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ANYHOW! I just got done with one of the longest days of my life. I woke up early because my sholders hurt from working in the pit this last (busy) week at the shop. I woke up around 3:00 because I couldn't get comfortable and because my neck and shoulders would ache no matter how I laid.

I decided I had enough tossing and turning around 8:30AM, and decided to get out of bed. After a few minutes of playing with the dogs and spending time with the 'rents, I decided to get dressed and go for a drive to Lafayette (the "big" town to the south). About half way there, Mom called me on my cell phone and asked me to meet them at some place in West Lafayette (very close to Purdue) for lunch. I got there about half an hour or so before they did, but decided to wait for them. Finally they showed up what seemed like an hour later. We walked in to the resturaunt and Mom stood there looking at the minimal menu, then deicded she wanted to eat somewhere else on the other side of town.

We got in our cars and made the journey through Lafayette to the Olive Garden, and ate a meal consisting of some sort of salt and butter laden pasta, merged with cooked, tail-off shrimp. After eating our $12-per-plate meal, Mom asked Dad if he wanted to go with me while she went on home. No big deal, I enjoy spending time with Dad, but I did kinda have plans to stop at a friend's place while I was down there.

After we got done eating, Dad and I headed over to Best Buy to look at car stereos. I had already made up my mind that I was getting either a Kenwood or a Pioneer, and that I was limiting myself to $160.00. Having such filters in place, shopping went rather quickly, and I decided on the Kenwood KDC-MP232, which had MP3/WMA/CD-RW support, RDS, and was Sirius ready.

The half-witted "tech" from Best Buy took about 10 minutes to retrieve a retail unit from the shelf directly above the display unit, then asked if I needed a wiring harness or installation kit. I informed him of the year, make, and model of my car and he proceeded to lookup the part numbers I needed in his compatibility book. Midst-sale, another tech came along and informed him that he had the wrong part numbers, yadda yadda yadda, and took over for him. He ended up getting what was supposed to be the wiring harness to fit my car, taking nearly 10 minutes to do so, then asked if I wanted them to install it which was free for purchases over $99.99. I asked what the next available timeslot was, and ended up waiting another 10 minutes for him to look it up in his appointment book in the shop. When he came back and told me that the soonest they had available was 2 hours away, I told him I would handle it myself. No problem, I headed up to pay for the unit and harness, and I was on my merry way, $187 poorer.

When I got home, I opened the packages and started soldering up the harness, and did a wonderful job at it if I may say so myself. Heatshrink tubing and solder made for a professional-grade harness. I then removed the trim panel from my car, removed the stereo, and prepared to plug in the new wiring harness and stereo. No go. I was PISSED. The $20 harness the cocky technician at Best Buy sold me was the wrong harness. I went to Wal-Mart thereafter and looked up, for myself, the proper part number. Turns out, they didn't have it.

I decided to grab a very similar harness and a previously opened installation kit and came home to try and cobble something together. The plug on the second harness was correct, but the pin arrangement was slightly different. I went ahead and soldered up the wires and used what little heatshrink tubing I had left, and went about the process of correcting the pin arrangement. As it were, I only had 1 pin out of place, but it was an important one: The "key-on" power lead. On the harness I purchased it was in slot B2, but on my car it was in slot A6. I simply moved the pin and all appeared to be fine.

I decided to make sure everything was working properly on the unit and began fiddling with the balance and fader controls. Apparently the harness I purchased is set up for the front speakers to be where the rear speakers are, and vice versa. It's no big deal to me, so I just left it as-is.

Dad helped me get the stereo mounted and the dash put back together, and everything was fine.

I'm quite disappointed with Best Buy's tech staff. Having worked with cars myself on a routine basis, I know where there would be issues with certain things, and I know to let a customer know about them when they mention performing a service on their own. The Best Buy employees didn't do this, and essentially left me hanging. I informed the one tech that I would be unable to return this evening because I lived an hour north. Apparently it meant nothing to him.

Also, the first tech was looking at the Scoche products page in his book, but the second tech informed him they don't carry Scoche products. I didn't pay any attention to it until I had to go back to Wal-Mart and I saw the packaging and logos, and I realized there was a display full of Scoche products directly to my left when tech #2 said that. Rather than selling me a $10 harness that I didn't need, he sold me a $20 harness that I didn't need. How can you put that other than "screwed"?

I'm now stuck with a $20 harness that I'll probably never need. I'm considering selling it on eBay, but I'll never make the $20 back that they charged me.