Guitar Center Screwed Me Again

[Dluxe]

That $349 USA SUB was listed yesterday morning. I thought about it but I already have a '78 Sting Ray. At that price it is no wonder it sold right away.

 

[Anachronism]

I think not also affects GC. Think about it. You have a platform where you can sell your gear to an international market place. And there are tons of resources included for 3.5% including a team of musicians who work there and develop price guides and other content that makes your gear more attractive.

GC has to trade in gear and offensively low prices to sell at market price profitably.

They list gear usually with one poor quality photo and no meaningful item description.

And stuff like this can happen to buyers.

Torched.

I'm sure Reverb has some effects on GC, but I see no evidence for your claim that it is "burying" GC's used sales. People who sell their gear themselves rather than to GC were already using CL, eBay, and such, and people who buy used gear tend to look at a variety of sites. I think any decline in GC's used business will be slow as they get nudged into a smaller market share. I don't think anyone is getting buried.

 

[rogerbmiller]

I'm sure Reverb has some effects on GC, but I see no evidence for your claim that it is "burying" GC's used sales.

Give it more time.

 

[rogerbmiller]

That $349 USA SUB was listed yesterday morning. I thought about it but I already have a '78 Sting Ray. At that price it is no wonder it sold right away.

Yeah In fact the price was so good it sold SEVERAL times...

 

[Admiral Akbar]

Unfortunately, this is how it is. There is no central warehouse you are ordering from - you are buying from a specific store location. And that bass might have been in someone's hands bring tried out when you bought it.

Not sure when the store gets notified that the bass has been bought online and should be pulled from the floor, but obviously its a very flawed system. And again, one store might be good at doing that while another sucks. Or one employee at one store is good at that and the days he is off, the other guys don't even bother to look.

It paints a picture of a larger issue - but again, GC is treating their inventory as a whole bucket while it is spread out over all their stores. And their main business isn't selling used gear - so its an afterthought.

At some point they realized that with all their used instruments at all their locations, it would be easier to sell if they marketed each piece of used gear not just to that store's region, but to the whole USA. Someone had the bright idea of databasing their used inventory and taking pictures and a brief description. They even implemented the ability to purchase the item through their webpage. Unfortunately while that's where the logistics are only starting for online shops like Amazon, GC seems to have stopped there. Once they take payment, its a crapshoot if you'll actually receive the item, if it was even still available (and not sold 2 weeks prior and webpage manually never adjusted), and then what actual condition the item is in.

I highly doubt a store's POS system is tied in to the entire's company's inventory database - so there's a manual step involved, or many, to go from an online purchase to actually receiving the item.

Compare that to their new item sales through their webpage. They have a warehouse full of gear, and when you order online, it should update the warehouse quantity and initiate the process of pulling the item for shipment.

Places like Amazon make it look easy, from a consumer's perspective - but they have a LOT of systems in place to make things run that smoothly. GC does not. Their used gear selection seems like a good idea with no budget to make it work effectively.

Best bet is to call the store before buying it and try to buy it over the phone. At least then you'll be talking with the person who has the item and the item is in their database. Skip the online queue.

Doesn't matter if bass is "in someone else's hands when you bought it" -- if the bass is sold over the Internet, that takes precedence over who is trying it out. This has happened to me twice there when trying out basses--they were sold from under my nose -- once by someone on the Internet, then get this--the other time by another customer in the store who heard me playing the bass, liked what he heard and bought it while I was playing it!!

Good ole GC!!

 

[buldog5151bass]

Nothing wrong with that - lots of people use GC as their practice studio. Do you blame them for taking the $$$?

 

[Siggy]

Just another reason we love to hate MF

 

[Admiral Akbar]

That said, Sam Ash used website is a MUCH BIGGER JOKE than GC's....

They have had stuff listed for sale that had sold MONTHS AGO!
(I witnessed this three seperate times by them)

now that is serious LAG!

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I made the mistake of ordering something from Sam Ash, but I took the guy's advice & bought it from their Reverb listing.
Well, I decided I wanted to return the item, but to do that I'd need to go through Reverb.
Instead I just kept the item.
but YES, Sam Ash's used system is bad. When I bought my Comanche from them, it took all week to get the order settled & shipped.

The OP's story is why you always, Always, ALWAYS call the store ASAP after, if not before, you make the order
For guitars they will throw in a new set of strings, if you ask nicely.
Although, if you've already made the order, they have no incentive to.
Ask before you order, then they'll have some incentive to include a freebie, or even reduce the price if it's been in stock for awhile.

 

[buldog5151bass]

It just woudn't be a week here at TB without at least two threads bashing GC (and another two with people bragging about a great deal they found there).

