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Guitar Center at it again

#101
If I'm shopping in the store I expect anything in there to be available for purchase unless marked sold or not for sale.

In the OP's case, it seems obvious that the store had just received notice that the bass was sold. So an employee was pulling it from stock to ship it. GC online orders can come from any store so there's always a chance of that happening. It sucks but nothing you can do about it.

Overall I've always had a fairly good buying experience with GC, both new and used, in store or online. Of course YMMV
 
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#102
DigitalMan said:
You can't sell something that someone else already owns. That's called stealing and it is unethical. Period.
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I will give the benefit of the doubt and assume that I did not adequately explain the arcane details of how online retail transactions are processed. In addition to what i explained in the first post there is this point:

If you order anything online, the merchant does not actually take your money until the product is shipped (if it is ship to home) or until you come to pick it up. This is to allow for a variety of out of stock scenarios, one of the most common being what the OP described.

The store management has (or should have) the option of saying "someone online just put down money to reserve that. If you're interested I can sell it to you now, but otherwise I have to ship it out."

And then if the OP buys it, the online guy gets an email saying "we're sorry, but at the time you placed your order that merchandise was being purchased in store. Please peruse our selection of comparable instruments available online." (and if you bitch about it, here's a coupon.)

The online guy's transaction is no more complete than the guy in store, and the person who bothered to show up is ahead of the online guy in line.
 
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#103
chadds said:
It shouldn't have been available to test if it was sold conversely you didn't own it until you paid for it.
If someone who had played it earlier that day called the store while you were testing it and put a deposit down on it or paid in full with a card then they beat you to it. If you want great an honorable service go to a small mom and pop shop.
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If someone who had played it earlier in the day wanted it, they should have bought it then.

You don't promise a telephone customer an item until you confirm it is in stock, and if another customer is testing it you say someone in store is considering buying it, but if they pass, you can have it.

I keep repeating it, but the person who is physically present in your establishment goes to the front of the queue over online and phone buyers. The transaction is complete when a customer takes the merchandise.
 
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#105
electracoyote said:
It's the modern retail era. The thing you are demo'ing in the store could be purchased by someone online. It is the reality. And the employees in the store have no way of knowing if you are going to buy it just because it's in your hands. How could they possibly block an online purchase of the item? Just to have you set it down, say, "I'll think about it," and waltz out of the store while they lose the online sale? People who are suggesting that are making no sense whatsoever.

Obviously, the moral of the story is, if you see something on the used rack that seems too good to be true at GC, you had best put your money down pronto and stop pussyfooting around. Buy now, ask questions later. If you get buyer's remorse, they have a liberal return policy, even on used gear.

The GC bashing just gets weaker and weaker.
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Modern retailers should have a way to satisfy the customers who still bother to shop at physical stores.

When i worked in retail (i.e. up until this past April,) we had 6 hours from when the order came over the computer to when it expired and automatically returned the money.

That is plenty of time to let a customer who is considering the product in store make a decision. If they put it down, you complete the online order. If they buy it, then either way it is sold, and you get credit for it that day. Its not a question of losing the sale, its a question of losing the in store customer.

I know its guitar center, and people play instruments they don't plan to buy, but as a salesperson, you have to assume that a customer who has a product in their hands is in the process of buying it. And to take it from someone's hands without determining that first is really poor customer service.
 
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#109
Yeah it is a crap shoot, because the inventory is available to everyone online or in the store. So whoever pulls the trigger first wins the stuff animal.
It would be great if they had online stock separated for a certain amount of time and if it didn't sell put it out on the floor for a certain period if no buyers after a certain period, at that point move it back to online with a reduced price. That would make it available for online buyer or the poor guy like OP who wouldn't have it snatched from his hands seconds before he pulled the trigger on it. Hey if it happens this way in the future you read it here first. RTS
 
