No Wonder Guitar Center is going down the tubes????

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#81
I expect things to be different & am understanding of processing & shipping delays, but not this outwardly ridiculous.

Guitar Center as a corporate entity had a couple months to figure out how to continue their business given the current reality & already had purchase on-line/pickup in store or purchase at remote store/ship to customer as options for fulfillment. There's not a good logistical reason they couldn't have continued to ship products from this store while maintaining responsible social distancing & sanitization in the interim at minimally reduced capacity (I'm sure that could vary store to store of course).

Once they could reopen the store, not having setup a check-in system & a manner by which to accomplish an in store pickup process separate from people wanting to come in & browse for an hour or 2 when they are only willing to let 5 people in at a time is how you go out of business IMO.
 
#83
Eddie LeBlanc said:
<SNIP>

Been trying to deal on a used 2019 Rickenbacker 4003 with a store in Winter Park Fl. They finally gave me a sort of decent price, not the best, but decent.

<SNIP>
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This is probably part or all of the problem. I don't know what 'trying to deal' actually means, but it suggests multiple contacts badgering them on price. If that is the case, you have entered the realm of PITA customer and you are receiving retaliatory poor service. Right or wrong, that's how it goes. I buy used gear from GC occasionally. I don't 'try and deal'. If I am interested in an item I will get all the details. Just before they get my CC info I ask if the price is flexible. At that point it's a mixed bag whether money comes off or not. Sometimes yes - sometimes not. Also at that point I make my purchase. No 'trying to deal' or 'haggling' or whatever you want to call it. It's not a flea market or Craigslist.
 
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#84
From my experience (i've bought at least 20 basses used online from guitar center in the past 2 years) they usually take a day or 2 to even start the order- this was before covid. Now they have one employee at a time in some of these stores still.

Best of luck. My recent experiences with buying their used stuff online have been great actually, with 4 so far in 2020. Most recent was a little over a week ago.
 
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#89
the federalist said:
This is the number one post today, bashing GC. My post praising GC got yawns. (Many thanks to those who 'liked' my post.)
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It's really fun seeing this thread get so popular after that one, when the guys at the GC I go to are all great, knowledgeable, and gigging musicians too—even the kid Millennials who would supposedly rather be on their phone than doing any actual work.

But, hey, different locations, different people, different things happen. You can see that with any big store in any field.
 
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#90
brushfirewolf said:
From my experience (i've bought at least 20 basses used online from guitar center in the past 2 years) they usually take a day or 2 to even start the order- this was before covid. Now they have one employee at a time in some of these stores still.

Best of luck. My recent experiences with buying their used stuff online have been great actually, with 4 so far in 2020. Most recent was a little over a week ago.
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I never buy online from GC. Recently I needed a new set of strings, only place that had them in stock was GC. It took two weeks to receive them. I had ordered stuff from Amazon that took 5 weeks.
 
#93
Eli Brockway said:
It's really fun seeing this thread get so popular after that one, when the guys at the GC I go to are all great, knowledgeable, and gigging musicians too—even the kid Millennials who would supposedly rather be on their phone than doing any actual work.

But, hey, different locations, different people, different things happen. You can see that with any big store in any field.
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I recently made a trip, young guy helping me I could tell was a little irritated because I had to play all of them to find "the one". Every bass had to be sanitized before I could even touch it. Still, he was very willing to work out a deal. Minor scratch I never noticed he pointed out and said he'd knock $50 off because of it. I never once had an actual bad experience with their sales staff in all the years and stores I've been to.
 
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#95
JettBlaq said:
Sweetwater is the best company out there right now. They care and don't tack on extras to try to get your money. At GC that extra coverage is all they want to sell.
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Sweetwater doesn't trade in your old gear, buy your old gear, or 'try and deal' on used gear they have for sale. They are irrelevant to this thread.

FWIW I contacted Sweetwater ONE time about a >$500 purchase. Instead of answering my specific questions about a reboxed WD-800 amp they had listed, the sales rep spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to become my new best friend or something . While he was blathering for a day and a half, somebody else bought the amp I was interested in. Of course when I called out his lack of response in answering my questions costing me a deal, he offered me nothing but a promise of a phone call if something else came in. That never happened. Glad I didn't hold my breath and wish I didn't get the standard 1000 other e-mails (still happening to this day) trying to sell me all kinds of other crap I don't want or need. Their business model may be great for some, but I have no use for them.
 
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#96
Spupilup said:
For what it’s worth, the word you’re thinking of is not bain, it’s bane.
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No Wonder the customer service is so poor! ;)
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#97
Relayer71 said:
Meanwhile, at Sweetwater...

Ordered a new Spector Euro LE last month: shipped out right away, ETA 7 days, received in 4. Got an email from salesperson letting me know it shipped along with the nice multi-angled pics they displayed on their site; got an email soon after receiving it from salesperson asking if it was ok; got a "thank you for your business" email from the owner/company some time later.

Someone in another post mentioned ordering a new item from GC and getting a clearly used one.

Very cool that Sweetwater shows detailed pics of the instruments they have in stock and include the weights. And they show all the items so you can choose between 3 of the same model with the weight, finish/figuring you prefer.

GC has the worse pics online of used items; they're tiny, sometimes blurry and I have asked them to send better pics on items I've been interested in only to have them not reply or say they couldn't. Sweetwater also offers Plek as an option.

Not trying to sound like a Sweetwater fanboy, but I've had good experiences so far.
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Any they send you candy with your order!!!
 
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#98
the federalist said:
This is the number one post today, bashing GC. My post praising GC got yawns. (Many thanks to those who 'liked' my post.)
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Didn't see that one.

I've traditionally been on the side of supporting the good experiences I've had w/ the good employees I've dealt w/ at GC & I feel for then big time that they've got to deal w/ that level of dysfunction.

I'm not a super demanding customer & am usually on the page of paying the tag price when it's reasonable as a decent part of the motivation goingf there would be to support brick & mortar operations. IME regional management seems hell bent on making that as unpleasant of an experience as possible for both the customers & the employees.

The individuals I would deal w/ regularly are good people & far from clueless & generally very interested in helping once I can get to them.
 
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#100
We've been buying from GC since the late 70's. All levels of transactions in multiple states: new, used, pawn, returns, layaway, online, -zero problems, zero bs.

Sam Ash otoh, seems to have a corporate system engineered for a circus of store-wide f-ery. Every transaction from an in-store pack of strings, a bag of picks, to a credit card purchase, to an online sale, seems to be a quagmire of lunacy and compound misunderstandings. Involving at the store level immense wait time and multiple manager level employee bail-out and troubleshooting sessions at the cash register.

I recall once buying a bag of picks taking nearly an hour of time. Online transactions seem to require multiple phone calls to chase down, verify, validate, and re-order nearly every purchase.

I've noticed over the years that their system seems poorly designed and overly complicated and isn't really understood by the floor level people and all seem to have multiple personal "work-arounds" to just get things done which seem to back fire regularly.

In the end we get what we want, but they sure make you work for it.
 
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