How is guitar center still in business?

Hmtx

I bought a used line 6 mkii shortboard from the GuitarCenter website. It was listed as $39.99. score!! I bought it and went to pick it up and sure enough it was a mkii "express", which is a smaller pedal with 4 footswitches instead of 12.
The guys at the Charlotte, NC store were great actually. They saw the mistake in the listing and sent me home with a used mkii shortboard with 12 footswitches. I didn't have to pay a penny more and got an amazing deal.

so, my story was different from others... but still supports the "how do they stay in business?" question

stuck80s

Guitar center floods my emails daily!

Occasionally they have a store only coupon for 20% though.

I tried to order a black arturia keystep... but ordering, even while in the store, voids the coupon.

I have purchased a lot of used and unique gear from them over the years.

Here’s a few of my better finds:

JBL eon speakers 150
Korg em-1 100
Kawai K3. 100
Ensoniq mirage 100
Desktop Dave smith evolver 400
Floor model electribe sampler2 150

This is hilarious...

Inside the battery compartment of the electribe sampler was a couple of joints! I had a good laugh the first time I went to put batteries in the unit and made the discovery.

All and all I wouldn’t recommend guitar center for getting the best value compared to online vendors.

The staff at my local store in the pro audio and keyboard/synth area didn’t understand basic midi functionality or have a clue about the difference between a midi controller and a hardware synth

They have horrible prices on cables and accessories

oat_phipps

Sadly, they're the only place in my city for synths, and even the only Fender/Gibson dealers I know of (except for one shop which is 99% vintage ridiculously expensive stuff), and even the only place in the city where I can find Sony MDR-7506 headphones. So I use them.

Their employees are very annoying in that they're trained to upsell or sidesell you on stuff when it's obvious you know what you want, and they seem to love recommending their favorite gear over what I came to buy (or just try to strike up a conversation about music I'm not interested in), but they are generally nice people who try to be helpful. My major complaint is it takes 10 minutes to check out just to buy a pair of headphones cash-in-hand.

aquasloth

Their used section on the site is good for an occasional laugh. I searched for Volcas the other day and got a result for a "Korg Volca Keys Noise Gate." Yeah, that's what it is. A noise gate. It'll go well with my Squier Affinity Telecaster Polyphonic Synthesizer.

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

@rokinrandy said:
They are so confused I’m out of around 125 bucks. They said 116. So they’re confused and have me confused but I have bank statements and documents. I have had instore credit as a refund without my knowledge. I had to call their customer service to find that out because they charged me twice for the same fuzz pedal. Originally they charged me more than brand new for a used fuzz pedal. And so the gave me 31 bucks on a gift card and said the rest would be in the bank. Well instead they charged my bank twice. And put my money in their store. I had just brought a gift my wife bought which was originally 346.00 and they wanted an extra 70 some bucks because I wanted to exchange for a Jhs unicorn and a fuzzz. The unicorn Jhs didn’t come in until over a week later. I had confirmed with customer service line and the local store I had 116 because of their mistake.
So ok I guess were even now. Figured the math of close enough. Well my Jhs unicorn cake in and it was defective and noisy I wrote Jhs 3 days no replay so ok refund. I called customer service and they assured me I could even get shipping because the pedal should have been checked. I have already spent 2 hours from them trying to get me the first time. I want a refund and give me 116.61 that is instore credit. I’m done because at the local store they said no we’re not giving you your shipping.

He gave me 113 and some change for my instored credit so something happened right there it was supposed to be 116.61. So I’m just happy to eat 10 bucks here 3 bucks there to get away from them. The Jhs unicorn used cake to total of 194 with warranty shipping and taxes. They had no new ones available on backorder until April of 2019.

Wel only 72.83 of that went into my bank after I was told 186 something. Well I called customer service and they said they show 116.61 still in my instore credit and now 113. I said what are they trying to pull here ? Called the store they said no we gave you all that. I said no I got 113 and some change and y’all only gave me 72.83 in my bank. I figure around 124 short.

Now I think they all do that to confuse people. And confuse the managers and maybe judges. Lawyers. And try to pocket this money. Funny 113 and some change plus 72.83 equals what they told me my refund would be so where is my 116.61 ?

Then I spent more hours at the store and on the phone and it was like the local guy said he put it on my gift card. So now I’m going back to where I was overcharged and I lost my cool because now I’m thinking they had to many bong hits and they need drug money.

I called hq and they said they would inform a regional manager I haven’t heard anything yet. Except the local manager called and he said he can find a needle in a hay stack and he’s got my. Told me to give him the numbers of the gift card and he’ll put the money on it. I said it’s at home can I come by after work. I do plumbing and work late so I’m very tired to ride in that 8 lane busy traffic where guitar center is.

