Hi all.

The Evil empire ( I.E. Guitar center) sent me this e-mail couple good for 15% off any item over 299.99 up to 500.00 off.

Sounds good, right?

Well lets all read the fine print here, shall we....



So you read that it doesn't apply to used items, and, well just about anything else they carry.

This is the reason I hate going there, they get your hopes up just to tell you "Sorry, it doesn't apply to that item".

Bait and switch, or if you will, flat out misleading to you.
This is the wrong way to run a business, it will tick off your customers and you will loose then for life over this type of BS.


Rant over.

I agree with your rant!!!

+1 Jeff. I got screwed like that when I bought my Egnater Rebel 20 and cabinet. They sell it as a half stack but would only give me 15% off the head. So when I bought the second cab I waited for one of the 20% sales and bought the second cab. They just plain suck. I wish the Mom & Pop stores sold all the stuff I want.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

+1 more... This isn't new.. They have done this about 3 or 4 times before... Music123 does it too... what a joke... 15% EVERYTHING.. well... except anything you might want to buy...

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In Reference to Blues Legend RL Burnside:
After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.

What really stinks is that every brand on there are just about the only brands I would be going there to get. Awesome. That's why I like privately owned stores. They usually give it to you straight.

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Keep rockin'

You guys who live to gripe about Guitar Center make me think of drunks who hate liquor stores.

I don't work for Guitar Center but I do work in the corporate office of a national retailer that most of you have heard of. It has nothing to do with music but big-box retail stores operate similarly, no matter what they sell.

What happens is some vendors agree to give credit for advertising, sales, and special promotions. In my business we call that Markdown Funds. Example - ever gone into a store and found a whole bunch of one company's stuff on a discount table, or maybe their flyer in the Sunday paper advertises "All _____ brand product 40% off this weekend!"

What likely happened is the retailer made a deal with the vendor to split the "loss" of selling the products at a discounted price. I put "loss" in quotes because it's rarely a loss; instead it's a reduction of profit.

Nonetheless, the vendor splits the cost of the discount with the retailer. The retailer says, "look, we bought these for $50 and sell them for $100. Because they're not selling as well as you promised, or because you're coming out with a new product that will make these old ones less desirable, we're going to sell them for $80 each. We'll give up $10 profit on each one but we'll also take a credit of $10 for each one against what we owe you this week/month. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of these deals.

Some vendors refuse to participate in these promotions. Those who refuse are usually the major players in the industry whose products are in high demand. Look at the list and you'll see those are the "big boys", for the most part. They don't have to give concessions to Guitar Center because Guitar Center needs them as much as they need Guitar Center.

Now, none of this has anything to do with the perception of "bait and switch" or "fake" sales, but I thought I'd share some info of why the big names in any industry (in other words, the stuff you want to buy) isn't on sale very often.

So why don't they just say that the certain item is on sale instead of making like it's a store wide sale. Supermarkets will put certain grapes or whatever on sale without pretending to have a store wide sale. GC's not switching, they're baiting customers. Sorry, but the practice still sucks.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Simple - to drive traffic into the stores. Many (most?) folks won't read the fine print and they might well buy something for 15% off and also something for full price as an impulse buy.

The chain of stores I work for has the exact same "15% off anything in the store" coupons four times a year and we have an equally long list of excluded products from major manufacturers.

I hand out these coupons to friends with a grin and say "read the fine print!"

It's just business.

And, would you rather have a 15% off SOME things in the store or no sale at all? Maybe you need a guitar cable and nothing else. If you can get 15% off an "off-brand" cable, what's to complain about?

i don't even open the guitar center sale e-mails any more. it would probably easier for them to tell you what products do qualify for the 15% off.
everything i would buy from g.c. over 299.00 is something that does not qualify.

wake up guitar center!

I'm glad I buy from a local, Arc Music.

I'm a small business owner, and never needed to do that to survive. I consider it a shady business practice. It kind of reminds me of the Walmart mentality. They don't really have the lowest prices, but they have "loss leaders" that get you into the store to hopefully get the consumer to come in and buy more expensive merchandise. It's smart marketing, but I won't shop at Walmart for that and other reasons. Just because other big box stores do it doesn't make it ethical. To me, it's shady. That's why at least 8 out of 10 times I go with the smaller musical instrument shops. The big box boys have driven out quite a few smaller shops in my area out of business much like Walmart did.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

$299? I missed that the first time. Wow. At our stores, it's 15% off anything (except the excluded items, of course) so you can usually find SOMETHING to save money on. I thought it was the same with GC, which is why I mentioned guitar cables earlier.

Say what you will george, it's still bad practice to surprise customers in such a negative manner. That fine print that you choose to smile about, is fine for a reason, and it's not good P.R. I just purchased the boss tu-3 guitar tuner at the evil empire for that elusive 15% off a few days ago with the usual coupon. When i asked my manager friend about the fine print, he stated that it's pretty much there just to cover some vendors posteriors in some cases. I always take the coupon along, bearing in mind that it may not ne applicable to my purchase, so it's no great let down. frankly, the only reason i shop in the evil empire, is that they have what i want in stock. When in doubt, i use my mailer booklets, and coupons for bathroom reading, and to light my grill.

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I believe in Christianity as i believe that the sun has risen. not only because i see it, but because by it, i see everything else. C.S. Lewis

+1 it's unethical and a shady business practice in my eyes. I guess it just depends on what end of the stick you get.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

It seems like the big chains do that. There's a 'coupon' but it doesn't apply to anything good, so what's the point of offering the coupon anyway? Here's how the coupon should read:

Here's a 15% coupon off anything in the store. Here are the brands that are not participating...

"all of them"

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"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)