GC ripoff rant

Luther Blissett · #1 07-29-2009, 09:16 AM

So a friend of mine goes to NY and I ask him to bring back 3 fx pedals for me (dollar being low and pedals in general cheaper than in Europe).

My friend is not a musician so I help him: I print out the pedals I want, I look op the price on GC an musiciansfriend websites, write down the GC catnr of the specific pedals, and even find him a GC not far from his hotel. It's the manhattan GC. And I write all that in a nice mail to him.

The pedals are

mxr analog delay
line 6 verbzilla
and a boss geb-7 bass equalizer.

so far so good

My friend goes to the shop and gets the analog delay. he asks for the verbzilla, the guy at the counter doesn't know it and tries to sell him another reverb, but I told him I didn't want anything else than these 3. So they ordered the verbzilla, at a small extra fee (first time I heard that you had to pay a fee for ordering something, but maybe that was because it needed to be there quick).

Then when my friend ordered the GEB-7, the sales person goes: that doesn't exist. you mean the GE-7. and he goes to the website of GC to pull up a picture of the GE-7. Indeed it looks completely like the GEB-7, and my friend, not being a musician believes the sales person and buys it. Incidentally, the GE-7 is 20$ more expensive than the GEB-7.

So, I'm thinking the salesperson saw in my friend an easy victim and decided to rip him off. I mean, I dont expect sales persons to know every pedal, but if you can't find a pedal on your own website, it's sheer incompetence, or a malicious deed. And now I'm stuck with a guitar equalizer...

I wrote the sales person a mail (have his card and all) saying I was not pleased with his services, and the my satisfaction was far from total. I also casually mentioned I'll be in NY later this year, as a sound designer for a dance company, and that we will need to buy some serious equipment for the piece once we're in the states. I also told him, we won't be stopping at his shop for those things...

Is service in GC always that bad, or did I just have bad luck?

Mo'Phat · #2 07-29-2009, 09:48 AM

You had bad luck. It's possible that the guy just didn't know the GEB-7 existed. Some salespeople are myopic and don't know or care what is behind that accessories counter.

As for the fee, GC should have eaten the fee just to sell the pedal. But, since you were price comparing, I'm sure they probably thought they could get a little more cash out of you.

He was a salesman. We...er...THEY aren't known for their scruples. The sale, and getting as much out of you as possible, is paramount.

(keep in mind, and I'm not sure if this is the policy at GC anymore...but the sales commission comes out of Gross Profit. Meaning, GC will get theirs anyway, at the expense of the salesman's commission. In order for the salesman to get any more than his minimum wage, he must sell for a profit so he can get a percentage of that. Guitar Center doesn't care if he sells it for NO profit...all that means is that the salesman gets a percentage of nothing. [Also keep in mind, GC sets a price in their computers that the salesman absolutely cannot sell below..and THAT price includes profit for Guitar Center that the salesman doesn't earn a percentage of.])

Just bad luck that you got a greedy salesman.