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Heres To You, Guitar Center.


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I think the reason I don't loathe GC like most people do is I never ask a question of the sales staff. I already know about every item in the store, and know exactly what I want to buy/try before I walk in there.

thats part of the problem, when you go into a store and you know more about the products than the employees do, thats a load of poo. it makes me angry because all the kids starting out will be misinformed and possably buy something they will not be happy with.

once i was in there helping my friend choose/buy a guitar, he really was diggin a jackson dinky w/ the sustainer. but, it was out of tune and the screws on the floyd were already maxed out. i asked for a allen so i could inlock the nut to tune it and the guy said "you tune it with that" and pointed at the string lock at the nut. im not kidding.

another time i came in and asked for a 500k potentiometer, the guy at the parts desk had no clue, he even searched in the computer and still couldnt figure it out. i had to point it out on the wall.

also on a seperate occation i wanted to but a holy grail reverb so i decided to try it out, the guy got it all setup but he had the reverb in front of the amp not in the loop. so i ask him arent time based effects such as reverb and delay supposed to be in the effects loop and he goes "whats an effects loop?"

i got tons more bad experences. i still go tho because there are 1 or 2 guys that know the products and what not. just seems theyre there less and less now a days.

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Yep, I learned they didnt know anything when I asked for some pickup mounting ring screws. I didnt look at them till I got home and they were pick guard screws. So I go back the next day and some one else tried to sell me the same thing, this time I point that these are pick guard screws and he says there the same thing. :D

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ahhh well i dont know about guitar centre but theres a "guitar factory"(thats its name) and theres a particular person who works there who quite frankly needs to be shot

me and my mate go in there and theres a mashall blues breaker for sale for $50(over half price) and so my friend wanted to try it see how it sound when pluged into his acoustic

so we askk and this guy was like ohhhh cant you just buy it its only 50 bux.............so after much more deliberation another guy helps us out

this is just many stories of the guitar salman from hell...........im writing a book

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thats part of the problem, when you go into a store and you know more about the products than the employees do, thats a load of poo.

I sure as hell better know more about guitars than your local shop employee. :D :D

They aren't trained to know, they're trained to sell stuff. Or trick you into buying stuff.. B)

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thats part of the problem, when you go into a store and you know more about the products than the employees do, thats a load of poo.

I sure as hell better know more about guitars than your local shop employee. :D :D

They aren't trained to know, they're trained to sell stuff. Or trick you into buying stuff.. B)

Actually it's worse than that! They aren't trained AT ALL! Seriously, unless something has changed, they are provided no training what so ever!

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I applied for a job at GC a few years ago. The manager was probably 22 and looked every bit of 12. He looked at the application, my resume, then at me real superior like and said, "You ever work commission sales before?"

"Yeah, once or twice (20 years, more or less)."

"Well, you have to have experience to work here," he said.

"Okay then," I said, then I left and haven't been back.

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Yeah, they're a real class act. One day, out of the blue, one of their salesmen calls me on the phone to ask if I'm looking for any pedals, because they have some on sale. The guy obviously just went through all the customer records getting phone numbers. I had not done anything to suggest I had any interest in pedals on sale. I hadn't been in the store for at least 6 months.

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"Yeah, once or twice (20 years, more or less)."

:D

:D:DB)

Funny, I got the same response when I was lookin' for a part-time job a while back. I think they (like Sears and RadioShack of late) actually want people with very little experience in commission sales so they can train them to work how they WANT them to work now. People who have any kind of experience in old-school sales won't put up with extended warranty quotas, credit quotas, and being treated like garbage by "managers" who barely got out of high school last year and went to JuCo and act like they graduated from Wharton or something. Not to slam on people who went to JuCo, as I did, but you get the idea...

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  • 4 months later...

I know I'm bumping a fairly older thread but hey....I share the same love for guitar center.

They are prompt, courteous, knowledgeful and good looking.

And now for the truth? I work at the local music store and hear complains constantly by people complaining about guitar center. My only experience with them is talking to a half wit salesman before I began working at the local music store. Surprisingly....the guy didn't know half of what I was talking about....

You know it's sad when he questions terms like "High output" "Low end" and my personal favorite...."Hex key".

