Buyer Warning! Review of zcar03's "custom work"
 

Originally Posted by zcar03
I started making some amp racks and sub boxes for the Z. I can do wood or fiberglass. Amp racks are also available with colored LEDs. Racks start at 100 no cubbies,150 w/ cubbies,and 175 w/ cubbies and LEDs. Choose carpet or vinyl. I can also make the under strut boxes to spec for 150 carpet or vinyl. Add for shipping. Check out these boxes.

http://www.crazkustoms.com/gallery
PM or email me at crazkustoms@yahoo.com for Fiberglass quotes.


I just got my box/amp rack today and let me tell you, it took well over a month to get the finished product, but it was worth it! JUST KIDDING!!!

I am so extremely pissed off right now you dont even understand. His work is HORRIBLE!!! I am not one to call people out online, but this guy deserves it for how shady he was. He kept adding charges and even tried to charge me a lot more money for vinyl that was originally included in his estimate.

Now to what he did wrong:
1. He forgot to put a terminal on the box!
2. He didn't use MDF board...wtf...
3. HE DIDNT EVEN SEAL THE GOD DAMN BOX!!! If i blow onto the crack where he "sealed" it with screws i can feel the air blowing into the inside of the box...if someone was ignorant of car audio they would have hooked up their sub and blown their sub with the huge air leaks everywhere.
4. He used staples to hold down the vinyl...there's this stuff called spray on adhesive for vinyl...it works wonders and doesnt leave crooked sharp staples sticking out all over.
5. His vinyl cuts were all sketchy, no straight cuts and the cuts didn't even line up right.
6. His cubby holes were supposed to have holes on the sides so wire could be fed to the amps inside the cubbies...he forgot to do this...
7. He angled his cubby holes so that rectangular objects (such as an xbox) won't fit. Common sense works wonders...
8. He didn't vinyl the cubby holes so wherever there is space that you can see into the cubby hole you will see wood and poorly cut vinyl with staples sticking out all over.
9. He placed his LEDs (extra charge) in the most stupid places...he put them on the inside of the cubby holes so that they will light up the amps and xbox inside...but he didnt cut the holes bigger so that the lights would actually shine on the electronics, so the lights arent going to shine out anywhere, just get blocked out.
10. The amp rack was "sealed" with some cheap epoxy that didnt hold, it is already coming apart and will break soon enough.
11. He didnt cut the ring for the sub into the box like he said he would, and his excuse on the phone was that it would "compromise the air space" right man right...

That's all i can think of right now, but i'm pretty sure there are a variety of other things. I paid almost $300 and waited over a month for this and he has a horrible attitude and will not let me return it. He said he'd reimburse me for the money it takes to fix it. I can build sub boxes a lot better than he did, but the reason i paid him to do it was because i didnt want to spend all the time, i had already put about 30 hours into my stereo system over break and i didnt want to spend any extra time with other stuff.

I'm estimating that it will take another good 6-7 hours to fix everything he did wrong + the cost of sealant, a terminal, spray paint, vinyl, and vinyl adhesive.

Needless to say, i am one angry man right now!

-Alex

i am sorry bud...

can you post some pics? what kind of custom enclosure was this? 300 bucks sounded quite cheap for anything elaborate.

this sounds some what famaliar from what i have seen, usually due to two things:

1. installer not knowing his boundaries and tries to do something beyond his experience and skill set.

2. the installer just got lazy and tried to rush.

after looking at the gallery, i am bit miffed, there seem to be a wide range of work quality, some looks pretty darn good, some looked...ewll..not so great, almost seems like it came out of two people. i would say then that he probably fall into category two of what i listed. :)

onlything is that doing final securing of vinly with staple is not abnormal. sually when i have to wrap something very curvy or hard, i will use a lot of adhesive, and then on the ack, if there is pressure, iw ill stape thing neatly to a surface. of course everyhting will need to be completely out of sight and not protrude into any thing usefull...

b

sorry to hear this bro, as a car audio installer myself I would hope he fully returns your money with no hassle. 300 bucks is a pretty hefty price. Especially considering his chouce in wood. Hope for the best!

