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Guitar Center discrace

#21
Pat The Bassist said:
I did a bunch of research on compressors, and my local GC had the one I wanted, the Markbass Compressore (Which I now own and love). The pedal comes with its own adapter, but the employee I was dealing with grabbed some random 12 v adapter to accompany it. The pedal starts smoking and a burning smell enters the air. He panics and unplugs it, then goes to get another of the same pedal with the adapter. So I'm standing there and testing the pedal out. He starts asking me questions about compressors.... Are you kidding me? I gave him a half hour lesson on what threshold and ratio mean. GC needs to take a long hard look at its help.
Click to expand...

By Wikipedia I presume...
 
#22
MAC1911A1 said:
I refuse to make any purchases (Basses, Amps, Etc) from GC. Due to my experience.

I had a Schector Stiletto Extreme 4 on layaway and I was paying it off little by little. Well once I had the Guitar paid Off. the Sale person was bringing it up from from the back and even across the Store I saw that my brand new Bass was covered in Finger prints, dust and the likes. The Sales person then just hands it to me like it was a lump of dead fish. I was very disappointed. I thought their customer service was severely lacking. My opinion was that before even handing me the guitar, they should have cleaned it up so it looked nice. Heck I am paying good coin for it.

A little background on myself as to understand my belief. I work in a Harley Shop. Every bike that rolls out of our building is washed or at the very least wiped down to remove finger prints. Be it a brand new sale bike or a customer's bike that is in for an simple oil change. The only time we don't clean up the bikes is if the customer specifically request that we don't.

I had have people tell me that it wasn't the same. That people expect more from paying 15,000+ dollars for a motorcycle over a 400+ dollars on a Bass. I don't see any difference. Good Customer service is exactly that. Good customer service. Whether i am buying a $150 POS bass or a $32,000 CVO Harley. You need to take care of your customers.

Cause if you don't. Someone else will.
Click to expand...

First of all, I don't disagree with MAC's post, or with the fact that shopping/buying at GC can be far from a high-touch, customer-centric experience.

That said, I know generally what to expect at GC, and have had ample time to acclimate to my expectations. I know what I want, and just go in and buy it like I would at a supermarket.

Now, the sort of mistreatment cited above is indeed something that would cheese me off - MAC is a pro salesperson, and knows how to treat customers investing hard-earned $$ into a major purchase. But I absolutely do not go in to GC expecting any staffer of the floor to be able to advise me on the finer points of compression or even the compressors GC sells, for example. Heck, I don't even know the finer points of compression myself - but If I was interested, I'd study up, find the best product, grab it and go. It's a damn shame, but that's the deal.

I have had great experiences at GC, mostly where you'd be most surprised to find it: at the Union Sq. store in Manhattan, NYC. This may be largely due to the fact that there is a high concentration of musicians in NYC, and that some of them gravitate toward working at GC. As I rule, I seek out my 'angel' salesperson(s), and avoid all others if possible. I've also found GC angels here in my new home outside Medford, OR.

Upshot: GC is light on professional musicians AND professional salespersons. Expect neither, and you will buffer your disappointment.
 
#24
It really depends on who's working when you walk in. Yeah, they're salesmen, that's what they're paid to do. No where does it say in the job description that you must be the holder of all knowledge on every product that is in the store, that's just a tad ridiculous.

They hire people because they have jobs that need to be filled. They interview people that have applied for the job and they choose the ones that they THINK will do well. By no means will every employee be on the same level of excellence as every other employee, or even be good at their jobs for that matter. I think we've all worked jobs before where someone got hired on who just flat out sucked at what they did.

So you knew more about compressors than the guy working at Guitar Center, that doesn't mean he's a disgrace to music. He asked you questions because you probably seemed knowledgeable, and in order to be an effective sales person in the future he wanted to know more about the product. Aren't we all teachers as musicians?
 
#26
Here is my experience and maybe you can learn something from it... maybe not. Ive been shopping at GC as well as other music stored for the past 10 years. Since this thread is about GC I'll only talk about GC but this applies to any music store. If you are a regular shopper at GC, then find a sales person who is knowledgable and knows their way around ALL gear... and only go to that person. This will give you a better experience than dealing with any salesperson who doesnt know jack. I always deal with the same people, find someone you like dealing with and only deal with that person. The alternative is to only buy online and never venture into GC or any other music stores for that matter. Moral of the story, if you put yourself in a position to be let down then stop complaining about it. GC is like a Mcdonalds for the most part, they will hire anyone who can flip a burger and dont care about experience.
 
