Complaint Review: Parkway Car Stereo - North Babylon New York

Parkway Car Stereo of North Babylon NY is by far one of the most shady installation companies around. I will NEVER deal with them again. I own a 2008 Toyota Camry, and this is my experience with Parkway.

A few months ago, a friend bought me a Pioneer in dash Navigation and DVD player for my car. I went around to get prices for a few different places. I have never heard of Parkway until i looked them up, and they had the best prices for me in regards to what i wanted done.

I bought 4 new speakers, two subwoofers, a 4 channel and a 2 channel amplifiers. I also bought HID conversion headlights and under car LED accent lights. I got a quote of 800 dollars to install EVERYTHING...I made an appt, and left my car there for two days to have everything installed.

After the first day, I called to check on the progress, and they said it was going fine, and that it would be done the next day..early afternoon. The next day I called to see when it would be ready, and I was told that they havent even started it yet. I asked to speak to the owner, Brian Norris, who assured me the day before that it would be ready today. When he got on the phone, he said he never spoke to me before, and called me a liar.

I went to the shop later that afternoon to confront him. When I showed him my call log, he said that it wasnt him that I spoke to the day before. OK, so maybe a miscommunication..these things happen. Anyway, when I went to the shop, my entire car was disassembled, and only had 2 of the 4 speakers installed, and wires ran for the amplifiers. Brian THE OWNER, assured me that everzthing will be done by close of next day. I was disappointed, but he promised me a discount so I left my car again.

The next afternoon, I called and asked for Brian right away. When he came on the phone, he told me that it wasnt ready and would take ATLEAST another full day. By this point I was getting aggravated. I told them to stop working and put my car back together and I will pay for what was done...four speakers installed and 1 of 2 amplifiers installed...they didnt even do my radio yet. when I went to pick it up, my car was still totally disassembled and no where near drivable...this was at 4:30 in the afternoon...i called at 12 and told them to stop working...Brian told me he never received such a call...when Ishowed him mz phone log again, he told me that i never asked them to stop working...funny as that 1 minute ago he told me I never called...now he was calling me a liar.

Anyway, Brian offered to install a FREE alarm and remote start if I left my car for another day...VERY HESITANTLY I did. I told Brian that I would be there at 5pm the next day to get my car, and I was PROMISED that it would be ready. So, next day I called..spoke to Brian and was told everything is done, they were doing the alarm and remote start now, and it would be ready by 5... 5 pm came, and I went to get my car...to my amazement, it was done. Now came time to settle the bill. Now as I said before, I was quoted 800 for everything and the alarm and remote start was free. If only that were true. My bill was for 1400...

Brian, the one who quoted me the price to start, said that he never wouldve quoted me that price and I was lying. He also charged me half for the alarm and remote start, WHICH I NEVER ASKED FOR AT ALL...he told me that he would never offer an alarm and remote start for free...After arguing for what seemed like an hour, I got my bill down to 1000...I was OK with that, seeing as I needed wire kits and RCAs for the amplifiers and DVD.

As I was checking everything out, I noticed the HID headlight conversion wasnt working...turns out they never installed them, apparantly I never asked them to install them...So whatever, I was too upset and frustrated to argue anymore...everything else was done, Ill get the HIDs installed somewhere else. Well...on the way home, the alarm they installed started going crazy...lights flashing, my horn going off along with a siren. I pulled over and shut the car off and hit unlock on the remote...nothing happened...I tried using the bypass button...nothing happened. I called Brain to tell him the problem and he told me to try what I already did. I was stuck in a parking lot, and could not get my car to stop beeping, or even get it started. I told Brian to send someone to help, and he told me they were closed, that he had no one to send.

I called a tow truck, and had my car towed back to the shop, which cost me almost 200 dollars by the way, and I asked Brian to reimburse me since it was his companies fault..He said NO...eventually he changed his mind and paid...So I left my car and told them I wanted the HIDs in but that Im not paying cuz that was included in the original quote...He agreed without any hesitation. Brian personally called me the next day to tell me that my car was done, and everything was working perfectly. I picked my car up and everything was working Beautifully...Even the DVD played while driving which it shouldnt do, but they bypassed that for me, so I can watch a DVD at anytime. Anyway...that was day ONE...then came day TWO.

