Reader Brandon took his recently purchased 1996 BMW M3 to a car stereo installation company to have a stereo, speaker set, and GPS system installed. When he got his car back, he noticed that the climate control system was no longer functioning the way it used to. Hot air was leaking from his air ducts when he selected cold air. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get the car stereo installation shop to repair the damage they caused, Brandon took the car to some BMW experts and found out that the botched installation had caused over $10,000 in damage to his car. Brandon then tried to get the car stereo shop’s insurance company to pay for the repairs, but they denied his claim on the basis that procedures used for the installation were typical. Brandon says he then took the car stereo shop to small claims court. but the judge ruled against him because the car stereo shop employees claimed that he entered into a oral contract to release them from liability in exchange for a partial refund. Brandon claims he never entered into such a contract. Read his story inside.
Here’s Brandon’s story:
I took my car to The Car Stereo Company in Los Altos, CA back in November of 2007 to get a stereo, speaker set, and GPS system installed. I met with a salesman who was very nice at the time, and convinced me that their shop would be able to do a good job installing these components. They informed me that they did this same type of installation before on another BMW and that they knew what they were doing. I scheduled an appointment early the following week to bring my car in for installation.
After I got my car back from The Car Stereo Company, I noticed that my climate control system inside my car wasn’t acting the same way it did before the installation. There was hot air coming out of the air ducts when I selected cold air. So, I took the car back to the store and asked them to take a look at it. At first, they were very agreeable to at least try to fix the problem, but they weren’t able to do so. I took my car back to them subsequent times to allow them the opportunity to fix the problem, but they just didn’t have the skill and wouldn’t admit it. At this point, the salesman was getting annoyed with my frequent visits. They had spent a few hours trying to repair my car unsuccessfully, and thought that they were now doing me favors by accommodating my requests to fix what they broke. In fact, a couple times when I brought the car to them to mend a problem that they caused, I got the car back with another item broken. For example, one time they tried to fix the hot air problem in the car and when I got the car back, the LCD on the climate control module was broken. When I brought this to the installer’s attention, he had the audacity to accuse me of damaging it myself. By this time, I realized that there was something seriously wrong with the work that this stereo shop performed, so I met with some professionals at Stevens Creek BMW in Santa Clara, CA. They work with an experienced, BMW-specialized aftermarket stereo installer and upon first meeting with him, he was able to determine the source of the problem with my climate control and also pointed out several other parts in my car that they unnecessarily damaged. The main problem was that the heater core housing had a huge hole cut in it. The heater core housing holds the heater core, which generates the heat for the climate control system. It regulates how much heat gets sent into the car. With such a large hole cut in it, the climate control system couldn’t operate normally. That explained why the air vents were incorrectly supplying hot air.
As a result of these findings, I decided that I did not want to have anything to do with The Car Stereo Company anymore. They were also becoming very difficult to deal with, and wouldn’t own up to the damages that they caused. I went to their store and asked for a refund so that I could take that money to go get the car put back to stock condition. They decided that they would give me a refund, charge a 20% restocking fee, but would not refund the labor fees. In addition, they added writing on the back of the refund check that would release them of liability of the damages if I endorsed it. So, I decided not to cash the check. After getting legal advice, I decided to go through my credit card company instead to get a refund for the merchandise.
So with this small amount of money in my hand, I thought I could go get my car fixed at Stevens Creek BMW in Santa Clara, CA. Yes, it was a little naive considering nothing is cheap to fix on cars, but the damages didn’t look that bad to me. Apparently the job is very labor intensive. The heater core housing is located pretty much in the center of the car, and it takes several hours to remove the necessary parts to get to it. There were also other things that BMW pointed out that were damaged. They came up with the attached initial estimate of $3,600 in labor and $8,053.91 in parts. I was dumbfounded and heartbroken that my poor car was in such a sad state. I couldn’t pay for over $11,000 in repairs on my own, nor did I feel like I should have to since the stereo shop caused all the damage! I’m sure you might be a little skeptical about how necessary this repair work was, and you’re wondering why it’s so expensive, but I got another estimate from an independent German car mechanic confirming the same findings. Not only that, the exact same thing happened to a Honda Civic owner when he took his car to a Circuit City and it cost just about the same amount to fix the car, as detailed in this article also posted on Consumerist.