#28
I use to have good luck at Guitar Center but the assistant manager left the company and service has been terrible. Since he left, I have had an employee tell me that Gallien Krueger cabinets cannot be used with Ampeg heads because GK is made in Europe and Ampeg is made in the U.S. When I told him that GK was a U.S. company, he told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. I saw a 78 Fender Jazz that I liked and asked an employee if they would be interested in taking one of my Alembic in trade. He said "Olympic, never heard of it. What do they make?" Another time, I tried to sell them a 1976 Fender Precision. The new assistant manager offered me $500 and tried to convince me that he wasn't going to be able to get more than $750 for it. I reminded him that they had a 78 Precision on the wall that they were asking $2,000 and it was pretty beat up. My bass was in excellent condition. His response was, "thanks for wasting my time. Come back when you can't sell it to anyone and I'll think about giving you $500 for it". I was obviously pissed. I went home and put the bass on Craigslist. I sold it the same day for $1,500.
Recently, I have seen several Alembic basses and Eden heads and cabinets on their website. I clicked on the request more information links and nobody has ever replied. I sent an email to their head quarters and still, no response. I sent them another email telling them that their customer service sucks and the request more information link is useless because nobody ever responds. I also explained that I was interested in gear that would be considered in the higher price range and that I wasn't looking for Squiers or MIM basses, etc (no offense to those of you that own these). They finally replied and asked what they could do for me. I decided not to respond.
 
#30
MAC1911A1 said:
I refuse to make any purchases (Basses, Amps, Etc) from GC. Due to my experience.

I had a Schector Stiletto Extreme 4 on layaway and I was paying it off little by little. Well once I had the Guitar paid Off. the Sale person was bringing it up from from the back and even across the Store I saw that my brand new Bass was covered in Finger prints, dust and the likes. The Sales person then just hands it to me like it was a lump of dead fish. I was very disappointed. I thought their customer service was severely lacking. My opinion was that before even handing me the guitar, they should have cleaned it up so it looked nice. Heck I am paying good coin for it.

A little background on myself as to understand my belief. I work in a Harley Shop. Every bike that rolls out of our building is washed or at the very least wiped down to remove finger prints. Be it a brand new sale bike or a customer's bike that is in for an simple oil change. The only time we don't clean up the bikes is if the customer specifically request that we don't.

I had have people tell me that it wasn't the same. That people expect more from paying 15,000+ dollars for a motorcycle over a 400+ dollars on a Bass. I don't see any difference. Good Customer service is exactly that. Good customer service. Whether i am buying a $150 POS bass or a $32,000 CVO Harley. You need to take care of your customers.

Cause if you don't. Someone else will.
Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAHA ROLF!!!!!!!!

I worked 15 years in Harley dealerships. I have owned my own shop for years. ALL my customers come to me because they get treated like dirt at Harley. They have a revolving door of employees. They only hire people the will work for nothing. The only ones that stay are the ones that can not get a job anywhere else. I have been treated better at GC than any Harley dealer, unless I have 20-30K to spend.
Go on any Harley forum and see what riders say about Harley dealers. They may wash it but they can't fix it right or have the bike ready on time.
 
#31
I Went to GC just on sunday, and i doubt i will ever go back. I went to sell my MXR Bass Blowtorch pedal. It runs on 18V ONLY. The guy went to plug it in, and put a 9V adapter on it. He insisted on trying to tell me I was trying to sell him a broken pedal. Where it clearly says 18V. I just said forget it after that. I then approached another salesman, and asked for a speaker cable to try out a new markbass head. HE Handed me a cable that said INSTRUMENT ONLY. I brought it back to him, asking for a speaker cable. HE also tried to tell me that there was no difference!

What a joke, There's no one who knows what they're talking about!
 
#33
Might I add that last time I checked noone is ever forced to spend their money at GC... yet people still like to complain about it. Its like some people are happiest when they get to complain!! I dont like Wendy's hamburgers, so guess what. :confused:.. I DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM WENDY'S!!! McDonalds has horrible hamburgers in my opinion SO I DONT EAT AT MCDONALDS EITHER!!!

STOP SHOPPING AT GC IF ALL YOU DO IS LOOK FOR REASONS TO COMPLAIN!!! :spit:
 
#35
It's just the way everything has gone these days. Every company and service from the police force to the computer chain has a much lower quality work force, because they can't offer those with exceptional skills the incentive to work there. GC isn't competing with other music stores for employees, they're competing with Old Navy and The Olive Garden. I used to go to the Radio Shack in the '60s to get great geek advice on my DIY projects but those days are long gone and I can't hold it against whoever is working at RadioShack.
 
#39
chanson said:
I go to GC to buy what I need, not to get any advice or knowledge. Most GC employees don't know what they are talking about, it's best not to even bother.
Click to expand...

Agreed! When I walk into any music retailer, I know what I want to buy, specific features / operation, and what I'm willing to pay...it's that simple. As far as I'm concerned, the salesman exists to fetch stuff from the display, ring up small purchases, and notify a manager when a larger purchase is imminent. I don't have high expectations so I'm rarely disappointed.

Riis
 
#40
Retraction:

I was too harsh in stating that I wouldn't purchase anything from GC. I will still purchase small stuff like Strapes, cables, and/or books as the need arise, but as far as the large purchases. I will be looking elsewhere.
 

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