I would love to see zcars03 reply to this, as I feel bad for you, but he should be given his defense none-the-less.

Wow ... that really sucks man. If you need some help with stuff down there let me know ... I know we were gonna do something for you a long time ago and never got around to it.

-jim

I saw your other post. I would also like to see pics. You've posted this in two places in two spots with no pics. What gives?

Pix Please.

All pics of the box were sent to him prior to shipping. I did forget the terminal and told him that I would refund the money for it. I charged him 150 for the box and 75 for the amp rack including LED lighting and 2 custom cubby holes for his amp and xbox. Supplies were $40 (wood) $35 (vinyl) 12 LED lights/wiring ($25). Time was approximately 10 hrs. So after paypal fees I made 215 - (100) = 115 Thats 11.50 an hr.

I did have to wait 3 weeks after he sent payment before he decided what whe wanted the box to look like. At that point I had other customers' boxes I was looking at.

PICTURES are taken of all of the boxes that I make and emailed to the buyer for approval before they are shipped. You can not please every customer 100%.

PRICES for the following are 250 carpeted, 275 vinyled, 400 painted
All are made of MDF and fiberglass and gelcoated. Any combo similar to these will be the same price. I will take pics of all the boxes and email them before shipping.
http://www.crazkustoms.com/gallery/d...?album=1&pos=6
http://www.crazkustoms.com/gallery/d...album=1&pos=14
http://www.crazkustoms.com/gallery/d...album=1&pos=13
Add 50 to any price for this one
http://www.crazkustoms.com/gallery/d...?album=1&pos=0
This set of 2 is 400 carpeted, 450 vinyled, 550 painted 2 BOXES
http://www.crazkustoms.com/gallery/d...?album=1&pos=7

Mike, i don't care how much stuff costs ($150 for a box that is not sealed, not mdf, and no terminal???) i would have rather had no LEDs and no cubby holes if i knew they were going to look horrible. The overarching concept here is that YOU SENT ME AN UNFINISHED PRODUCT, I ASKED FOR A RETURN AND YOU DENIED! That is horrible business practices and far from what a real professional would do. I would have bought the nazar box if i would have known your work was not to par.

BTW: i have a suspicion that this guy Mike actually stole some of his pictures from various places as i have seen a few of the boxes he advertises on his website on ebay and such being sold by other people. To emphasize this even more you can see a picture of a silver Z with nismo side decal with a silver box housing 3 10's, this picture is on a showroom floor at a dealership...

you guys asked for pics, i actually had already taken them but had not uploaded them to a website yet, here we go:
1. Gap in the wood on the backside of the box, if i blow on this gap i can feel the air inside the box
http://static.flickr.com/27/88692998_b17751a39c.jpg?v=0
2. Foam resin sloppy all over the inside of the cubby - this makes mounting my xbox or amp flush impossible because they won't lay flat with the foam in the way.
http://static.flickr.com/27/88692997_4de4100634.jpg?v=0
3. As you can see here he used some kind of caulk to try to hold the cubby to the amp rack and the seal was already broken when it arrived here. You can see the gap if you look where the caulk is.
http://static.flickr.com/25/88692996_f72446170c.jpg?v=0
4. Screws screwed in in stupid places cracking the wood
http://static.flickr.com/37/88692995_5bc13848ac.jpg?v=0
5. Here you can see that he hurried the job even stapling the vinyl as the vinyl is not even flush with the wood but instead it is wrinkled up. You can also see a UPC code that just got left there in the corner.
http://static.flickr.com/42/88692994_f99ad0e322.jpg?v=0
6. Just an overall idea of how crappy and sloppy the cutting was
http://static.flickr.com/43/88692993_1853504f5a.jpg?v=0
7. This pic is inside the box itself, as you can see up in the corner there is a screw randomly sticking inside - this screw also made a gap that air can escape through breaking the seal (IF THERE WAS A SEAL)
http://static.flickr.com/18/88698525_0a120b86c4.jpg?v=0
8. Here is a pic of the whole amp rack, it looks pretty unfinished with those cubby holes being not vinyled, dont you think? Also you can see the box it's sitting on top of which it was shipped to me in, the box was actually like 4 boxes taped together and when it arrived it looked pretty badly packaged. I buy things on ebay frequently, since i was 13 actually, and rarely do i see packaging this bad (i have 176 100% positive trader feedback on ebay btw).
http://static.flickr.com/18/88698524_d13b7f1ea9.jpg?v=0
9. This picture just emphasizes that he did not use any caulk or sealant on the inside of the box, the box is in no way, shape, or form sealed for a sub.


