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      11-06-2018, 06:57 PM   #35
warrenw
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Drives: 19 AW M2C, 21 M340i
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: Seoul

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Dashcam install - Faaaaaail

Dashcam install - Faaaaaail

Not long after taking ownership I knew I had to get a dashcam because, well, people suck at driving here.

This is the land of infinite technology, so most places have this thing where they will drive out to you and install at your house/apartment/dark alleyway. So I thought, yeah that's the best thing to do.

My gf bought me a Blackvue DR550 2 channel dashcam. I like this one because it's small and compact. A lot of dashcams on the market are big, bulky squares because they include a screen - I don't need a screen because you can just tether the dashcam to your phone and watch from there... I also bought the "parking mode" piece, which allows it to continue to work when shut off, but I later realized before it got installed that when you do that with a BMW it actually voids your battery's warranty. I am currently looking for an external battery setup but as of right now they go for over $300...





So we made the appointment and the kid came out to install it. ~$30 for install, discounted because we bought from their retailer, not bad right?





As they say.... Be wary of things that are "too good to be true." When in doubt, pay the going rate (here it's about 80 bucks) to have a shop do it for you who, oh I don't know, does it on a regular basis. First this guy immediately starts taking all the trim pieces off so he can hide the wires. Ok great. Then once everything's in place, he starts to look for a place to get power. I would think that you would want to find power FIRST so you know how to route your lines... But nah. Shoot first, ask questions later.

He is literally tearing up my passenger side front console area when I ask him, are you looking for the fuse panel?? To which he replies yes so I show him that it's in the trunk. Well he decides that he's already too far into it to route any wires back there, so he continues looking in the front. Then decides that he's going to splice into an existing wire when I stopped the show and told him that I didn't want him to do that. He gets flustered and embarrassed, rushes to put everything back together and quits and leaves. Literally.

So we call his boss and his boss says that he'll do it himself - but that he can't do it that week, can't meet on a weekend, can't be after 5pm, blah blah blah so eventually I gave up and decided to do it another way.

I had my M2 shop guy at least get it hooked up and fixed but I still need to get it powered permanently in the car, I just haven't had a chance to go anywhere to do that yet.

Now here's the kicker - every single place I've had work on my car thus far, both my BMW specialty shop guy, the BMW dealer, my tint guy, my ceramic coating guy, all my 'guys' have told me the same thing - the dashcam install kid did a terrible, terrible job. The wiring part has since been fixed, but we were all really surprised with how bad it was. Trim pieces not installed correctly, wiring not fully hidden, the cap to the rear dash cam was still on, etc.

So we gave him a 1 star review online... Jumping headfirst without checking power first I can forgive, but shoddy wiring I cannot. Online reviews in Korea hold a pretty heavy weight, so hopefully he can be trained to do it right!

Lessons learned: while having someone come to your house may be convenient, it's not worth the hassle afterwards. Also, you get what you pay for.
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