+1

Unfortunately I am at the low end of the totem pole in our shop. The installer over me who designates what we stock on the van to work with told me once why he chooses boxes instead of rings. I honestly don't remember if he told me boxes or cheaper or he thinks the rings are harder to work with. I just scratched it off as a no win. I have to wait until someone over me has a "good" idea before it's a good idea. And I must apologize that I missed the fact it was a powered sound bar. It is never ok to put any kind of corded electrical in the wall. Last week I pulled a 30' really light duty extension cord out of the wall that was running a plasma and IR extender base behind the tv. The cord itself felt like it was about 100 degrees when I picked up the end of it runing into the wall.

Going back tomorrow to finish the ipads and matrix, I'll post some pictures of the back of the bar, don't think it'll work with a tv mount given the studs. Probably going to just junction box the power seeing as the tv is on an articulating mount.

I'll post pictures, we'll see if it'll look decent.

I love em. way to expensive but worth having. My guys won't use anything else.

So to finish the saga. This is a fairly high end place, they sell luxury trips supposedly. I put together a quote, explain the issue with the sound bar. Not a big job, but I think I can make it look nice. Thanks again for all the input, those little skinny sound bars are a pain, but I feel more prepared when I run across that again.

So I get an email response the next day. "Thanks, but my boss evidently knows someone who will do it for $50. Thanks for quoting the job."

Do I feel like a schmuck or what?

My wife says I should trust my gut more. When I see a cheesy sound bar that was probably bought online, a rats nest of wires where the owner hooked it up, I should know this is just going to be a non-starter and decline to quote it. Obviously they aren't looking for a professional installation. The IKEA "mount" should have been the tip off I guess. I still don"t believe it was a TV mount.

So what do you guys think? Would you quote it, or find a polite way of saying, "You aren't really looking for my level of service."

I do just that on a weekly basis it seems. Jobs like that are a waste of time both during and after the fact and I can spot them a mile away! A few keywords are: internet, already have.... and don't need..., my IT guy, I'm an electrical engineer, my brother-in-law does this in Seattle, we just..., simple..., I can program Crestron myself but just don't have the time, and my personal favorite and I quote "I can program this entire Vantage system in a few hours by reading the book, there's no way that's worth 15 grand!" You get the idea.

Wouldn't have had to do that if you had charged them, or tried to charge, a "consultation fee" up front.

No wasting of your time at all, since these types will typically not be interested as soon as you mention a fee.




They can always check out Craigslist. There's always someone on there that is willing to do crap work for crap pay....

They are a pain, luckily my client is cool with mounting the bar on the TV. Picked up the universal speaker mounting bracket from Snap which I can already tell I'm going to have to modify to make it work. At least it'll be directly under the TV and I can just route the sound bar's wires with the HDTV wires. Simple enough to avoid the cord in the wall or cutting the cord dilemma on the articulating setup.

O/T I hate IKEA. Granted people who buy the stuff generally need it installed but from kitchens to lights to anything else, ugh. I have to explain that all IKEA stuff takes double the installation time... sometimes they get why.

Sorry you had a flaky client, the "fee" suggestion is a great way to see if they are serious about your level of service.