I don't mean to bag on GC, but.......

[Big Poppa]

T-Bone,
First, I would like to apologize for the unfortunate experience you had in both Portland stores. I am the District Sales Manager of both of those stores, and I can assure you it is not how we wish to treat our valued customers such as yourself. Although you are absolutely correct in saying that Memorial Day was very busy in GC, that's still no excuse. We will certainly make every effort to ensure this never happens again through coaching, re-training, and discussing this incident with our sales teams in both Portland stores. In the meantime, I would love to make this right for you if you would grant me the opportunity. I sent you an email to your contact email with my phone number included. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.
Sean

Sean Welcome and a class gesture.

How's this for the 'evil GC' They actually care and sometimes thinks dont work as trained and planned. I have been the biggest critic of GC from time to time but now is not one of them. From the CEO on down they have a huge desire to treat musicians fairly.

 

[Psycho Ward]

My only gripe with the Guitar Center is that there isn't one in the Tri-Cities Tennessee, my new stomping grounds.

 

[bovinehost]

Class act, Sir Sean.

 

[T-bone]

Sean,

Thank you for your kind offer. I hope I was clear with my post that I am a long time customer and would like to continue to be one. I certainly don't view GC as the evil empire, and have bought a fair amount of gear from your stores. My only complaint is that I appear to be invisible to your employees.

Now, as you read through the responses above, some people like being ignored when shopping. I, on the other hand, I only want red M&Ms and a straw that bends when I walk through your doors. (just kidding Sean). Actually, a greeting and a Music Man Bass specialist and I'm a happy shopper.

Thanks again for your great response, and I look forward to connecting with you.

Tim S.

 

[JayDawg]

T-Bone,
First, I would like to apologize for the unfortunate experience you had in both Portland stores. I am the District Sales Manager of both of those stores, and I can assure you it is not how we wish to treat our valued customers such as yourself. Although you are absolutely correct in saying that Memorial Day was very busy in GC, that's still no excuse. We will certainly make every effort to ensure this never happens again through coaching, re-training, and discussing this incident with our sales teams in both Portland stores. In the meantime, I would love to make this right for you if you would grant me the opportunity. I sent you an email to your contact email with my phone number included. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.
Sean

That's pretty cool of you Sean! I must say that my experience at the Guitar Center in Ft. Collins, Colorado was a very positive experience after my 15 year absence. Unfortunately for me, the closest stores are 1 1/2 - 2 hours away from me so if I do any future purchases, they will most likely be online.

 

[T Alan]

OK I love these I really do. It is so easy to bash Guitar Center for a policy....lets just take the bringing a case into the store.....

It is easy to think they are doing this to punish you....Dont blame GC blame thieving rip off artists who used this trick to steal instruments. Usually when there is a rule you dont understand start by thinking somebody must have caused them to make this rule. Its sort of like blaming them for damaged guitars...its the customers that damage them.

True. However, it's when they are left is such a state that I have issue with.
As for the case issue- to me, it's the "guilty until proven innocent" policy(ies) that offend me as a customer ...especially a customer that has spent thou$ands with the corporation. I am very fortunate to have a somewhat local dealership, Flores in Peoria, that still treats customers the ol' fashioned way.

 

[maddog]

I see no salesman?



Tell Julia you deserve a Big Al because LEDs are going to light the world.

 

[T-bone]

LOL! We're missin you maddog.

t (and she) bone

 

[silverburst]

The platinum room manager at the Las Vegas GC is great, as is the rest of the staff

The platinum room at Cheetah's in Las Vegas is better.

 

[agplate]

Having purchased my SR5 Copperhead Bronze from GC in Detroit with excellent results, I occasionally keep the faith in Guitar Center. I drove across the valley (Phoenix) today to GC Peoria to compare EBMM Sterlings and SBMM SB14's. Great selection of everything EBMM, etc, and very helpful staff. However, I've never seen so many brand new basses in such terrible condition. To be proactive, I did kindly tell the salesman my observations when I left, but honestly, I can't imagine how they can sell ANY of that beautiful junk.

One Sterling HS had a missing knob and toggle cap as well as a dead humbucker pickup. Every single bass had huge bows in the neck (luckily, I brought my own capstan wrench to bring down the strings enough to play them), and most of the basses had dead, dirty strings. One SB14 had a really bad S-curve in the neck, and another a bad toggle switch. Embarrassing and heartbreaking. If someone was getting a first impression of EBMM at this GC, they would think it all mediocre stuff.

I know we're lucky to have GC; I could only have dreamed of such 'great' stores when I was growing up. But for some of you who have to drive 2 hours to get to one, you may find it a wasted and disappointing trip as I did today. Fortunately I only had to drive 45 mins. I drove 2 hours to Tucson for the same purpose last week, and while the GC there is atrocious, Rainbow Music had a huge selection of EBMM and SBMM in clean and playable condition. Lessons to be learned GC.

I realize this is a rant, but in my experience, GC is mostly good as eye-candy only- nothing I would pay top dollar for. I'll bet money that those two defective SB14's are back on the wall tomorrow. If anything has changed or been improved a month from now, I'll promise to buy my next bass at GC.

Let me say that this is not a reflection of the quality of EBMM and the products; we all know how great they are. I am a dedicated player, buyer and supporter. But the dealers should be held to the same high standards as the the company.

