Was just gracing Denmark St, London today.

I saw a very nice Guitar in the window of Chris Bryant's, so I walked in, and asked to play it. This cowboy hat fella looked at me, hesitated and got it down for me. That's one point deducted. "Do you wanna sit or stand" he enquired - I sat. I played this guitar through a crappy solid state amp, he just stood there watching me. Another two points.

The guitar was awful to be honest, so I asked him to hand me the same guitar hanging in the other window, to see how that one played. He looked at me like I was wasting his time. Passing me the guitar, he just held it out - said nothing at all. He watched me struggle trying to reach across, mute the amp and unplug the current guitar, and take his.

By this point I had already decided that I didn't want to give this guy my business. Again he stood and watched, which made me quite annoyed. So I said thanks very much (with a smile of course, I'm not rude). He just looked at me. I left.

And now because of his arrogance, I'm not going back in there - and I've written this. Tosspot. Who knows, maybe it'll get back to someone in the store and they'll clean up their act!

WUNJO is the best, just so you know. They encourage you to just grab anything, even if it's like £4k.

Anyway Just wanted to rant to fellow slingers

Share your experiences of RUDE shop assistants!

Ed

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youtube.com/edmardell
myspace.com/edmardell

Well I've had a similar or maybe even worse experience in a GC. I went to try out an analogue delay pedal that they had advertised. The fellow behind the pedal counter told me to go get a guitar that I was comfortable with as he looked for a cord to plug up the pedal so I could try it out. I went a grabbed a MIA Std. Strat. (same model which I own, and even if I didn't own that model I believe I would feel comfortable with it after playing guitar for 16yrs.). Well this guy's eyes light up upon seeing that I have a $1000 plus guitar in my hand and says hold on I've got one here you might like better. He hands me a "on sale 'used model Jackson Somthing'" that was listed for $348. Without saying a word I just handed that guitar back and walked out of the store. Now my red face may have given away my anger but I did my best not to show how unhappy I was with this ridiculous b s and quietly walked out of the store vowing to never step foot in there again and to inform anybody that would listen to not venture inside the insulting relm of this GC. (PM me for the location if desired). Now honestly before this incident I have had no real glaring problems with GC. I actually bought my first MIA Strat in a GC in '98 for $599.00 brand new and had a nice buying experience. I guess things have gone down hill since then.

Russ

Personaly in your case i'd of told the gimp that i wanted to buy the guitar. That would of got his manager's attention. Then when he asked me to put the card in the machine i'd of said, 'on second thoughts i dont like you. im leaving now, bye'. Jerk em around as much as they do you.

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No no and no

A "Tosspot" for us on the other side of the Pond just look that up

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Pleasant term isnt it CV.

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No no and no

Sometimes I wonder if there's any other kind of music store employee (apart from rude, I mean)... Every time I think I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and venture forth to see what's out there they manage to make me feel like I've insulted them by having the temerity to set foot in their premises.

Last week I was after some patch leads for some pedals which I'd just ordered from the US and had arrived at work, so I stopped in down the road before home. One pedal (Swart Atomic Boost, a Rangemaster clone) had a short screw on one corner that made it a bit fiddly getting the back off, so I wanted to replace that if I could. Upon entry, the bored owner of the store asked if I wanted "crappy, good or exceptional" patch leads... uh, pass on the crappies, thanks, how about "good" and "exceptional"..? Any appreciable difference between those two apart from one being three times the price? "Yeah, no, probably not," OK, three good ones will do, then.

Then I pulled out the boost pedal, and he scoffed at it first "Homemade pedals, eh?" before letting me know that he didn't have a screw handy. The way this guy bills himself on the net, you'd think he'd have been scrabbling away trying to pry the thing open to get a look at the germanium transistor so we could wax lyrical about the good old days and I'd ask him about the relative merits of Tung Sol versus EH tubes and what about those Dr Z amps he's just got in, but no. No joy, there... I tried getting him going by saying I'd got that particular pedal to go with my Swart amp and had he, perhaps, heard of them?, but no, there are just "so many pedals... and so many amps..." Really. Maybe this guy should rethink his decision to go into business as a purveyor of pedals and amplifiers.

