Terrible Experience with *********

Hey guys,

I'd like to first start out saying that I have installed many stereos in all my cars and trucks from luxury to sporty, but I am far from being considered an audiophile. After purchasing my 2017 Tacoma, I wanted to do things a little easier than splicing and cutting wires, and since ********* is known for their plug and play, I decided to go that route. The Tacoma has terrible paper thin speakers and I do like some music in my vehicles. Spent over 1000 dollars on the 4 channel and sub amps, along with the wires and amp rack and sub box. I wanted a clean sound so I went with JBL speakers all around with a Kicker sub. Seemed pretty straight forward at first, but after the install I was getting a high pitch sound from the speakers (not the sound when the ground and power wires are close and when you rev the engine the pitch gets higher), it was just a high frequency sound. After many “tickets” and back and forth emails from *********, their installer couldn’t figure it out and he asked how many ohms are my JBL speakers. It was 2, so he said that is the issue so I should get 4 ohm speakers. I returned the speakers and purchased 4 ohm kickers. The high pitch was reduced, but was still there. ********* still couldn’t figure it out. Keep in mind throughout all this time I have removed the driver seat and dash and panels well over 30 times that I could do it with my eyes closed. He finally said the last resort is getting an in-line converter, in which they sent me. after a few days, I received it and the product they sent me you can find for 12 dollars on Amazon. With this, I had to cut the RCA cables and splice the speaker wires with this converter and finally the high pitch was even more reduced. So much for “PLUG AND PLAY.” I couldn’t set the speakers to “spec” because the pitch will just be loud so I had to tone down the settings which reduces the quality of the sound, which negates the reason of having the amps, but I was happy that it was still better than stock. They were willing to have me return everything, but I returned an amp rack to them before and with the $40 dollars I spent on it, I to pay for my own shipping so I only got about 20-25 bucks back, so I wasn’t trying to send all this equipment in and lose even more money. I felt like I was so close so I wanted to keep trying. My system was finally decent for a few months. Well a couple of days ago the cheap in-line converter blew and somehow drew power from the constant which drained my battery and blew my amp. I even went to the Dealer and they removed the stereo cable and found that the system was draining my battery. I notified ********* of this and they said it’s impossible and the reason for my issues was because I have “crappy speakers.” He literally said, “you get what you pay for.” Then I literally told him that online my 2 front speakers with tweeters are $143.00 on sale, and that the Image Dynamic front speakers with tweeters he kept pushing on me was $139.00, so how is the saying “you get what you pay for,” relevant? I told him that I spent over 1k and that if the system ********* has, had a disclosure stating that we must buy Image Dynamic speakers or else we’ll have issues, I probably would have bought them as well. Clearly money wasn’t an issue. Practically said I was a brand whore and continued to say how crappy my speakers were and that I should have bought Image Dynamic speakers. Again, I’m not an audiophile, and the installer from ********* said to only get a 4 ohm speaker. I only did what they said originally. I’m only stating my experience. I’m sure many of you had different experiences, but for someone that owns my own business and doesn’t know too much about stereo systems, customer service shouldn’t put you down and make you feel like an idiot because of something you don’t know, instead they should help find a solution. I wasn’t even asking for anything, just trying to see my options. In fact, if they went about it differently, I probably would have bought a new amp and speakers from them just so this issue doesn’t happen again, but instead, I will never buy from them again.

 

Well. I guess I might purchase an Alpine Power Pack instead. I have had them before and were great. Heck I can even drive it to Best Buy and have them do it all for 230 bucks installed . And he's a Really good installer.

 

If I could do it over again, I would have just gone with an alpine amp as well and if you don’t feel comfortable, have an installer do it. And it’ll be under a warranty I’m sure. But what do I know, I’m just a “brand whore” lol

 

I could do the install. And I might. Did everything else. I just like the Warranty thing. Any problems , wheel it down and it's covered. Nobody giving you lip service.

 

I am not surprised at your experience or the fact you will never deal with them in the future. I am however surprised your thread hasn’t received a post from @tacotunesJosh. You haven’t had the full ********* experience until you have him “call you out” publically and call you a liar repeatedly and refuse to apologize when you disprove his accusations.