The main reason i am ratting you out on the internet is because i have a lot of respect for my fellow Z enthusiasts on this website. They have helped me a lot over the last couple years and i try to help out wherever i can as well. I would never want to steer these guys into buying bad product created by a bad businessman. I look out for my homies :D

ZCar03,

Myadvice to you is to allow AParshall to return this box to you, and you pick up the shipping tab. This is pretty damn poor workmanship in comparison to the items you show on your site. You made a leaky box, out of inferior materials, when in fact you advertise to have high-quality products. You should have at least checked for air leaks before sending this box out.

AParshall,
I am sorry to see this box, that is beyond bad. If you paid by CC, file a claim and refuse payment for the goods, these are unacceptable. Good luck with everything man.

Jim

UPDATE!!!
I just took my xbox out of my car and it does not come anywhere close to fitting. It overlaps on all sides by at least an inch. So now i have a useless amprack, i havnt even tried fitting the amp in there yet...cant wait to see how that turns out.

Edit: Jim i paid paypal and it's been overa month for a few of the payments. This guy is KILLING me, i have the hardest semester of school just starting yesterday, i have to get good grades in every class to get accepted into the school of business, i just got sick, and recently ive been hanging out with a new girl that as its going, may turn into a relationship...gah, and now i have to deal with this guy. And besides that i bought carbon fiber side skirts a few weeks ago that didnt even come close to fitting, at least that seller is letting me return them for 100% refund unlike this mike character.

Lesson to learn. Buy your stuff local and support a local shop where you can see it being built.

True, or at least buy from someone that has proven good reviews. This guy suckered me into buying from him because he had cubbies and LEDs and because he showed me his website and his "work" (which i think is stolen pictures) looked good.

I would have had someone local build but that means my car is not accessable and a lot of money. I'm a college student, so every dollar i have i spend on my car and i try to stretch those dollars as much as i can to get the most out of my money. This has actually been good for me because i have learned so much about cars doing things myself and not paying people to do them for me. I built my own amp rack, redid my whole sound system, designed my own exhaust system, installed various performance mods, etc etc. Now i know how to help my friends with these things and have experience for future cars.

I actually have a sub box that fits under the strut i build myself a while ago, it sounds amazing and has perfect volume for my sub, it's just not as visually appealing and doesn't have that nice fit that i was looking for.

Hey Guys

Sorry to hear of the problems your having..

I just wanted to clarify this is Not me (Mike from Ebays ZEnclosures) who did this work or do I have any affiliation with this member.

thanks mike

the craftsmanship is horrible...... looks like a piece of junk to me more than an amp rack... damn!! REFUND!!!!!!:icon22:

OMG YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!! That has got to be the worst quality work i have ever seen!! unbelievable!! I cant even start to explain how horrid that is OMG Please make sure he does not get ANY MORE customers!!! I would post a link to this thread in your sig to make sure everyone knows!! This is absolutly unbelievable!! for 300$!! OMG 10 hours!!! im calling BS!! i made this box in under 4 hours, its 1 inch MDF, this cost my customer 150$. just to show that kid what decent work is note(unfinished at the time)
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/audio006.jpg

His work should not be considered anytype of quality work!! unbelievable, i think a call to BBB is in order

No reply Zcar03, whats up with the shady work? I hate shady people, nice work revealing this scam artist!

Wow, I looked at all the pix. That is some pretty shotty work. I hope your issue is resolved to your satisfaction.

I think this should be posted in the off-topic and Z general forums as well.

Any members of motoring and z-tech and freshalloy .. please also post this there.