 

[Admiral Akbar]

.....so the moral is:

GC giveth, and GC taketh away...

 

[EVL HULK]

Stuff can sell in store before the website updated. This isn't 'bad customer service'. Call the store first to see if it's still available

This.../thread

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Realistically, though, what are the chances of that happening?



I've had a somewhat similar experience with them recently, the only difference being that I called the store, raised holy hell and ended up getting the bass. Which in turn ended up being not as described, so I still have that fight going on which is why I'm being very low on details here.

Whatever the case may be, GC's customer service in general leaves an awful lot to be desired in my experience.

It's actually very likely. There will always be a lag time between when an item gets ordered online and systemic adjustments get made to the company's inventory. From there, you also have a lag time between when the item gets purchased and when the item gets pulled down from being listed as available for sale. Good ecommerce channels can keep this adjustment period to less than 15 minutes.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Yeah it happens. You aren't charged until the item ships so it isnt like theyre scamming anyone

That might be dependent on the company in question. In my experiences, a company won't ship until payment has already cleared.

 

[Maxdusty]

I've bought about 40 basses on GC online but for each, I would call the local store and do the transaction over the phone after I get some more info on the condition of it. As of a couple of years ago, I noticed that when I ended up buying the bass, the listing would more often than not still be up on the website the following morning as available not out of stock. They've since updated their system and consolidated it but I guess it's still happening. Sorry to hear that you lost out on the bass- I lost out on a similar bass a while back (a black USA Sub) for around $350 and was beaten to the punch as well. However, one showed up on my local CL for half that price (the one in my user pic) so don't give up - perhaps things happen for a reason. I hope one of them finds their way into your hands.

 

[felis]

I don't think they screwed you.

If they sold you an old beat up junky broken down bass, said it was in excellent condition,
and wouldn't let you return it, then I'd say they screwed you.
That wouldn't happen though.

You just got an unlucky break. I think Turnaround is right though,
that they should have a much better system in place for dealing with those types of things.

 

[Watchootognbout]

The strange part is the guy that beat me to the punch bought it the night before. But it was still online and listed as available. It only went "No Longer Available" after I finished the check out process this morning.

And they admitted there can be numerous orders in the queue. They say they take the first one.

That is crazy to me (that they can let numerous people buy the same bass).

Might make sense to pick up the PHONE and call them before ordering any item from them.
To make sure it is still there.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Another good reason to call is to check the condition of the instrument.
Yeah, it might be listed as good, but sometimes a guy with his hands on it can tell you more.

I made my last trip to Richmond VA GC to sell something.
They were only going to offer me $150 for a GK MB Fusion 500, saying they could only sell it for $260.

The guy was getting his price from the same model in their Midlothian store, which is a busted one. I am quite sure it's the same one I returned to Richmond store many months ago.
They will move gear down to Midlothian if it doesn't sell after 3 months. I found this out when I spotted my old Blacktop bass there, when I had sold it in Richmond.

Instead I traded the GK for a Quilter Tone Block 200 at Sam Ash. Do not take anything to Richmond VA GC, unless you like being insulted.(figuratively)
It's not the first time they've extreme low-balled me either, so I'm done there.

Disclaimer:
I know you're going to say I should have expected that, but:
the Midlothian store is better on their pricing, and Richmond store used to not be so bad.
They have a new policy now where everything is run by the manager & he is the Central low-baller from Hades.

I'll admit I didn't try to sell locally. Given my previous experiences with that, I decided to just jump the gun & get it off my hands ASAP.

I'm also not too keen on shipping it for a sale, because I don't really trust UPS or FedEx not to damage the item.
Heck, when I received it, the packaged had been jostled so much that the chassis ground wire inside the footswitch had come loose. It took only a minute or two to fix, after troubleshooting it.

 

[buldog5151bass]

I made my last trip to Richmond VA GC to sell something.
They were only going to offer me $150 for a GK MB Fusion 500, saying they could only sell it for $260.
The guy was getting his price from the same model in their Midlothian store, which is a busted one. I am quite sure it's the same one I returned to Richmond store many months ago.
Instead I traded it for a Quilter Tone Block 200 at Sam Ash. Do not take anything to Richmond VA GC, unless you like being insulted.(figuratively)
It's not the first time they've extreme low-balled me either, so I'm done there.

#$%&%$- I'd have given you $175.

 

[bassgod76]

It sounds like you were beat to the sale by someone else.

I have purchased many used items from GC. Some have been winners, some losers, and some I'd purchase just to flip.

In all cases, any problem items were immediately refunded, no problems.

I've been beat on many GC used purchases. My loss isn't indicative of GC's customer service; that's how life is. You win some and lose some.

I assume you were refunded? Than its no scam.