This is one company who has a decent reputation and a horrible one all at the same time. Pretty much if you buy and install and have no issues they are a great company. If you have any issues however it goes downhill fast and you get a customer service experience you will NEVER forget and not for the right reasons. I keep hoping after bad review after bad review TT will learn that most of their bad reviews are customer service related and not related to the actual products. Since Josh contributed publically to my thread you can read everything yourself. Pages 2 and 3 are where our back and forth conversations exist.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...the-250-3rd-gen-premium-upgrade.541375/page-2

One day TT will sort their CS issues or maybe they won’t. Either way my experience rates as one of the worst I have experienced anywhere at anytime. It is really too bad as it was solved by one employee only to have their TW representative destroy any good work done by the other.

Good luck with whoever you deal with for audio products in the future.

 

I looked at their website. Their trashy ladies and attempt to use them to sell stuff made me go elsewhere. The ultimate turn off was something along the lines of them selling a $70 wire harness and clearly stated zero customer support provided. Wow. New low.

I bought Focal speakers, a LOC, and 5 channel amp from Crutchfield. Some was on sale, some open box and, some both... it was under $600 to my door. I spent another $150 on install stuff and now just need to do a small 10" sub, maybe another $200.

No TT hassle, no horror stories, and only removing the inside of my truck one time.

 

That was the way to go. Wish I did that the first time. Crutchfield is a great place with excellent customer service

 

I honestly think their speaker adapters are their best product, otherwise unless you are local to them their prices aren’t competitive and 99% of what they have you can find elsewhere. Luckily my transactions have been painless.

 

Sounds like the op has alternator whine? Maybe?

I would never use taco tunes. Bad mojo for years on here

 

That just solved my problem as to where to buy my install kit off the Crutchfield I go.

 

love me some crutchfield. they are the awesome and fast.

 

Sorry about your experience. I had some pretty bad noise with my recurve and ran an additional ground that reduced a lot of it.

 

I appreciate the info. Installing a new full system on Tuesday and did not go with ********* because of this post.

 

Old post, i know, but willing to share my experience. I had bad noise too...However, the only two things I bought from Taco Tunes was their amp rack, and the subwoofer box...I went aftermarket radio and I did the entire install. My culprit was the amp rack was bolted directly to the frame and my amp was screwed directly to the amp rack...So, I took plastic spacers and put them between the amp rack and frame, and between where the screws touch the amp rack. Plastic spacers on both sides of amp rack screw holes. Problem solved. Hope this helps.

 

May I ask where you got the spacers and what kind you purchased exactly?
Did you have a type of whine or hum?

 

Hey bud, yeah, man I had so much noise when that amp rack bolted bolted directly to the floor, my backup camera was fuzzy. I was like, wtf. I honestly just used the nylon spacers that come in TV mounting boxes as standoffs. We hang a lot of TV's at my office lol. But you can buy nylon spacers anywhere, like Lowes or Home Depot. Even a craft store may have them as well. i didn't tell you the entire story with my initial comment though. Spacing the amp rack from the floor solved 90% of it including the fuzzy backup camera, however, I still had a slight noise. In my setup, I have two amps, one under driver seat, and another under passenger. I initially placed my distribution block under driver seat, and ran around my console with power, ground, and remote turn on to the passenger seat to power 2nd amp. So with more troubleshooting, I just created a second ground for the amp under the passenger seat, and I actually ran a new 4 gauge feed from my circuit breaker at the battery, straight to the passenger amp, and as well, ran a new remote turn on lead from radio to 2nd amp. This solved my noise issues completely. Hope this helps.

 

Good to know. Was thinking about getting rubber washers. You think that would help just the same?
I also have an amp under the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat. I have to double check how it’s grounded though, but I have 2 of the amp racks

 

Make sure you have a clean ground. Get a 2" wire brush that attaches to a drill or impact driver, and remove all paint where ground attaches. The shorter the ground, the better

 

i installed my amp behind rear seat. I used the bolt that holds the seatbelt to ground just make sure you remove all the paint. you could use the one for the front seat as well. Sounds like a ground loop causing interference.”, since the amp is metal to metal contact with the same ground plane. Need to use anything non conductive to isolate the amp. If your amp rack is metal use a sheet of rubber.

 

Terrible experience with what? All I can see are ************.