Something happened yesterday and I feel the need to share it with you humble people just to see if it's only my local guitar center or all of them.

I walk in to my local guitar center one day with a slash wah pedal and an old Metal Zone to trade in. They normally don't accept trades, but I called in advance to see if they would. The person I spoke with said that they do and I left the house hoping to get a MXR Carbon Copy. When I arrived at the store I had to check in my pedals which took an unneccesarily long amount of time to do. When I finally get in the store the guy at the counter says they don't accept trades. I'm like "WTF? I just called and you said you did!" The sales guy calls the manager who then comes down and looks over my equipment and says fine we'll accept them, but tells the sales guy (Brad) to test 'em out first. Brad lazily grabs the equipment and walks over to a Blues Jr and a Epiphone SG and plugs my equipment in. He plugs in the metal zone to a AC adapter after I just finished telling him theres a fresh battery in it. He refuses to listen and when he plugs the AC adapter into the metal zone and it doesn't turn on. He gives me a look of disdain. I kneel down and pull out the AC adapter and presto! It turns on. He strums a few chords and then a customer comes over to buy something. He leaves me alone with the amp still on. He helps the man and then leaves for about 15 minutes. When he comes back he says sorry dude you should've came in the morning when no one is here. I look around the store and count 5 people. All playing guitars. This pisses me off but I really want that carbon copy. He tests my wah and then goes off to get some paperwork this task takes him another 10 minutes. When he finally comes back I have to fill out two forms (One for each pedal) and give my thumb print. I get 40 dollars for the wah and the MZ so I put in the rest for my carbon copy. This is what really pisses me off. When he gives me the pedal he asks if I would like a AC adapter for it and I say no because I have a daisy chain and it works with all 9v pedals. Then he has the AUDACITY to tell me that the CC doesn't take 9v and that I need to buy it. I left the store and since then I have never went back. I buy all my pedals and guitars from ebay and craigslist.

I hate guitar center because they hire the most idiotic people. I'll admit they're are a few good people there, but the other retards really mess it up for everyone.
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I've been lucky here. Of the two G.C.'s here the larger one is the best. I never have issues like that and everyone is on the ball with service even when they really are busy. Sounds like lack of training and poor supervision on the managers part at your G.C.

The next closest one is in Hollywood. Everytime I go there the service is excellent, but its too far and I've only been there a handfull of times

Mate thats sales people giving you a taste of the crap they get all day long. He knew you wanted to trade/sell. It sounds to me like he did everything he could to completely dominate you and keep you on the back foot so you'd accept the paltry $40 for 2 decent pedals.

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No no and no

Agreed, that 'idiot' worked you over,

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I didn't care about the pedals. I just wanted the Carbon Copy, but he had to be an $@! about it. If someone gave me $20 for both of them but gave me less crap than Brad I would've gladly taken it.

Aslong as your happy and got what you want mate. Forget the schmo working there. He has to go back tomorrow, you dont.

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No no and no

Truly, it sounds like a carbon copy of the one near me.

With the economy the way it is, the fortunate few who still have a few bucks in their pockets would probably only want to give you pretty much what GC gave you for them. So, even though GC at large yanked your crank, you unloaded both pedals and got exactly what you wanted within one hour of you setting the whole sell/buy thing in motion. Think of all the BS you were spared if you had to try unloading both pedals privately. As far as I'm concerned, you won the day!

Enjoy your new toy!!

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You dig?

GC sucks.
I hate the one closest to my house. They have noone there with any knowledge about basses. I'll drive an hour away to a different location if I really need to go there.

GC doesn't want trades. I've tried a couple of times to trade my Crate and they tell me I'll only get $20. I bought it from them for $150. The pedals about the same. You would think they would try and work a sale but they could care less. My store gets a lot of customers so they probably don't even need to work the sale. The last time I was there one of the managers told me polarity didn't matter on an ac adapter.

I haven't gone back and have no plans on buying anything from them. They don't have sales anymore and I feel more comfortable at Sam Ash. Best Buy has turned out to be another store I wouldn't buy from. They won't let you try anything and their guitars are defective. The acoustics I tried were playing the same note on the 10th 11th and12th fret. Someone must have messed with them.

I guess you were in a real rush to get that MXR,or you would of sold the pedal and the wah on ebay or craigslist yourself and saved the agravation and made more money.I hate GC and I hate Sam Ash,I will only stop in there to browse or pick up a 3 pack of strings.Well I got sam ash good last month as I stopped to get a pack of strings and my son noticed a beautiful Wolfgang T-RED used on the wall it was mint and something just struck me odd about it.I went home called them up a day later and asked for the serial number they wanted $1,190 for it.I called up Peavey direct gave them the number and was told it was a custom shop model.I flew down acted like a mook bought the guitar which of course they could not find the bar to the floyd for and gave me a trem bar to a strat DUH- asked if they could do something with the taxes and was told 4 times you know this is a U.S model no kidding I replied.Went straight to my friends guitar store and had her set up lovely.I just saw a red one on ebay going for $2,100 non custom,and as I posted a week ago I think now is the time to buy yesterday I grabbed a mint unsold 09 cherry burst tele deluxe with OHSC on ebay from a small store in SAN FRAN for $1,070 as I timed the auction right it ended 1pm here so it was 8 am there as I lost one the day before that ended at 9pm to busy at that time as I wanted to stay under a grand but since this was an 09 that was the reserve and I was the only bidder.I also could of grabbed a 62 hot rod for $1,325 09 mint but it was that ugly green and I was not feeling the guitar even for $800 plus cheaper now with the increase as I only buy what I will play.A lot of ebayers are using the increase both ways - to grab more money-guys with older axes or to unload at a good price- guys with new axes STRANGE.There are a lot of MINT VGs for $999 out there so if your looking for that Fender you want I would advise ya to grab it in the next month or two before everyone settles in with the new prices as there are a lot of good things out there right now.KEEP ON ROCKIN

I can relate to your pain at GC. There is one guy that knows his stuff at the Allen Park store in MI. I'll deal with him only. I have his cell number and I call before I go down there.

As to the rest of the people there I have no use for.

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I've only been to GC one time my first and last. I had to drive 2 hours to get there and when i did they didn't have anything i wanted in stock. I refused to leave empty handed and settled for what turned out to be a really nice guitar. I have to agree though the salesmanship of the whole crew was terrible. I won't be going back. I just stick with Musicians Friend or the local shops.

Jeffo46, that's a pretty sweet ending to your story. Congrats!

Well, for one thing, that would be a red flag to me if you told me NOT to use a power adapter since you have a battery. It needs to work with and without a battery, dude, and he should be able to test it both ways. You know that.