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Guitar Center Screwed Me Again

#81
Green Lantern said:
1. Many times stores will put something on line, and it will sell in house before they have a chance to update their web site. They should update sales once a day but at times they can delay it a couple days especially if they it in he store and on line for a while with no bites.

2. Seriously, over 200 bass guitars you bought? Did you sell them on line as a side business to make extra money?
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To respond in order:

1) It is still not cool to pul the rug from under customers like that

2) No, I am a collector. I have close to 200 basses and guitars. I have sold many that I have owned, almost always to churn the collection. Sometimes I end up with duplicates of things and the lesser one goes. Sometimes I don't connect with something I buy to try. And sometimes my playing direction moves away from a particular instrument.
 
#82
I had this happen to me a few years ago. There was a sweet Tune bass with a wenge top at GC in Winter Park, Florida. I emailed the store for more info. They replied within the hour with answers and more pics. I filed out the online checkout info & my payment was accepted & order processed. I got their payment & shipping confirmation email. The next day, on the Tune club thread here on tb, someone posted the exact same bass; turned out GC sold it online to both of us, but shipped it to the other guy.
I wasn't happy, but that's what happens sometimes when you buy online. I got my money back, so I wasn't out anything.

I've bought online from GC & MusicGoRound several times since then without incident. When I order now, however, I call the store directly to avoid it happening again.
 
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#83
DerekW said:
"Several" out of 200 purchases seems like a pretty good average. And you probably got some great deals.



Having said that, you have a problem, and need to a GAS Anonymous meeting asap.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This HAS to be Mrs. rogerbmiller using a TB account under a different name.

Love you honey. Will be home by dinner time.
 
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#84
I just bought this the other day. I purchased at 7am. By lunch time, it was no longer on their site.
IMG_1481.PNG


The system must be either updated manually, or its updated every few hours.

In any event, life happens. Yes, in a perfect world, said item should become unavailable in real time, but it doesn't.

I've lost out on stuff there, before. You just have a 30 second GAS pity party and move on.

I'd much rather deal with GC's used system in all its flaws, over not having it at all.
 
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#85
Green Lantern said:
1. Many times stores will put something on line, and it will sell in house before they have a chance to update their web site. They should update sales once a day but at times they can delay it a couple days especially if they it in he store and on line for a while with no bites.

2. Seriously, over 200 bass guitars you bought? Did you sell them on line as a side business to make extra money?
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What's it to you what Roger does with the basses? On occasion, I have sold used basses at a profit to GC. What's wrong with a little individual capitalism?
 
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#86
DeliriumTremens said:
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
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NOLA Bass said:
Easy solution, don't buy from them or call store directly.
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I typically shy away from calling since my dad will pester salespeople with the most mundane questions over the phone, but this is a situation that merits a call for sure, OP. Having bought COUNTLESS pieces of gear from GC online, calling first and just saying "Hey, I'm looking at [insert bass or amp] online, is it still available? What's the condition like? Everything stock?". Never had any issues with that before. I did have an identical issue with Musician's Friend buying a b-stock guitar online, which they totally made right for me, but calling first one GC has kept me from having any issues. YMMV, it has worked well for me.
 
#87
Dr. Cheese said:
What's it to you what Roger does with the basses? On occasion, I have sold used basses at a profit to GC. What's wrong with a little individual capitalism?
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I wasn't offended by the question. Sometimes I made
Money sometimes I lost money. And I use the past tense because

1) I don't really sell much these days as I am pretty content with my current stash and

2) it's really hard to sell used gear these days. Chalk that up to the glut out there between TB and CL and reverb and eBay and MGR. I am really more careful about buying now so I am happier with what Ido buy. Most of the stuff I have sold recently is stuff I have had for a while that hasn't been played in a LONG time.
 
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#90
rogerbmiller said:
It's not one of a kind. They have others in other stores. And they won't guarantee they will give you the other one or the next one when this happens to you.
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So if there are other ones available, why don't you just cut your losses and purchase one of those?

Everything I've purchased from guitar Center, always had just one available. This would be new territory for me.
 
#93
rogerbmiller said:
They are priced higher and they won't match.
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In this circumstance, I would probably call them and explain the situation. I'm sure if you called Guitar Center's corporate headquarters, they would probably make it right. We're not talking about a high dollar item here, so it would probably not be a lot of skin off Guitar Center's nose.
 
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#94
Dr. Cheese said:
What's it to you what Roger does with the basses? On occasion, I have sold used basses at a profit to GC. What's wrong with a little individual capitalism?
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Nothing is wrong with what he is doing? Your reading into something that is not there. I have friends who buy and trade gear all the time. Just was curious as 200 is a lot of basses to buy and was hopeful he was having a successful business with buying and trading. If not selling them I was intreqied as most people end up with under 10 bass guitars in a life time.
 
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#95
They're not going to price match because each item is unique in condition and duration in store. Someone beat you to the purchase and there is a lag in updating the site. Your money was returned promptly. I really don't see the butt hurt.
 
#96
Green Lantern said:
Nothing is wrong with what he is doing? Your reading into something that is not there. I have friends who buy and trade gear all the time. Just was curious as 200 is a lot of basses to buy and was hopeful he was having a successful business with buying and trading. If not selling them I was intreqied as most people end up with under 10 bass guitars in a life time.
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I took it as a dig at Roger. You did not mean it that way, so cool.
 
#97
MultiScaleMale said:
They're not going to price match because each item is unique in condition and duration in store. Someone beat you to the purchase and there is a lag in updating the site. Your money was returned promptly. I really don't see the butt hurt.
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I wouldn't let this stop me. Call customer Svc and ask. You have the email to prove, it's an item that has matching used items in their system, and what can you lose from a phone call?
 
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#98
jmattbassplaya said:
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.
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That's called a pre-historic database. Next.

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.
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Good channels will keep it under a minute. Ever pressed a "Buy It Now" button on feebay? Bingo. That's how it's supposed to work in a functional system.

GC couldn't care less. They're too big to fail in their own mind. What I've learned from my own dealings with them is that there are *at least* two different inventory systems in place, and that's where the chaos starts.

As for calling the store...sound advice, sure but I normally browse the inventory at midnight or so EST which means that nothing apart from stores on the West Coast will be open. If I see something that looks good on the East Coast, I can either pull the trigger or risk not seeing it in the morning...
 
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