#111
wintremute said:
As long as it is clearly communicated with the buyer that they may get their deposit returned because the merchandise may be stolen, I don't see an issue with it. The buyer knows there's a chance they won't be able to purchase it, the buyer accepts that risk so that they are first in line to purchase it, and if it is stolen then the buyer gets their deposit back. How is this bad for the consumer?
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#113
wintremute said:
As long as it is clearly communicated with the buyer that they may get their deposit returned because the merchandise may be stolen, I don't see an issue with it. The buyer knows there's a chance they won't be able to purchase it, the buyer accepts that risk so that they are first in line to purchase it, and if it is stolen then the buyer gets their deposit back. How is this bad for the consumer?
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#114
OldPlucker said:
Not my experience. I put a deposit on a Rumble 500 that had just come in and was on the floor. They pulled it, marked it SOLD, put it in the back of the store and gave me my receipt. I had to wait 30 days before I could pick it up because literally it had just been traded the previous night and put on the floor shortly before I walked it the store.
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#116
Chuck Pearson said:
ETHIKZ-HEY BUDDY MY BASS TECH WORKS AT GUITAR CENTER,THEY ARE THE BIGGEST JERK AROUND,,,,I ,M A STUDIO MUSIAN ,PLUS I PLAYED WITH JON LOWERY, ,,JON5 -BEST FRIENDS-(HE GAVE ME THE NAME(- 4 STRING MASTER OF DISASTER ❌ )-I PLAYED TOGETHER FOR 8YRS,,,,AND STEVE DUREN, AKA BLACKIELAWLESS - VOCALS ,VINNIE PAUL, DRUMS -(PANTERA)- GOING IN TO RECORD IN OCTOBER JON BE BACK IN SEPTEMBER, ,,,,WELL THE MEANING OF THE STORY IS WHEN I WAS A KID THEY TREATED ME LIKE A PEACE OF POOP,,,NOW THAT I AM A PROFESSIONAL. METAL MUSICIAN, THEY TREAT ME LIKE GOLD ,THE HELL WITH THEM,,,,THE HEY BAG I PUT A BASS CLINIC, ,I TOLD THEM HELL KNOW,,,WHEN I NEEDED THEM ,THE HEY HEY WHERE NOT THERE FOR ME, ,,,,AND NOW THEY WANT HELP,,,BLOW ME,,,,I OR MY TEC,I TOLD HIM,I,M NOT BEING A BIG SHOT BUT QUIT,,,NOW HE HAS BETTER JOB AT STORE MY WORK 4 ME,,,,I DON'T WANT MY STRING FROM THERE I,M ENDORSED, GET STRING FREE NOT FROM THERE,THEHEYHEYHEY R MEAN PEOPLE, ,,-(4 STRING MASTER OF DISASTER ❌ )-C.PEARSON,,,,,BE GOOD BASSMAN:bassist:
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Favorite moments:
STUDIO MUSIAN
and
THEHEYHEYHEY R MEAN PEOPLE
That could be a punk song: they (hey hey hey) are mean people
 
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#118
my whole GC experience differs from most of you. I live in Brazil and when I do travel to the US, I always go there simply because we do not have any stores like that here in the country. Well, we do, but their prices are ridiculous.

Having said that, last time I went there was about a year ago. Me and my band mate were traveling to California and we went to their Hollywood store. I sent the guy in charge of the bass sales an email, telling him that we were going to be visiting the store in an specific date and were looking to buy some gear. When we got there, I asked the front desk person for him. He immediately showed up and helped us with everything we needed. Mind that we arrived at about 10am and left an hour after their closing time. Dude skipped his lunch and everything. Of course we spent about 2-3k each on gear, but man, we explored every centimeter of that place, tried just about everything they had, from amps, to guitars, to acoustics, to pedals, we hung out for at least 1 or 2 hours at that snazzy 'vintage' room and everything in between. The guy was too helpful and other people from the store were too. I had my eye on a EBMM classic saber in that coral-red-sorta-orange color and one of the other people who worked there, don't remember what he did though, we talked about it for a long time.

Of course, after we were done with everything we felt super bad for the guy and offered to buy him dinner and go out for a few beers, after all we did keep the guy pretty busy throughout the day. He didn't take us up on our offer, said he already had plans.

So yeah.. I can't complain about GC and every time I travel to the US, on vacation, business, w/e, I always look forward to going there.
 
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