So, after talking with a lawyer, he suggested to me that the best way to get the money for the repairs would be to sue the company in small claims court. I followed all of the rules and suggested steps for this process. I began with a demand letter. This was a good way to keep the matter out of court and let them know that I felt that they owed me the money without making things too complicated. After receiving the letter, The Car Stereo Company immediately turned the issue over to their insurance company. I struggled back and forth with their insurance company, and they ultimately refused to cover the claim. They claimed that I was aware that modifications would have to be made to my car to accommodate the stereo, and the procedures used for installation were typical. However, I was not made aware that anything would be damaged in my car, nor that the functionality of the car would be impeded as a result of this installation. Also, as BMW later informed me, the procedures they used to install this stereo are not advisable. And as I already mentioned, another independent German car mechanic confirmed BMW’s findings. I also got a letter from BMW, the German car mechanic, and the BMW-specialized aftermarket stereo installer agreeing that my demand was justified (see attached documents). At this point, I felt my only real option was to take The Car Stereo Company to court. They took no action after their insurance company denied the claim. I wrote up the court papers and had them served and waited for my court date.
The court result, as I’m sure you can guess since you’re now reading this article, didn’t come out in my favor. The judge said he was about to award me money for damages, but later changed his mind. I lost because (as the judge put it) I entered into an oral contract with The Car Stereo Company, and most oral contracts are binding in California. The contract that the judge said we agreed to was that I would pay for the damages on my own if The Car Stereo Company issued me a refund. I had no idea at the time I asked for a refund that I was entering into any sort of contract.
I explained to the judge that I also didn’t know what the cost of the repairs would be at the time of this conversation and that if I knew how expensive they were, I would never have even considered footing the bill for the damages. However, as many people know the law doesn’t always follow common logic, so that didn’t matter. What also didn’t help my case was that two of their witnesses (an installer and a salesman) said that I said to them, “I release you of liability of the damages to my car.” This crushed my case, and I told the judge that I absolutely did not ever say that to them. Honestly, who speaks in those terms anyway? The judge said he believed them and said their argument was more credible since there were two of them supporting their side of the story and I was the only one supporting my side. I explained that the witnesses were biased because they worked for the owner of the stereo shop. The judge’s response was, “They don’t look biased to me.” I couldn’t believe it. So, needless to say I was again dumbfounded by yet another ridiculous event in this whole debacle. That’s where the story leaves off. I couldn’t believe they got away with it.
Brandon also included the final repair bill and a letter from a car stereo installation expert describing the damages to his car.
GALLERY
END
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Seconding the option to turn the M3 into a track car (like it was meant to be!). Tons of fun even though 240bhp isn’t all that much these days, especially on the track.
@etaripamai: COTD
As for the Bimmer in question, that quote is a ridiculous ripoff. $8K in parts for E36 climate control parts? The heater core costs $530 from the dealer and much less elsewhere and much, much less used. This company may have screwed up his car but he’s trying to gouge them now.
As one that has been “through” every car installer in my town and several out of my town, I second/third/whatever the Crutchfield comments. If anybody is going to screw up my car, it’s going to be me. I’m as qualified as most of those weasels, which is to say “not at all”.
I even made a harness to patch an old Alpine amp into my GM “advanced audio” system because the stock amp sucked and they use some half assed more than line/less than speaker output from the changer (using a diagram I got off the Internet!). I can still pull the Alpine out and just plug the stock stuff back in. No permanent mods.
I probably would have left an M3 the hell alone. Discretion is the better part of valor.
Was there ever a time a 96 M3 was cool enough to put in a stereo? Whats the Blue Book value of the car $2600? Sell it to the junk yard and get a car thats been made in the last 10 years
But I’m sorry to hear that someone had such a pathetic experience. I had a similar experience with a Honda dealer and we just had to walk away from a low mileage Civic because they killed it dead doing routine maintenance. I can empathize with someone trashing your pride and joy.
I’ll add a vote for Crutchfield as well. Their instructions are good, model-specific, and provided bridge connectors to get from the in-car wiring to what the head unit expected.
It does take a couple of hours to do, but it’s definitely worth it.
it’s not the shops fault . all BMW’S HAVE that problem
Small Claims Court? What legal council advised you to take that amount to Small Claims Court?