I know it's not the end of the world, but... if you can't while away a few happy minutes in a music store discussing musical equipment... if the owner of the store won't even talk to you enough to establish the likelihood of your eventual return... pff, I dunno.

On the other hand, the shop where I bought my strats just a few doors up always seem accommodating... if you want to play something they'll let you take it out the back and their only question will be "which amp is most like yours?" so they can set one up for you. I couldn't really decide, so they plugged me into a $7,000 Matchless and left me to my own devices. When mrs. mondo went in one time to pick something up and asked if they minded having an 18-month-old child on the floor with all those vintage guitars, they just said "No, of course not, he may grow up to be one of our best customers!" So... I guess that balances out my opening statement, then... they're not all bad.

Thats one way to put it

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

On a side note, we had a speaker at work a few months ago talking about business and "social media", and he had written a book called "Satisfied Customers Tell Three People, Angry Customers Tell 3000".

Guess we've just seen that in action!

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2008 MIM Strat w 3-tone sunburst
2002 LP Special Ebony Faded
2008 G-Dec
'59 Reissue Bassman 4x10 combo
TS 808
DS 1
Gretsch 6120DS (on loan)

Hello Echo_Delta,

Some years back I got the word that there was
a nice SG at a good price hanging in a local shop.
I asked if the price could be any lower, it was $600
he told me flat out "Go try and buy one cheaper,
somewhere else" Well you know it played really well,
but being put off by his persona I strolled out. About
a month later the guitar was still there, this time the
shop owner offered a entire history of the instrument
and how it belonged to a student who had lost interest,
and then a local instructor. This time, I left the store
with a smile and the SG. Same price $600.

Cheers.

I know what you mean, it's like you expect them to do there job. I have had very few runins with people like that. But it can really burn your $@! if you let it. Just remember there are Jerks and there are people like us. Have a Happy and Safe Memorial Day.

When I decided to get back to playing guitar, I had an unpleasant experience with a fellow at a local GC. He was rude, condescending and made it pretty obvious that I was a thorn in his backside as he had to get this guitar down from close to the top of a very high display wall.
I was looking at a Fender American Sienna Sunburst HSS Strat.
After I left the store wondering what the retail world had come to, I went a few miles up the road into a small local store that normally doesn't carry much inventory. They had the same guitar at the same price....loved it, bought it.
Having the devil come out in me, I decided to go right back to GC.
After having the contents of the case inspected by the girl at the front counter, the fellow that had just blew me off came up and he looked in the case. I asked him if he had some suggestions for strings that might be a good match for the guitar. The sales slip for the purchase had been left on top of the guitar in the case, so he saw it quite plainly, and drifted into a real deep funk. Didn't buy any strings from him, but I have to say the entire experience was enjoyable for me....got my guitar and did a "gotcha".
At times there is a silent P in my name.

Rick

Flashback i strongly support the small shop. Where i live its all thats available within a reasonable distance. You do pay more but its worth the priveledge of having such resources close by. Frinstance one time between christmass and new year the owner Simon opened up whilst on his season break just for me to buy some valves after we'd been booked in a rush for that night. They know their more expensive and they know that they cant cater for my guitar tastes. They also know that i'll trust their judgement on soundsystems and always buy my strings,leads, pedals and other stuff from them. I could buy cheaper over the internet but refuse to.

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No no and no

The only beef I've had with one of my local guitar shops is that the employees who work these tend to be indifferent to your needs when you actually want to ask them questions, seek feedback, etc. But when you decide to browse the store and don't need them they decide to watch you like a hawk and then they actually have some interest in you.

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I tried to think of something clever to put here but- OH! Something shiny!!!

I went in to a local shop one day and picked up a couple of acoustics and tried them but couldn't make up my mind. Then i found a strat and wanted to try it out and asked the salesman to plug me in and the jerk just took it and laid it on the counter walked off and forgot all about me. Noone else was in the store and there wasn't a reason why he did this so i left the store and told everyone in the parking lot that were going in that unless they were going to buy for looks not to bother. I've only been back to buy strings since then.