I took my iPOD touch to Audio Express in November wanting to get a car stereo. I talked with the guys and they selected an Alpine car stereo for my SUV. They gave me a quote of $200 for the stereo and another $80 for other fees to put it in. I agreed. They installed it. It was running late that day when they finished. The radio in the new stereo worked but the iPOD didn't. We tried a few programming tricks with the iPOD but couldn't get it to work. The employee said he'd look into it and get back to me later in the week. I didn't get a response then or did I ever get a call throughout the rest of this saga. I called back in a few days to see about how to do it but he still didn't know but he was working on it. Meanwhile, I sort of got the iPOD to play on my stereo but it required about 3 minutes of resetting the iPOD settings and rebooting my iPOD each time I turned the car on. Still waiting on a call I forgot about this issue for many weeks. I later started to drive more and went back into the store asking about what needs to be done. They remembered me and one employee vouched that we hadn't gotten the stereo to work properly. They took my SUV back into the shop and determined that my iPOD doesn't work on that model of stereo but that an adapter cord would be able to fix it. They also determined that a newer model of stereo would indeed work. Ok, I was agreeable to wait for the cord to be sent. I waited another three or four weeks with no response. I called back a few times in the meantime but the cord wasn't in yet. They said they'd call me. I finally call in and they say the cord is in and I can bring my SUV in. WHen I bring the SUV in the next day they determine that it doesn't work with the cord. The junior employee basically says the stereo doesn't work with my iPOD. Ok , I suggest we trade-up to a model that works. He goes and talks with his supervisor who comes back and first accuses me of having gone out and bought a new iPOD and trying to get them to update an old stereo so that the new iPOD would then work. He puts it on me to show him the receipt from the Apple store for my iPOD. He backs down when I say, 'OK let's call Apple'. He then figures there is something wrong with the stereo that was installed so he tries to send it back to ALPINE and get another of the exact same type. I tell him what his employee had said about that stereo not being compatible with my iPOD. He doesn't come up with a good answer. I ask about an upgrade where I pay the difference in cost. He comes up with a quote for that PLUS LABOR and some other bogus fees to the tune of around $100 to take out the old stereo and install the new one. I say so you are charging me labor to fix what your shop didn't get to work in the first place? His reply was that he wasn't fair to him if he didn't. I mention discussing these issues with ALPINE, the BetterBB and posting and online review. He thinks I am threatening him and hands me back my iPOD and I leave. I wrote to ALPINE. They are replacing my stereo with 2 models-up, free of charge. I refuse to go back to Audio Express and will have another local shop do the labor, which I'll happily pay for. Thank you ALPINE!!

I needed 2 new remotes for my Viper alarm on my car. I checked online first with DEI, the company that makes Viper alarms. Their price was $51.99 each, with free shipping. DEI had Audio Express listed as a dealer, so I called them. They had the part I needed in stock, and they quoted me a price of $60 each. I figured $16 wasn't too much to justify waiting 3 or 4 days for shipping, so I went down there and they programmed the remotes for my alarm.

After everything was programmed they THEN told me there was a $25 charge per remote for programming them. It took them about 5 minutes apiece, so they are effectively charging $300/hour for labor. The remotes come with instructions to program them, I'm sure I could have done it in about 15-20 minutes. It also turns out that the smaller remote that they sold me (still $51.99 on the DEI's website) they charged me $69.99 for.

Final tally: I paid $189.90 plus tax at Audio Express, and had to wait while they programmed my alarms. I could have gotten the same item for $104 (and no tax) online, and it would have taken me not much more of my time to program them. In my opinion, they ripped me off for $85.90.

My big gripe is that they didn't inform me before hand what I'd be paying. They didn't tell me there was a price difference for the remotes (which was logical to assume there wasn't since DEI charges the same for both). More importantly they didn't tell me there was a (large) charge for programming the remotes until they had already done it.

In conclusion, Audio Express is not only quite expensive for the item they sell, they also seem to have some very shady sales practices that will nail you with hidden charges. I'd recommend shopping elsewhere.