B Michael’s Electronics

This place is one or two stars at best. Let me explain.
I had a habit of getting an alarm and a remote starter installed in every car I buy. Most of my friends and family have been convinced (after I demonstrate how nice it is to get into an already-​warmed-​up-​car in January in the Northeast!) and they also get remote starters installed.
I know that Best Buy and similar chains will install remote starters, but I have always avoided them, because I thought that small, local stores would offer a more personal, accessible vibe as opposed to a «Wal-​Mart» approach from a big store (boy, was I wrong).
Between myself, my wife, and my mother in law, we have had 3 remote starters installed here.
My wife’s remote starter only fails to start in extremely cold weather (i’m talking 10 below or colder), but on my car, whenever it got a little cold, the car would not start. Now, what’s the point of a remote starter that doesn’t work when it’s cold out?
I brought it back three times. Now, I’m an expert in this kind of stuff (*) so I did my research and determined that the problem was most likely that the starter was installed with a timed crank instead of a tach input. What this means in English is that the starter just runs for a preset amount of time, and has no idea if the motor is about to run or not. The reason they do it this way is because it is easier and cheaper to not have to run an extra wire to the remote starter to sense the engine RPMs.
B. Michaels admitted this was likely the problem (meaning I diagnosed it correctly), but charged me to look at it anyway. Of course, they took the cheap way out by just setting the crank time higher, but that didn’t work.
I brought it back twice more, and asked that they fix it, but they never did. At one point the guy told me he ‘resoldered all the wires’ and charged me for the service (uh, if they were soldered wrong, why am I paying for you to re-​do it the right way? Plus, it’s obvious that you just made this up and didn’t actually do anything). Keep in mind that each time I had to go back, I had to leave the car there, get a ride home, and then be without a car for the day (or several days). Of course, they loved the fact that this problem only appeared when it was cold, because they would keep saying «no, we didn’t look at it today, it wasn’t cold enough». Even though the problem was clearly that the alarm should have been converted from timed start to tach sense, but they were too cheap to do it.
My 2^nd bad experience with B. Michaels; my mother in law bought a new car from a local dealer. They offered to install an alarm/​remote starter. She thought that the dealer was doing it themselves; she didn’t know that they sent the car out to b. Michaels for this work.
She picked up the car, and asked me to test out the remote starter. The lights on the car didn’t flash as they were supposed to and fuses blew for the marker lights. It was at that point that we discovered that b. Michaels did the install for the dealer. We went to b. Michaels, who acknowledged the problem and told us to come back next week. Since my mother in law lived 100 miles away, it was not feasible to do this. b. Michael’s gave us a serious attitude about this.
My wife’s car also had installation problems, but it was so long ago we no longer remember what the details are…
Forget it, never again. Many of my friends have used Best Buy and have been very happy. Best Buy stands behind their work, repairs even the most intermittent problems, and they are not threatened if you demonstrate technical knowledge of the products.
I recently bought a new car, and I WILL go to Best Buy for the remote starter.
If you want to patronize a smaller, local store, there are multiple other options right on the same street; up Ulster avenue is Hammer Electronics, Greylock Electronics, and I think there is even one more.
(*) If I’m such an expert, then why didn’t I just fix it myself? 1) I don’t have a garage and I can’t really work on a car in the snow (2) if you dare do anything to let b. Michaels know that you have technical skill and can read the install (not owner’s) manual; they will accuse you of screwing something up and will refuse to honor the warranty.