A unique thread

[UNIQUE SOUTH]

Hey Guys/Girls,
Hope all is well.
I know many of you are from around the country so there's a time difference. It's about 10 pm here in New York, and i'm still at Unique. Been about a 12 hour day, and i'm shot. Will actually just left as well. We have been heavily viral since i came on board. My job at Unique consist of many things, but then again, if you work here, everybody is a combo guy. I specialize in Cars Sales, media, website design, creative lifestyle, etc. I've been monitoring this site as well as others in the past 6 months just to see what the outlook on the UA brand was, and some are good, and some are not, and most of it has to do with the perception of the show. Many people forget that were an actual business that runs 80+ hours a week, so we have to meet the demands of our customers, and so what you see may not be represented as the best work in the world, but is Unique for per customers request.
I'm going to honest, i'm here to make friends, not enemies, and i'm not stupid enough to ignore humility. I do work for a car industry mogul, and i do work very close to him, so if i come off in a certain way, just get to know me, as i'll help you to get to know Unique Autosports.
Why Car Audio Central?
Well, because i've seen the growth of this site, and it's warmth, almost like "Cheers". People are generally respectful, and very smart in their craft, and we respect that. Will has been on this site a number of times. We don't like how the people think of us; trust me if you knew us, you'd know better. But once recorded on that tv camera, your life becomes theirs once edited. Before Will left a few minutes ago, i told him we should consider CAC as a "Cheers" for us on the forums. He also said he wouldn't mind donating some money to the site, so i'll be in contact with Ryan after we get back from Miami. We're leaving tomorrow for a photo shoot. Please understand, i did not pick this site for any other reason of that i knew we would feel warm here. As i told Ryan, other industry leaders work on the internet or in their shop are respected by us, such as Chip Foose (Will loves that guy). I myself am i known "Blogger" in blog world, and have great respect for writers. I'm open to learn, and want to grow as well.
Tim, Car Godz, etc, you guys are good in my book. Allows us to have a fresh new start, and give you a look into our World. Again, i'm not here to flood the forums with UA information, so please don't worry about that. As a matter of fact, i have to be cautious of what i post given our new contract with Speed.
I'll be out of town till Friday, but Ryan, i'd love to talk to you when i get back so that we can work something out, and get a bit of more info.
If i offended anyone, consider this thread as my/our way of looking to a positive time on CAC. Oh, and as for using the user name "Unique South", Unique Autosports didn't fit, and Unique South is our Miami branch, but it's all the same
Thank you.
You can email me at: [email protected] or of course message me here.
I hope i've made a respectful impression on behalf of the UA brand.
God bless !!

[Chris from Washington]

Hi Troy,

Welcome to the forum, glad you found us and introduced yourself and UA to the forum.

As you've already noticed this forum is a little different from many of the other Car Audio forums out there. We have really worked hard to get the image of the 'friendly forum', and the members of our community all feel part of the family here.
If you visit here often, you'll really get to know many of these guys and you'll find CAC a real enjoyable place to be.

Again, welcome to the forum
Glad you found us and hope to see you post here often.

Chris.

[smoker]

now thats a good start. glad you chose this board. myself and a few other business owners on this board talk pretty regularly and sometimes more than a few times a week, ive got mike and bills numbers by memory. we support each other and the interests and individuality or each others businesses and the challenges we all face. were not just about car audio but as small as this board is we tend to become more involved in each others lives than youll find on other forums. we share, for better or worse, some of the most private matters in our lives and, im not suggesting that is for you as you are potentially more under the gun than the rest of us. and sometimes we (I) share opinions of a personal nature that are not in keeping with some viewpoints but, its my upbringing. i live in a very conservative, christian part of the country so as much as i am on Gods side, the devil is in me too. welcome aboard, i encourage you to contribute and to let down your guard. just be troy, cause, honestly, we are more concerned with who you are and how you fit here, what role youll play in our little online community, than we are with who your employer is. im sure will is a great guy to work for. im also sure its not for everybody but neither is this business. my shop is very small and i still do 70 hour weeks. it has almost cost me my marriage but she has adapted and now that the shop is entering its 3rd year and seems to be getting busier (more money) she seems happier. anyway, welcome to the site, and we know where you work, just try being troy instead of the right hand of ua and im sure youll make some great friends. who knows, you might just get a phone call from one of us one day inviting you to a build...

[William from NOLA]

Welcome!

I also hope you post often and keep up best you can. It's nice having industry peeps around.

[Tim]

Hey bro, If you didn't read my other posts, I will say that I am onboard with being cool with y'all. I didn't intend to make anyone mad, or ruffle feathers. I really feel bad I came off that way. Our board is as smoker said a friendly place, and we do get involved in each others lives, to a different level. You may not be able to so much as the rest of us, but if you can/need to you can here. This is our "safe place" we hope you can make it yours too.

I'll say you will find a very good group of people, who care as much about the car and car audio industry as you guys do. And we are all very eager to learn or we wouldn't be here.