Ouch….especailly on an M3…
I’ve done some dodgy car audio installations in my teen years. Mostly to my own cars. But one I did to a friends car nearly ended in tears, a 1984 Holden VK Commodore . We ran the power for the radio from the HVAC circuit. Not because that was what the fuse box says but because it was the closest place to piggy back the power lead from.
It didn’t work so I checked the fuse box and the fuse for the fan motor was blown. So being the worlds most knowledgeable teenager, I said we’ll put a higher rated fuse in there because the radio will add more load to the circuit. A fuse rated to 250V volt (Aussie mains supply fuse) and 20amps.
It worked! another success. Until we got a few mile down the road, tried the fan for the first time. Which resulted in an under dash fire that burned out ALL of the electrics and fried the brand new audio system. Needless to say, back then I’d be almost over-qualified to work at Circuit City!
We managed to get the ignition, indicators, headlights and brake/tail-lamps to work. But no wipers. My mate drove the car like that for 2 years.
@etaripamai: funniest thing I’ve read all day
I’m really frustrated with all forms of auto maintenance and repair/modification businesses here in California. I haven’t seen so much graft in my entire life as I have in just one hour at one of these places.
My father has a Chrysler Crossfire that has been taken to a chrysler repair center for Climate control issues 3 times. I was driving him back to pick up the vehicle after the third repair when we got a call from the center saying that there was an “issue” with the dashboard. Not 30 minutes prior they told us everything was fine. After about en minutes on the phone the most they could admit to was that the dash was damaged. They wouldn’t say how. Now, my dad was quite pissed off about this. but he wasn’t yelling or cursing at the guy on the phone (Keith, some form of manager)
As soon as we set foot on the premises Keith comes out the front door about 50 feet away and threatens to call the police cause my father was “driving drunk” and that he could smell the liquor on his breath from 50 feet… My dad blew that shit off and asked to see the car. When they rolled it out the dashboard was in pieces… and the climate control was still broken. When my dad asked Keith to repair the damage Kieth says
“We don’t deal with drunks. You take your car somewhere else. We won’t service you.”
Now, my father was in no way drunk. I picked him up from his office for god’s sake. That would have been 4 times for the same problem which I think would call in the Lemon Law. I wish he had taken action after that but he didn’t… just one of my many nasty stories with auto repair centers here in southern california.
If you are in the area and ever go to the lake forest auto mall chrysler dealership… DON’T!
@Bladefist: UM, so what are you saying, he deserved a shoddy installation because he preferred not to do it himself and he trusted them to do as they said and NOT jack up his car?
@AngrySicilian: Because it’s a BMW… his car is likely to have a lot of life left in it. Also, I bet his factory radio broke so he wanted to replace it with a cheaper aftermarket one.
Question for any lawyers out here… can the OP appeal this?
I bought a 1999 Ford Contour this year. First car I’ve ever had. Paid for it in cash.
It turns out the schmuck that sold it to me lied about any prior damages to the car (He is a cop as well which is really quite stupid on his part.)
Apparently whoever owned the car before his “buddy” owned the car, whom he was selling it for. Caved the roof of it in and filled it in with bondo and repainted the roof a slightly different color. Cource it’s hard to notice a color difference this slight on a cloudy day, in full sun it was really clear.
We took the car to a repair shop, who had fixed my brothers truck when he bought it (it was a former work vehicle and he bought it from the company who had used it)
They said they could do it the next week and have it back to me Thursday. Which was great cause I was going on a trip Friday.
Wednesday comes arround and my dad goes to get the car with my mother….they have cracked the windshield IN HALF. They claimed that this was normal and that I should’ve known it would’ve happened. Looking at my original estimate, they made no such claim and never told me any such thing when I took the car in. My father called the owner of the shop, who happens to be a friend of my fatherand agreed that the manager who told me they could do the job, did the estimate, and attempted to tell me when we went to get it “This is to be expected with this kind of repair” should’ve told me that it could’ve happened and more than likely I would have to pay for the windshield.
It took an extra week… but I got my car back, roof was fixed, and the windshield was replaced at cost to the repair shop.
@etaripamai: Surely you jest?