Next morning, my car would not start with the remote starter...to busy to get to work, i just started it with the key...took it to Brian after work to get checked out...it was a simple 2 second fix...AWESOME...worked fine. The next day was Saturday, and I was heading to NJ to hang out with my family. On the way there, I heard a crash from the trunk, and i didnt hear my rear speakers anymore. I pulled into a rest stop and opened the trunk to find both speakers fell from the rear deck and both tweeters were broken off. Couldnt do anything about it at the time, so I continued driving. Next the DVD stops working altogether. at least my ipod was working so i was kind of OK...just sounded bad with two broken speakers...visited my family and was on my way back to NY, when I got pulled over for a headlight being out. I got a ticket...by this point I was furious. Monday morning I went back to Parkway and talked to Brian. I told him I wasnt paying the ticket because it was his fault the light didnt work. He agreed to pay it. Then I showed him the rear speakers...Now Im not an installer, but I know rear speakers fit into holes on the rear deck, which means they should not have fallen through...well it turns out they were not installed correctly and were screwed to the bottom of the deck, and the subwoofers vibrated the screws loose. I told Brian I wasnt paying for a new pair since they were installed wrong...Then he had the nerve to tell me that I moved them, that they WERE installed correctly, and he wasnt giving me a new pair...we spoke to the installer and he admitted doing it wrong, because the tweeters were to high to intall the right way...so after some arguing he replaced the speakers...put the m in correctly and replaced the HIDs...ALL WAS WELL RIGHT???

NO!!! after a few more days, while driving on 287, a large black box fell from my dashboard and landed behind the brake pedal...which meant that...driving at 75 MPH I had to reach down and TRY to move this box from the pedal so I can brake...It wouldnt move because of the wires...So I had to rip it out...turns out that it was a bypass for the electronic chip in my key to make the car remote start...so needless to say...the remote start wasnt working again...I took it back and Brian said he wasnt replacing it because I pulled it out...even after I told him that it fell...He didnt believe me and said I did it to get more free stuff which he wasnt going to do anymore...he finally agreed to fix it himself...I asked him to CHECK EVERYTHING for me so I wouldnt have to come back anymore. I left my car again and went to work. Brian called 3 hours later and said everything was perfect and I will have no more problems...that lasted for 1 WEEK.

In his checking I also asked him to set the levels on the amplifier so It sounded perfect, which he supposedly did...well after a week it started to sound horrible...now, the GODS HONEST TRUTH...I DID NOT TOUCH ANY DIALS on the amps...I wouldnt know what to do with them anyway...Once again back to Brian...who blamed me for messing with the dials and he wasnt fixing it anymore...and that was it.

When I was in NJ next, my brother told me of a place in Kenilworth called Metro Auto Alarms. He said they do excellent work. So I took my car there, and they had to rewire all the amplifiers and speakers cuz they were not done correctly, which they showed me and then listening to the radio after the rewire, it sounded 100 times better. they only charged me 150, and wrote a detailed letter to Brian informing him what they had done and why it was wrong to begin with. I brought the bill to him and told him he was to pay for it since he messed it up to begin with...OF COURSE HE REFUSED saying that I was RIPPED OFF. So he didnt pay, and told me that I wasnt allowed in his shop anymore.

To sum up my story, I WILL NEVER DEAL WITH PARKWAY CAR STEREO EVER AGAIN...I even talked to some people who had work done there, and had to have it all done again by another shop. Brian Norris is a horrible owner, and no one should give this cheat and liar work at all...I just hope people see this and write in with their horror stories of Parkway Car Stereo in Norht Babylon NY...with all the people I talked to, this man does not deserve to have a shop...and whats even worse...my wife bought a new Honda, and had a remote starter installed at the dealer, turns out that Parkway Car Stereo did the installation...we had it removed 2 weeks later because there were nothing but troubles all the time...the car not starting, even with the key, locks werent working, factory alarm going off at 3 in the morning...Took it to Metro Auto Alarms, and have had no problems since...Thank you everyone who reads this and Hopefully we together can get Brian Norris out of his butcher shop.