In 2003 my car was broken into twice within a matter of months. In an effort to provide deterrence, I decided to have an alarm installed. Aside from needing to choose a preferred make and model of alarm system, I also needed to figure out who seemed to be the most competent at doing the installation.

Almost every business that I spoke to emphasized that their installation was the best and all of their competitors were incompetent. Unfortunately, since everybody else was saying the same thing, they effectively all looked incompetent.

I ended up choosing a national chain because I was anticipating a long-distance move and I wanted the assurance that I could have my installation warranty honoured across the country. Unfortunately their "installation" involved disabling one of the sensors on the alarm without my knowledge or consent. Given that this action was essentially tampering with my alarm, I demanded that the sensor be re-enabled.

Their response? They said that I should pay $25 to get them to undo whatever it was that I never wanted them to do in the first place. I guess that lifetime installation warranty isn't worth the paper that it's written on.

At the same time, they had the nerve to comment that nobody else in town had the "expertise" to disable that sensor the way that they did. Given that everybody is supposedly incompetent, and their "expertise" messed up my alarm system, it appears that everybody managed to mutually discredit each other.

I'm thinking that the next time I purchase an after market car alarm, I'll install it myself.