior wrote:for $630.00 I would expect a hell of a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do you need to spend that much on an alarm? Does it come with a private 24hr pit bull in the passengers seat?

thats not a very expensive alarm at all in my opinion...! mine was $660 without an immobiliser for my Cube... It's a bloody decent alarm and the workmanship is top notch, but no pitbull in a suit to speak of....

The less you spend on an alarm, the less likely it is to work, so if you give a shit about your car, spend good money to look after it!

brownie · Post by **brownie** » Sat May 19, 2012 4:36 pm

If they get stuck finding a instrument cover i have a couple of good ones at work,Get them to get in touch with me,(Mazline Partsworld)Better yet get them to buy it and you install it,Put a dab of vasoline on the metal clips,Make it safer to remove at a later date if you need to,They are bloody fragile,and they should be a flat black colour ,not shiny,Supposed to soak reflections off the windscreen.

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Sat May 19, 2012 6:18 pm

I ended up giving her the one out of my car but on a slightly related topic, do you have any passenger airbag covers from an NB? Preferably one intact so I can useit for a mould to fabricate a cf one?

Fleur · Post by **Fleur** » Sat May 19, 2012 7:56 pm

Cheers Angreal!

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Sat May 19, 2012 8:18 pm

Cost me $800 for my alarm, wanted to make sure I got a good one considering the gear that is going into it, also got central locking and a boot release off the fob. Pain in the butt part about it is that it's arms the imboliser within 60secs of either turning off the key, or unsetting the alarm, always end up having to unset and then reset to get it locked cause it takes me longer than a minute to get out of the car and sort my shit out.

punkoutnz · Post by **punkoutnz** » Sun May 20, 2012 12:58 pm

That's a requirement for a 5 star rating now aye. All the good alarms do it, although it is a pain in the ass!

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Sun May 20, 2012 4:14 pm

that is soooooo annoying on our work vans..
they linked the alarm to the central locking,
so now just about every one of my Techs has locked himself out of his van while on site.
so easy to do.

lock van while you go and see customer.
come back out to van and unlock it and chuck your keys on the front seat
then the van lock itself with the keys sitting there....

Bwarp · Post by **Bwarp** » Sun May 20, 2012 5:29 pm

punkoutnz wrote:That's a requirement for a 5 star rating now aye. All the good alarms do it, although it is a pain in the ass!

FYI - there's no such thing as the STAR alarm rating system anymore, as the NZSA no longer deal in car security (because they're biased and f'ing useless!!)

See this: http://www.security.org.nz/Vehicles_menu.php

and this: http://vehiclesecurity.co.nz/blog/5-star-car-alarms

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