So...in the words of spicoli(fast times) "hey bud let's party" LOL

Tim

[cargodz]

Terry (smoker) made a very good point... You be you! It's just that simple around here, sure it's nice to have a lil advertising and I and Terry along with the other dealers here have had our fare share of business just from being here... Although around here we look at many of the people here as some of our closest friends and confidants so we also have a tendancy to cut some nice breaks for our friends here since after all they are always here for us... if nothing more than just to hear us complain about life or idiotic clients :)
And you wanna talk about under the gun... keep in mind we've got a few guys here that work as salesman/ installers for the big box stores. Now I'm not saying these guys produce poor quality work, but you can't tell me that you've never seen crap come from a big box store install.
Also Terry and I both I'm sure can relate to the pressures of the job... I mean hell I sell Boss Audio and even have it it my own car... not cause I want to, but because it's all many can afford and I've found it easier to sell them when I can prove that you can make just about any budget sound good if it's done right... Sometimes we are victims of cercumstance.
Heck if you wanna know truely what kinda place we've got here... start sifting through some of the other older threads and you'll find people helping people, sure we still give each other a hard time every now and again... but really isn't that what freinds do

[jonnyb]

Hi.

Hire a better marketing department. This one isn't funny.

[UNIQUE SOUTH]

Smoker, I totally agree. Business is always priority, but integrity is important as well. And being more in the loop with the online community like CAC, ie: Blogs, forums, websites, Myspace, etc, etc..

In reality, there are sites we are on for presence, contact, business, and some like CAC where we will grow with and actually participate or help how ever we can.

[ZeroAccess]

*Thumbs Down*
Just because someone gets on here and acts like they're from Unique doesn't make the product any better.

I'm sorry but when someone pays you a rediculous amount of money for a nice custom install and they receive some of the garbage ya'll have sent out. I have no faith in your company.
I'm a poor working diesel mechanic and if I sent some of my trucks looking like ya'lls cars/trucks DOT would shut them and eventually me down.

A fluke unfortunately cannot happen in today's competitive industry. Orlando's truck was a disgrace and I could have easily made something ten times better.
Quality takes time and if your bosses/company can't realize that then unfortunately you'll be another Best Buy Installer soon.

I hope you stick around and maybe prove me wrong but your company definately has a long way to go if they want to be considered great by my standards.

BTW: I've seen the show maybe twice or three times, I just remember some fat italian dude (its aight I'm fat so I can call him fat) yelling at his technicians and then going and drinking some wine or something with some big black rapper guy.

Having an image is important but maintaining that image with consistent quality work is more important.

[OnYrMrk]

Unique ( Troy )

Let me welcome you to our little slice of car audio Heaven. I have been a member of CAC for quite some time, have worked with a few of the people here, have helped some out and have given good and sometimes bad advise on here. I am on a few dozen forums ( google OnYrMrk ) and you will see that I spend the majority of my time here.

As a USACi Judge, I have seen many quality installs that are FAR from flashy. Andy Jones is a prime example. His altima looks like it rolled off the assembly line, but listen to it, and your ears will love you long time. It doesn't take flash to make a customer happy.

Let me give you a little bit about myself. I have been part of the whole aspect of Car Audio. From starting out with a kicker box and a coustic amp260 to having a full on McIntosh system. I was a competitor, a sales man, a manager, and now a Judge. I do not install systems, but I stay in contact with my installer so I know how to maintain them. I have seen jobs by Unique, GAS and WCC...and honestly, Unique does some damn good work considering the time allotted for the install. You don't see much 'glass work due to the time it takes to do it properly. But the asthetics and attention to detail on the outer looks does show through your work.

I am excited for Will in that he has a 2nd location to provide this kind of "All over Car Beauty" shop. Troy, I would like to hear more about your shop. I know that isn't really much..and please don't think I don't like your work..but if I came in with 20 Grand and wanted a full on Sound Quality install utilizing JBL and Alpine...I want to know if your shop has the knowledge base to handle that kind of install.

Troy, I want to know more about you. I like the fact that you guys have come here to make your presence known, and it shows that you aren't trying to populate the more traveled websites, like caraudio.com and sounddomain, each with over 5000 members..but you chose to come to a forum that respects each other, helps each other and even some times, will help a friend in need. We pray for each other here, we laugh with each other here, and I have even cried with a few here. We are as much a family as we are friends.

During our builds, we help in the building process, we send pizza ( pats himself on the back ) and some of us discount our product to help the other one out. We truly are the "cheers" of the forums out there.

Please don't think I was being confrontational about the shop thing. That was not my intention. I am just curious if you carry some of the more elite lines of car audio.

Here we have as Michael ( CarGodz ) put it, Boss Audio all the way up to Genesis and Morel speakers...and everything else in between.

I run Focal and Audison in my car...and I was wondering if you guys sell anything like that, or are you major brand led?

I guess I drank too many Starbuck's Doubleshot drinks this morning...I am tweaking some what.

Looking forward to picking your brain in the coming days Troy, and again, WELCOME to the Forum. We appreciate your being here.

--Joe Wallis