Michael paid Best Buy to install a remote starter in his car. The installer on duty went far beyond that, and destroyed the wiring so that eventually, the car wouldn’t start at all. Best Buy covered damage to the wires that became evident right away, but not problems that came up later. Michael has now spent more than $3,200 of his own money repairing damage that he says resulted from the botched installation.

He writes:

I had a remote start installed in my car. The “installer” damaged my car by drilling through my fire wall into a wire harness in addition to damaging the wiring and body control module.

The best part is that he didn’t tell anyone that he did it. I found out after I had to bring it back for service because the car wouldn’t start. They looked at it and discovered what he did. I was lucky that the car couldn’t start because the damage could have caused the car to turn off and lock up while I was driving resulting in uncontrollable car-crash-dead. The installer was later fired for his incompetence.

They admitted fault and had just the one harness replaced by a dealer. One week after having the repair done my car continued to have problems. They fiddled around with it and said it was fixed. STILL had problems and brought it to the dealer. Called the BBY repairs claims people and told them about what it would cost to repair the damage. They called the store manager and he denied the claim.

I talked to 10 different managers in the store and district and no one could help me they all said that only the manager of the store had to power to approve the claim and he refused to do it. So with no other option I had to pay to get it fixed myself. There were two options one was to get the battery replaced and have the dealer repair the existing wires $700 or have the repair and replace most of the wiring system that they chopped up incompetently and the body control module that was damaged as a result of the electrical shorts and damages from the bad installation. $2500.

Seeing as I had no money to pay for the incompetence of “professionals” that made my car undriveable I had to go with the cheaper option.

Which worked…… till a few days ago. Cost to repair $2500! Why should I have to pay to fix something that best buy did! They already admitted that the install was done incorrectly. I’m not going to waste my time calling the store to have them tell me that they aren’t going to pay to have it fixed. I never want to speak to anyone at that store again!

I’ve been advised that Small Claims Court will be the best way for me to get compensated. I don’t understand why they are going to force me to do this it is going to cost them for court fees in addition I’m going to ask for the their installation cost the first repair costs and these final repair costs.

I would be willing to sign anything they want waiving all farther claims on this car if they would just pay to have it back in the state it was before they damaged it.

My advise for everyone is go somewhere that cares about doing things right and doing the right thing when they make a mistake.

Filing in small claims court seems daunting, but isn’t all that hard. You don’t even need a lawyer.

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