I showed up at 8 pm last night and his buddy nick gets my gift card and he keeps it and gives me the 31 bucks off of it. And reached to shake my hand as if we are square. I said I was told you were going to give me 116.61. He said no you have to see Richard. I said Richard told me that you nick were going to get me straight so I just wasted yet more time and gas. I said y’all wanted that bank card pretty bad are y’all trying to cover your ass. They owe me more than 116.61 but I was willing to eat shipping and a few bucks. But now I’m calling hq and preparing for court.

I did business with musician friend for years never had a problem. And my wife goes to guitar center for a gift and I already knew from what I heard with my luck something was not gonna be cool. But I didn’t think it would be this bad

I’m respectful to people and I haven’t even cussed me out yet. And I haven’t talked bad about them yet. But I’m going to let the truth be known as of now. I’m going to get them for court cost lost time at work and all the time I have documented on our phones now. All I wanted what was fair.

But it looks like they want to pay way more. And they will.

This is what small claims court is for. File the case, ask for all your costs plus extra for pain and suffering. They will settle, guaranteed.

ToMess

@robertreynolds said:
I have a policy of never being a dick to customer service people, even if they are jerks or incompetent. I've been in their shoes so I just check myself and try to behave. So I have to vent here. Sorry, this probably won't make sense to anyone outside the USA, but be thankful you don't have this horrid company in your country.

tldr; Guitar Center can't get three separate transactions right and is super sketchy with the truth

Two weeks ago my wife buys be a $100 gift card at Guitar Center. They have a promo. They will give an additional $10 certificate for each $50 certificate bought. I'm not a big guitar center fan but I've got $120 to spend! Woohoo.

• Hole burning in pocket I go in stor to Guitar Center to buy something. They have two Novation Launchpad Pro's in stock for $50 off the normal price. Sweet. It's one of the items on my list, so I'll take one. 30 minutes later the sale clerks can't find either one and gives up, telling me, "You're better off just ordering it online." I ask if I can get the same price online and they assure me I can. I go home and try to order it online. I find out 30 minutes later through customer service they don't honor in-store pricing online and it is one of several dozen items exluded from their current discount coupon. Oh well. No biggie. I'll spend the coupon later.

• A few days later I go to a second Guitar Center. They have a different item I want in stock. Better yet, the item is actually valid for their Independence Day promotion of 15% off any "qualifying" item off $199 or more. The guy brings it out in a damaged box. GC guy swears he was the one that opened it and it was only to show a customer everything was in the box. I open it up and there are scratches and grime (yes grime) all over the item and no documentation whatsoever. I'm nice but adamant that I want a new item. He sighs loudly and goes to the back. Ten minutes later comes out with another damaged, clearly opened box and says loudly, "This one is definitely new!". As he's ringing me up I open the box and ask why knobs are missing from the item. It is totally used and he's either incompetent or lying.

• Today I go to spend the gift cards because I just realized the two $10 cards that came as a bonus on the $100 card my wife bought me expire at midnight tonight! I enter them at checkout and they don't work online. I call customer service and explain that I want to use 3 gift cards but that 2 aren't working. I spend 30 minutes with customer support person trying to figure it out. They finally tell me, "let's create a transaction, put the item you want in the cart and we'll sort it out once we've done that. Don't worry, I'll resolve this one way or another." I figure they will take the gift card that works and apply a discount equal to the two that don't. I give them my credit card and address assuming everything is good. The GC guy puts me on hold (presumably to get a supervisor's approval for the discount) and comes back 10 minutes later telling me the order has processed just fine, I won't have any more trouble with my credit card. I'm totally confused. I ask how much he's charged me and he tells me he's charged me FULL price for the item. I explain that I called about gift cards and was expecting him to resolve that issue before just charging me. He's totally confused (almost like he's stoned) and puts me on hold again. He comes back 10 minutes later and tells me he's canceled my order and there isn't anything he can do about the gift cards, they are expired (even though they clearly state they aren't). I ask for a confirmation # on the refund and he tells me there isn't one, I have to take his word for it.

What is wrong with these people? Between the lost inventory, used items sold as new, gift cards that don't work and pretending you are solving a customer's problem and then charging them full price, I've completely written Guitar Center off. I've also written off the gift cards and won't ever go back to this chain again. In fact, I'll pay a 20% premium to NOT shop at Guitar Center.

This sounds like every other story i heard abut gc. Luckily that shitty company doesent exist here

Th reason they are in the business is simple, they are so big that they can just push smaller competition aside and then advertise enough for people to have an illusion of properly working company and voilá.

Also one of major reasons also is peoples greed, ignorance and not caring for others. Everyone knows that supporting your local music store actually helps people and their business. GC is not human company in the same way, yes people own the stocks, but its not the same thing, especially since when you put money to gc, you help small local businesses go bankrupt and are just throwing money at already rich who most likely doesent even get any real benefit from your purchase. So its like local store getting some benefit just from you buying some cheap ukulele or something like that. Gc doesent give a flying fuck about one sale.. Then they might get small benefit if that small local compqny goes bankrupt.