Better luck next time, guitar center. That was one conversation I walked away from feeling like Vai.

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I was in a GC a few weeks ago helping a beginner pick out their first guitar. Long story short, the salesman kept trying to push the bottom of the line Epi Les Paul Special package on her and was insisting that it was made of solid mahogany (one solid piece!). It was very clearly not made of mahogany and the finish looked like some kind of plastic-y painted on wood grain and the salesman rudely told me I had no idea what I was talking about. I told him I'd hand built several guitars and I could tell what mahogany was and he looked at me like it was completely impossible for anyone outside of the Gibson and Fender factories to make a guitar.

The epi site later confirmed that the guitar is, in fact, made out of laminated alder. Score = PG: 987,534 GC: O

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A gc sales guy once told me an rgt I was looking at had an alder body...I don't know about now,but at the time no rgt's were being made with alder...only basswood and mahogany.

Bottom line is that,even though it is their business to know,they actually have no clue for the most part about te product they are selling...if they did,they would not be able to sleep at night after selling some of those junk guitars they stock.

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Guitar Center exists solely to focus on two major markets:

1. Kids who have no money but want to play a cool looking guitar.

2. Middle aged men who have more money than brains and want an expensive guitar to hang on the wall of their office.

They DO have some very high quality merchandise in there, to be sure, but you have to wade through the dimwits and junk just to get at it plus figure out how to use it yourself.

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Thanks for this thread as I was in GC in Cherry Hill NJ, looking at 3 amps. Them being a Line 6 Spider, Marshall Half Stack, or a Mesa Boogie Lonestar. I called the salesman the next day about extended coverage & really recommened I get this & here's why. I worked at a company 7 years ago called American Appliance based out of NJ also. What happens is it goes like this, the manufacturer gives the company a set price per unit. For example the Mesa Boogie lonestar retails $1699.99 which means GC may have only paid $900 per unit. What then happens is the stores are charged a price which is store cost not company cost which may $1250.00 which means evn if sold at cost the company really doesn't lose. If that salesman sales me the amp at the $1699.99 his spiff from Mesa Boogie may be $30.00 + his 2% commision from GC. If he sales that amp below $1699.99 his spiff drops + his commision. If you notice their website prices are a lot different than in-store which means there is room to play with the price or fluff is what is known in retail. However the rael money is in extened warranties which is 20% at the end of the month. The warranty for the Mesa Boogie was 5yrs. for $300.00

So the salesman will make:

$30.00 Mesa Boogie reward for having sold their product

$50.00 2% GC commision

$60.00 20% of extended warranty

---------

140.00 total dollars paid the sales associate & you can now see where his longest green came from

Extended warranties can be helpful at times trust me, but pick & choose your spots with them. If I spend that kind of money i'll have it protected under my renter's insurance but if that wasn't the case I may purchase something extra depending on who is going to do the repair.

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Yeah, I'm the same way. I never get extended warranties. The VAST majority of the time, if electronics survives the first 30 days, it'll usually outlast most warranties.

A good example is just yesterday I purchased a new 50" TV because my tube Sony is dying. I clearly recall being offered a 5 year warranty for ~$300.00 when I got it, but it didn't start dying until after 10 years and that's the shortest life I've had on a Sony. So the vendor would have made $300.00 pure profit for absolutely nothing. Extended is just as much a gamble as none at all IMO.

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extended warranty on a computer? That's madness! The thing will be obsolete before it breaks down. :D

Not at my house. :D

I honestly can't argue this one. When it comes to computers I often tell people if they aren't comfortable with computers at a 'techie' level, extended isn't such a bad idea because they can often make a simple problem worse. B)

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extended warranty on a computer? That's madness! The thing will be obsolete before it breaks down. :D

Not at my house. :D

I honestly can't argue this one. When it comes to computers I often tell people if they aren't comfortable with computers at a 'techie' level, extended isn't such a bad idea because they can often make a simple problem worse. B)

You know this already, but in 2004 my family bought 3 computers. One bit the dust just out of warranty (didn't buy extended B) ), one had to be sent in to the factory for repair, and the other was replaced under warranty. I learned my lesson. :D

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