At the beginning everything seemed to be going well. I called on Wednesday they set up an appointment for the following Friday. Although they arrived about an hour late, I was okay with that. We went through the house looking at everything (even opening outlets), they went into the attic, and they left with a full list of everything that I needed. I asked that the different requests be broken down, as I wanted the option of buying my own equipment and/or staggering the work. When they left, I felt very good about the experience and was looking forward to working with them.
By the next Wednesday afternoon, I still did not have a quote. I called and was told "We're so sorry, we are abnormally busy. But I'll get your quote out tonight." I said fine...and waited. Again.... nothing arrived. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, 8 days later after the onsite call and 3 days after I called to check on it, a quote showed up.
Sadly, I could quickly tell it was hurriedly pasted from their standard pricing menu, as everything was quoted exactly as it is posted on their website (same price ranges, same disclaimer abut services that weren't necessary in our case, etc.). I honestly don't have any idea why they took the time to come to my home, nor why they bothered to email a quote -- they might as well have just told me to go to http://www.honestinstall.com/pricing-and-services.php and figure it out myself.
In addition, the quote entirely overlooked many very specific and critical requests. For example: the wireless reception in our home theatre is spotty at best, so we wanted to activate the pre-wired ethernet in that room so movies can stream without interruption. During the visit, the representative took the time to open a wall plate to confirm there was already a Cat5 wire in that particular box -- which means there was no need to drop cables, no coring, no drywall work, etc. But when the quote arrived, it left out that room entirely! There was also no mention about wiring the second bedroom upstairs, nor the downstairs office (which is where the Uverse modem is located so without that room there is nothing to "connect."), nor the entertainment center downstairs, etc.
BUT they did manage to get in all the equipment quotes. Multiple big screen TV options, wall mounts, AV receivers, speakers, the actual ethernet switch... Basically everything that I specifically said was optional.
To be honest, I was perfectly willing to buy the equipment from them -- but not without a decent quote on the necessary wiring work.
To be fair. I did give them the opportunity to update the quote before posting this review because I understand that things do happen, and other reviews for this firm are quite good. So I wrote back to explain that I was disappointed, that the quote was incomplete, and I provided precise details on what was still missing. They wrote back to apologize for being busy yet again, and admitted the first quote was indeed incomplete, but STILL didn't bother to actually update it. I suppose they are so "abnormally busy" that they've already written me off as a potential customer.
So -- I'm still on the hunt for someone who would like to secure a long-term, potentially quite profitable AV customer. All I need to start that relationship is a decent quote to activate the ethernet in 6 rooms of my pre-wired house.