How the site works
FAQ
This is the map for using Excessive Sounds: the login gate, the cart, checkout, what we take for payment, shipping and tax, your orders, the ride wall, and the forum. Open a question. Close it when you are done. Nothing here is a one-line shrug.
Why is checkout not open for everyone right now?
Public checkout is off while we finish breaking changes on the pay path and the sales desk. You will see a banner on every page that says so. That is not a teaser. The catalog, the cart, the ride wall, and the forum stay up. Your cart still holds what you put in it. What you cannot do as a member, right now, is walk that cart through to a live charge.
When we turn public checkout back on, the rest of this FAQ is how it works: shop login first, pay on this site, and an order that only lands after payment is captured. If you were mid-checkout when the banner went up, you are not sitting on a fake invoice. Write us through Contact if you think something is owed, and put whatever reference you have in the note.
How do I actually use this website?
Treat the top bar as the map. Home is the front of the shop. About is who we are and where we install. My Ride is the wall of member builds, Build a system drafts a parts plan from live stock, and Add a car is how you put yours on the wall. The forum is where people talk in the open. Shop is the live line. FAQ is this page. Cart is what you are taking to the counter. Wishlist sits next to Cart once you are logged in — that is where you name lists for each car or system. Log in lives on the right; once you are on an account, that side becomes your handle, messages, orders, and account settings.
You can browse the catalog and the wall without an account. The things that write to the shop — posting a ride, talking in some parts of the forum, and checkout — sit behind a shop login so we are not stacking random cars and random checkouts on the same ghost. Ask ES in the corner is a catalog and site helper. It is not a line to Matt, and it cannot place an order, change an address, or refund anything. People questions go to the forum or Contact.
Do I need an account, and what does it actually do?
You need a shop login to check out and to post a ride. Create an account with an email and a password of at least eight characters. We also ask for a voice PIN for the phone line. After you are in, Account is where you keep name, ship-to, phone, password, avatar, and the forum signature. That ship-to is what checkout starts from, so fill it like you mean it, not like a placeholder.
Forgot the password? Use the forgot-password link on the login page. If the email matches an account, we send a reset. Messages are private notes between members, not the shop ticket system. Orders is the receipt list for paid checkouts on this login. If you asked us to merge two logins, that is a shop-side job — write Contact and tell us which handles to keep.
How do Shop, the wishlist, and the cart work?
Shop in the top bar is the live catalog: qty, cost, and sell price come off the warehouse feed. Open a product for photos, specs, and options. Add to cart from there. Logged in, you can heart a product onto a wishlist and finish later. Wishlist sits next to Cart, not in a dropdown. On that page you name lists for each car or system — dad’s car, Andrew’s car, daughter’s car — and put each product on the list it belongs to. The cart lets you change qty, pull a line, and set ship-to country and state so tax and ground can be estimated before you ever hit checkout. Michigan ship-to is taxed. Other destinations are not, on merchandise, in the cart math you see.
Ground shows in the cart: $25 under $500 subtotal, free ground at $500 and up. Express is $65 and you pick it on checkout, not in the cart preview. Out of stock from the warehouse is called out on the product. If a line will not add, it is usually qty or stock, not a broken button. Keep shopping from the cart if you are not done.
How does checkout work once I am ready to pay?
Checkout is gated on the same shop login as posting a setup. You confirm ship-to on that page. It should match the account address unless you are shipping somewhere else this time, because that address is what we send to the warehouse. Pick ground or express, then pay on this page. We do not bounce you out to some other branded pay window to finish the sale.
An order is not a real shop job until payment is captured. If you start a pay and walk away before capture, we do not write an unpaid invoice into the books for that attempt. After capture you land on a thank-you with the order reference, and the job shows on Orders. Cash is for when you are paying the bench in person and the shop has the passcode on. That is not a public pay-later button.
What can I pay with?
When checkout is open we take card, US bank account, and Klarna, all on the checkout page. Card is the usual debit or credit path: number, date, and CVC in the pay fields on this site. Card numbers never hit our server. They stay in the pay form.
Bank account is the routing-number and account-number path. You enter the bank routing number and the account number in the pay fields the same way you would on a paper ACH slip, except it stays in the checkout form. Do not email those numbers to the shop. Do not put them in Contact, the forum, or Messages. If the form is asking for them, that is the only place they belong.
Klarna is the pay-over-time option on that same checkout. If Klarna is offered for your total and your ship-to, it shows as a choice next to card and bank. Approval, schedule, and any Klarna account work happen through Klarna in that flow. We still only see a captured payment on our side, not your Klarna login. If a method does not show, it is not available for that cart, that address, or that amount — pick one that does, or write Contact before you try to force it.
How do shipping and tax work?
Ground is $25 when the merchandise subtotal is under $500, and ground is free at $500 and above. Express is a flat $65, chosen on checkout. The cart preview is ground on purpose so you are not staring at express until you mean to buy it. Shipping is not merchandise; tax math in the cart is on the goods, for Michigan ship-to at 6%.
Set country and state in the cart so that estimate is honest before checkout. If you change ship-to on checkout, the tax and shipping on that page are what we charge. Install coverage is a different question from parcel shipping: Matt covers Gratiot, Isabella, Clinton, Midland, and Saginaw counties. Shop hardware can ship. Installs are local. About has the coverage map.
Where are my orders, and how do I refund or cancel?
Paid checkouts on this login show under Orders after payment is captured. That page is a list: shipping, tracking (with a link to the carrier), total, and paid or pending. Actions on the left is Create PDF and Refund / cancel order. Invoice on the right opens the HTML receipt. It is not a register you punch. There is no self-serve refund button there, and there are no warehouse tools on a member account. That is shop-desk work.
If you no longer want the product, use Refund / cancel order on that paid job. It opens Contact with the order number already in the subject and the message so we are not guessing which ES- number you mean. We handle the actual refund from the sales desk after we read the note. A short “cancel it” with no number is how jobs get lost. Put the number in and write what you want done.
How do I put my car on the wall?
My Ride is the public wall of member builds. Build a system turns “what are you looking for” into an action plan with live shop parts — only the categories you name — plus pricing and Add All To Cart. Build plan stays a draft. Send to ES for review puts it on the shop desk (once every 5 minutes). Add a car is gated on the same login as checkout. You get a limited number of cars on the account; one can be marked as the daily. Photos, hardware, and a write-up live on that ride. Edit and delete from Your cars. The wall is not checkout. If you want a quote on a trunk, put the ride up so we can see it, then Contact us like a human.
How does the forum work?
The forum is boards under headings. Some boards, including Updates, are written by the shop. Updates is where we post the long notes about what changed, not a one-line shrug. Other boards are for members. Log in to post where posting is allowed. Pictures on a post are capped; they show at a decent size and open larger. Official shop news lives on Updates. Do not put card numbers, routing numbers, or account numbers in a thread.
I am stuck. Who do I talk to?
Contact is the shop mailbox: name, email, and a real message. If it is about an order, put the order number in the subject or the body. Phone and install questions can go there too, or use the number on About. The forum lobby is for talking in the open with people. Ask ES will walk catalog and site questions; it will not pretend to be Matt, take a payment, or issue a refund.