I cannot believe the judge ruled against Brandon because the two so-called witness who obviously work for the defendant “don’t look biased”. This is just plain stupid.
@FrankReality: Armchair laywer… the answer is no.
Short version:
One bite at the apple… True for murder trials, and taking your crappy car stereo installer to court.
@etaripamai: “Too bad BMW is a British Car, not German…. B-British… M-Motor….W-… im not sure what the w stands for but its probably Works?”
etaripamai, you are never gonna live this one down.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), (English: Bavarian Motor Works) is an independent German automobile manufacturer founded in 1913.
Bavaria, with an area of 70,553 km² and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, lies in the southeast of Germany and is the geographically largest state of Germany. Its capital is Munich.
@MercuryPDX:
“One bite at the apple… True for murder trials, and taking your crappy car stereo installer to court.”
FALSE.
If the OP actually litigated his case in small claims court, he can actually have an entire trial de novo (i.e., an entirely new trial wherein all legal and factual issues are up for grabs again) in the Superior Court where he filed his original lawsuit. In the new trial, he may be able to take better discovery and run pretrial motions which may help him to counter the false allegations made by the repair shop.
I’m not sure if he can have a jury at the retrial, or what other limitations apply. It’s not exactly the same procedure as an ordinary trial. This is all governed by the California Small Claims Act (Code of Civil Procedure sections 116.110 and following.)
Now, I’m a bit confused why the OP would have brought this action in the small claims division in the first place, as the maximum amount in controversy cannot exceed $7,500. Perhaps the OP actually litigated his case in “Limited Civil” instead of small claims? If so, the rules regarding appeal are different, and more restrictive.
Unfortunately, your not much safer from a ma & pa store. I have a friend who’s been doing stereos for almost 20 years, and he still hacks things together (avoiding connectors whenever possible to save money), although I don’t think he’s ever done damage like this, I think the worse thing he did was fry a main $300 wiring harness when he shorted the battery.
Yes, the shop owner and his employee are biased. BUT SO IS THE OP. The Judge had to make a decision based on a lack of evidence from all parties.
@etaripamai:
You are joking, right?
No, sir, surely you are the one who jests.
ETARIPAMI THOUGHT BMW WAS BRITISH BUT WE ALL KNOW THEY ARE GERMAN HAW HAW HAW STOP BRINGING THIS UP.
@modenastradale: Nice. I did qualify myself as armchair lawyer, right?
I thought the only way to have something reheard was if the judge “Dismisses it without prejudice”.
@MercuryPDX:
There are actually a quite a few ways to nibble at the apple again after an adverse judgment. If a jury was involved, you can move for a “Judgment Notwithstanding the Verdict.” That basically asks the court to overrule the jury on the ground that no reasonable jury could have come up with that result.
There are also certain procedures to request a retrial because of conflicts of interest, jury tampering, improper exclusion of evidence, etc. It’s quite an uphill battle, usually, since you’re asking the same court that just handed you a judgment to undo everything.
Finally, of course, you can appeal the decision. However, appeals aren’t as useful as most people think because the range of stuff you can ask the court to rule on is very limited on appeal. For example, the appellate court will almost never get in the middle of a factual dispute (like “he said, she said” or “how extensive was the damage to the car?”). This restricts you to asking the appellate court to decide whether the judge mistook a question of law or trial procedure. If the judge screwed up the latter, of course, then BAM! You might get to go back and have another trial, at least on the stuff the judge screwed up.
I don’t get it, they cut into the heater core and there was not a puddle of coolant on the floor? This is like getting shot through the chest and missing the heart and aorta. Yes sadly from my experience of replacing the heater core on a mazda, this seems to be the first part they put down on the assembly line when they proceed to build a car around it.
The $11k estimate is very high and what do you expect from a dealer when you hand a car that’s over 10 years old.
There’s reason why one goes to an aftermarket audio store.
It’s for those same reason why we don’t go to dealership to buy wheels.
Try and get a radio replacement + CD changer for that car. I’d bet you’d pay 4x
So, why did you not take it to an independent BMW shop?
You went there to get better equipment. Given the facts I see, what type of equipment was actually installed for them to break your heater core.
As for the kick-panel with a hole, those are cheap brittle plastic panels and can break if you blow hard enough.
I’m not siding with the defendant but I still see many holes in this statement.