I agreed to go forward with a job, which Amer - but you can call him "Pedro" -…read more
said would be $300 + tax for a job that would take less than an hour, "But, I'll do it for $300 flat because you' work at..." I was already sold on the idea of getting upgraded lighting in less than an hour! I certainly didn't ask for a discount, but I appreciated the gesture of an employee discount, so I sat down and took a seat in the lobby while they worked.
Shortly thereafter, Pedro comes from the back of the shop, asks me to come to the back where he informs me that he cannot install brighter lights anywhere in the interior of my vehicle as he had stated he would be able to. He said that any lights that he would put in the inside would be no brighter than what was already installed, so I naturally agreed to leave the interior lights as they were.
At this point, I felt the need to begin asking more questions about the headlights as I didn't want any similar issues with the headlamps to arise. I asked Pedro about brands, LEDs, etc. He stated that he could not install LEDs in my vehicle, but that he used Sylvania bulbs that were top of the line HIDs. I took him at his word and went back up front to the waiting area.
As I waited, I began to have a feeling that Pedro may not have known nearly as much about lighting as he had led me to believe because I had not noticed one single Sylvania box anywhere in the store. I quickly did a crash course on headlamps using Google and found out almost immediately who the top manufacturers were - OSRAM, Morimoto, and Phillips seemed to be the consensus.
At that point, I made a point to return to the back of the store and kindly request that Pedro save the headlamp bulbs that were originally on my vehicle as I wanted to keep them. Pedro agreed to do this. Upon removing the bulbs a while later, I learned that the previous owner of my vehicle had already upgraded the headlamp bulbs to a well-regarded version of the OSRAM Xenarc 4300k HID bulb. I immediately asked him about the OSRAMs and informed him that I had just seen online that apparently the OSRAMs were a good bulb. Pedro agreed that OSRAMs were good, but that his lights were much brighter and that it was a 6000k light as well, so there would be no comparison whatsoever once I saw the difference at night time.
It was then that I really began to feel uneasy about the entire thing at that point, as first off, he was unable to improve the interior lighting as he had stated over and over again that he could. Second, he states that he uses Sylvania when in actuality of the wall of bulbs in the store, not one product was a Sylvania product. And, third, he downplays the OSRAM Xenarc 4300 that was in my vehicle as a headlight that his lights would blow away "especially with them being 6000k".
Long story short, I get the lamps home, and as soon as night falls, I see that the lamps that Pedro sold me were not even as bright as the OSRAMs that were already on the vehicle. In fact, the brand new lights from Pedro were significantly dimmer. The only change was that the replacement lights seemed softer, and appeared to have a bluish-green tint. After subsequent research, I found that a 6000k bulb does not necessarily produce more light either; it merely produces more heat in terms of Kelvins.
Luckily, I had kept the OSRAMs that were originally in the vehicle, whereas I can at least switch back to them until I can find a legitimate replacement. Naturally, upon contacting Pedro about the entire ordeal, he stated that "although his bulbs were superior to the OSRAM, he would accept the "superior" lights back for an additional $100 to upgrade to Lucas Lighting LED lamps" ...yet, another obscure product that you would not recommend to your worst ****** enemy.
Excuse the length of this review, but it was necessary to paint an accurate picture as to what went on at this place. Basically, if you are in the market for inferior, knock-off products mass-produced in China that will be installed by day laborers posing as automotive industry professionals, then stop by PRIME LEDs.
If you prefer value for your buck, keep driving past this poor excuse for an automotive installer.