 

[Big Poppa]

Thanks for the notice...We can do something abou this...Glen will be on it

 

[Glen]

Yes, thank you for the notice. We will get this fixed asap!

 

[BassMent]

Yes, thank you for the notice. We will get this fixed asap!

Glen, it sounds from your posts as though GC has a central buyer for the entire chain. So, why is it that some GC's (like the ones near me in Rhode Island and North Attleborough, MA) typically have no EBMM guitars or basses in stock, while clearly other stores around the country have good selections? Are the stores stocked based on past sales performance? Do the managers get to choose what's sent to their stores from the chain's stock?

Also, I see the same problems with the few EBMMs that do occasionally appear in my local GC... they've been thrased by some kid weilding a stainless steel pick, or they've had the knobs removed... I've even seen missing battery compartments! I was so psyched when I saw a GC 45th anniversary SR5 hanging in the North Attleborough store, until I pulled it off the wall and saw the gouge in the neck near the headstock. The in-store "technician" offered to fill it with wood putty and sand it down. *sigh*

The saleschild offered to "find me another one," and I told him he could go ahead and try but to expect failure (these had been out for a while). Half an hour later he came back to me and said, "Whoa, dude, there's like NONE of these things ANYWHERE!" Well, yeah, dude, it's a limited edition. *sigh again*

Maybe if these stores stocked EBMM instruments consistently, the staff might know something about them. But in these two GC stores, at least, I have never spoken with a salesperson who could answer a single question about an EBMM product.

I know at times folks tend to generalize about GC, saying they only carry entry-level stuff like Squire and inexpensive Ibanez models. But the fact is that in these two stores I could choose from a plethora of PRS, Taylor and Gibson guitars that are tagged at $3000 and up. The bass departments, though, are simply dismal.

Come to think of it, they don't have any EBMM guitars either!

 

[Glen]

Yes, to answer your question, there is a central buyer for the guitars and basses. The selection in each store is some what based on historical data. However, the Store Manager can request specific pieces to have allocated to their store when available. We are all working together (GC/MM) on the chain wide assortment. However, it takes time to spread the MM love as we would see fit due to production time as well as dollars available by the retailer. So, it's a bit of a constant dance. The good news is that Guitar Center has a training certification program that we are now part of. They have just gone live with a MM bass training module that all the new guitar and bass sales people will be required to take. This module was built as a partnership between GC and Music Man and should reveal it's worth over the next few months!
in the meantime GC has launched their Platinum site where you can view hi res photos of much of the high end gear in the stores as well as locate the store it is being displayed in. Hope all this helps!

Guitar Center: Platinum

 

[ZiggyDude]

In a large store it must be tough to monitor the health of every guitar on the wall.

I know that the mom & pops stores can take the time to tune every instrument each morning. But how do you do that when there are a 100 instruments on the wall. Well - it is a problem and one either solves it or works around it.

My experience is limited to just a couple of stores - but the one that comes to mind does not really have a "Bass Manager". They are all geeetar players. The interest and desire for detail is not really there. I watched a shipment of EBMMs last winter gradually go from perfect to bowed and ready for arrows. If you ask someone to adjust they will - so they were very good at being reactive - just not proactive. The store near me has a bass selection small enough that a person tasked as "the bass guy" could tune and check them each day. But that is one store.

So - you have to appreciate the size of the problem - I know some boutique companies only work with smaller stores because of this type of thing. But that deprives many of us access which is something that GC does help with. Think of all the stuff you would never see otherwise.

 

[Glen]

I forget to mention. GC is also rolling out a guitar tech program to service the top tier inventory which we are part of. Hopefully, by the end of the year this will be a reality in all the stores!!

 

[Big Poppa]

thanks Glen. You guys need to understand that Glen works for MM and was in his prior life a very high ranking GC exec in charge of stores and in the his last job all of the marketing for the entire enchilada. Glen has a passion for our stuff and knows where the bodies are buried. In other words...Glen is great. Glen's job is managing the relationship with GC and Musicians Friend.

 

[strummer]

The platinum room at Cheetah's in Las Vegas is better.

I'll be sure to visit both next time I'm in vegas

 

[ptg]

I dont like being called "Dude" and "Bro" I dont like dirty instruments but I think Guitar Center is way better than it used to be and also we are all spoiled...Im old enough to remember a life without Guitar Center

With all due respect BP, I also remember a life without GC and, for the most part, it was a better one. I have nothing against them and spend quite a bit of money there, but before the big box stores came rambling through, there used to be many privately-owned stores that offered a wide range of stock and allowed me as a consumer to compare prices.

Now there is GC (same as Musician's Friend), Ash, and a handful of others here and there. Gone are the days when I could say, 'Hey, I use X strings but you don't stock them, could you keep a couple of sets for me?' And just like that it was done. Now my answer is, 'We can special order a set in for you.' I miss the Mom and Pop stores.

It used to be when I walked down 48th Street in NYC, there was store after store offering choices other than Fen**r. No more. I can order on the web but how many times have you heard someone say, 'I'm interested in a Bongo, but dang, I need to play one before I buy one!"

Maybe I'm just old.

 

[Big Poppa]

YOu are getting old...other than 48th street and really there was no service just abuse there....I loved the goldrichs but I used to watch Henry yell at customers all the time. If you wanted to try it its in the box and here is the price!

Most mom and pop stores carried very little inventory and you couldnt play it unless they were convinced you were a buyer