Good Lord, I hope he remembered to insist on a condom!



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Who? Supro????

My guitar center in springfield, mo isn't all that bad. though im pretty sure i know more about the gear in there than thier reps and more of thier guitars are missing parts, scratched, ect. i personally wouldn't buy anything major in there unless it was a good deal. though i did get a pedal that they normally price at $40 for $20 cause they put the wrong label on it . i prefer a couple of the local shops over it but i like to go and play thier amps and guitars sometimes.

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'79 Fender Acoustic
Squire Jagmaster
Crate V5
Boss DS-1
Boss SD-1
Samick Bass

Just my 2 cents, if I might....

There are two GC stores within 25 miles of me. I have shopped at both and happen to have had pretty good luck at both stores. As was already said, they do hire the occasional "tool" but thankfully they are weeded out pretty quickly.

I did have an issue with a used guitar that I bought from an out of state GC, but when I took it to one of the local stores, they made it right. I did eventually end up returning it there as well. Their 30 day return policy is outstanding. Trades can be sketchy, but I have sold some things outright to them and done no better or worse than if I had used CL or ebay.

I know that GC corporate has changed and that has affected their business some, but I think a lot of the issues have to do with individual store managers. Both stores I deal with have had the same managers for the 3-4 years I have been doing business with them.



Jim

I agree that store managers can be part of the problem as they dictate the dealing affairs of their reps and customers. Corporate will act only on multiple complaints about a given store so... if you have an issue with a sales rep, take it to the shift manager, if the shift manager doesn't rectify the problem take it up with the store manager and if that doesn't work go corporate.
Make sure you get names.
However, remember the customer can be wrong too so.... business should be an respectful two-way street.

I've been to 2 stores and never had a bad experience.
Both within 50 miles of each other but in 2 different states.
I stay out of them on weekends since it seems like that's when everybody wants to go and plug-in and show off their licks!

Got great service and discounts on what I buy and the guitars and amps are always made available even if I'm just interested in hearing how they sound. Usually, they'll pull them off the floor and plug them in for me and leave me alone. I'm not a big spender there either.

The new guys sometimes don't have a clue on how to work the register but I've seen that in lots of stores these days! I don't understand how some folks never get trained on the basics in stores these days.

Seems to be a "manager" thing at these stores.

-T

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

That's been my same experience.

I cannot share about Guitar Centre as im a Brit so none near me!
But I've noticed that lately down in Devon where Im from the Store managers in all the shops have been stupidly helpful and great to deal with!

My local Guitar shop couldnt give me correct change so they threw in a set of strings instead for about £2 (DR Blues) and a local game store bought my Xbox for a damn good price compared to everywhere else and then gave me free games for my custom.THEN! i went to another store and bought a PS3 and knocked the guy down £70 and got him to throw in a free game too!

I've had a good week of shopping!

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

I think these problems vary from store to store like most other businesses.

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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

I have been playing guitar for 24 years, and have dealt with Guitar Center for about that long. Last year I purchased a Fender Supersonic 1-12 combo from them. They were marked down considerably, and the three I had to choose from were floor models. Two were in absolutely horrible condition, and I even fixed one for them. I bought the best one out of the three. The guy was pushing me out the door when I asked about the amp cover that was supposed to come with it. "Oh yeah." He said. He runs to the back of the store and returns, and says "I guess we don't have any." I said, "Can you order me one?" Judging from the look on his face you would have thought I asked him to sell me his mother. He eventually ordered the cover and told me it would arrive in two weeks.

Two weeks goes by, and it hasn't arrived. Then another two weeks and no phone call. I call him and he tells me it arrived the week before. I go to pick it up, and it's the wrong one. The part number wasn't even close. So I give him the right part number and he orders it again. We go through this three more times, and even brought in another sales rep, and they still could not get the part number or the order right. I called Fender to get a cover on my own, and the Fender rep told me that they do not send an amp out without a cover, and that they have had nothing but problems with that particular Guitar Center. The rep also told me to hold Guitar Centers feet to the fire and make them get it for me. After three months, I finally got my cover.

In conclusion, the reps at my local Guitar Center are raging idiots. I have now decided to only buy strings, and picks from them, if anything at all. I do, however, love the amp.

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I hear it, I heard it , I heard it on the "X".

You're a better Man than me... I wouldn't even open their door again!
Not with having MF or Sweetwater or any of the other online stores.
Heck, MF does Free Shipping with no minimum purchase now.

Guess I'm lucky to have two good GC in my area.

-T

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

Tyronne,

I couldn't believe my "Guitar Center" experience. I'm still considering not openin' that door again. Whats funny is I went to another location in my city, and I could not get any sales rep to even greet me, as well as, talk with me. They just stood behind their little counter and buried their heads in catalogues, and tried to look busy. So I grabbed the most expensive guitar I could find, and plugged into an amp, turned up pretty loud, and proceeded to play for about a half hour at a really unreasonable level of volume. Still no one would talk to me, not even to tell me to turn it down. I then put the guitar down in the wrong spot and walked out. I guess they didn't want to sell anything that day.

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I hear it, I heard it , I heard it on the "X".

Ha! Unbelievable... Gee maybe you could have walked out with the guitar!

Had a similar experience at a Lowes HW Store. I was looking at bath fixtures and had some questions...a sales guy comes around the corner of the aisle, sees me, and turns around and walks away! I had to chase him down to ask some questions and it was as if I were interrogating him! He didn't want to help me... So I walked out and went to Home Depot. Just a mile down the road. I should have found a store manager to tell him how I wasted my time in his store. But those guys are usually hiding too!!

-T

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

I Got my Fender American hss strat from GC.
But I will admit, some of the guitars I played on were really worn out from customer abuse (like there was this one Am. Dlx that the trem bar was broke by some kid who tried to dive bomb way to much).
So what I did was ask them to order the guitar straight from their warehouse (sure, I had to pay full price, but it was brand new...)
They also had one of their tekkies do a setup free of charge too when it arrived, which was pretty thoughtful.
I haven't had any problems with the other stuff I've gotten from them too, like recently an EHX Freeze pedal (its pretty nifty I must say..).

With any major music company, I guess its just the luck of the draw...

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Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)

I got a funny story about Lowes too! One day I walked up to customer service and I asked the lady for a job application (I was looking for a summer job) and the lady gave me a stern look and said "we don't hire you young'ins here!"

As I was walking out, I realized that almost every person I saw working there looked like they're over the age of 50... Probably wouln't have been to fun anyways.

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Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)