GC visit & rant

[Steve Dude Barr]

I also think that it's damned cool that you can post something like this and within a matter of hours you have Sterling Ball personally forwarding this thread to Enzo and getting a public yet personal reply...like these two guys don't have bigger things to do in their day that spend any time on a faulty 5 way switch on one bass in one store somewhere.

I want to buy Enzo a drink or at least send him a blue cornrow bead or something.

 

[Steve Dude Barr]

LOL...it just occured to me that BP & Enzo have sales and production meetings and stuff to do every day...and memos....LOL...

 

[phatduckk]

the SF GC is pretty good. there's this dude named Sergio (sp?) that works there who is super cool and helpful. im sure otehr folks there are too but i just go to him. the san jsoe GC has/had a guy named AJ who is also a very great guy to deal with. hes even called me to ask how i liked my purchases and always treats cuistomers right.

ive seen some beat up instruments at GCs, but at the same time ive also asked employees to lower action etc on stuff i was really close to buying and they were on top of it. not to mention you do get some crazy deals there when the stars are aligned.

Theres a few local shops around here i go to quite a bit. one is great and everyone knows me so i get to do and play pretty much anything i want ... but the other has "please dont touch me" signs on jujst about anything id consider buying and its annoying. being able to try stuff at GCs is pretty sweet. I was sampling basses a little while back and a GC employee (Sergio in SF) line up around 6 basses for me to check out. id just point at stuff and hed put it on a stand next to me ... that's pretty rad.

its easy to pick on GC but my experience has been pretty good.

 

[Steve Dude Barr]

Nice spelling there...

 

[Freddels]

Not so sure its a Catch-22 Larry. Don't put all the stock out on the floor and provide a spankin' new one if asked for but with no haggle room. Otherwise, sell floor stock as is but be ready to haggle or blow it out as a demo at the next sale. Reasonable?

I got my Bongo 4HH at GC. There was damage on the headstock (looks like someone was fishing behind the amps for a paperclip with it). The salesperson assured me that if I wanted a new one that he would order it and when it came in I could do an even exchange of the one with damage on it. He even asked me what color I wanted to order. The next week when I went back to GC, they handed me a receipt that showed that they ordered a new Bongo and that it was for an even exchange with my name on it. Not bad!

I guess I'm old school but when I was growing up if I wanted to play a high end instrument I always asked for assistance from the salespeople or store owner. I still do. It's nice that GC's policy is to let every pimply faced kid play whatever instrument that they want but I would want to study the return. Perhaps if GC treated the instruments like they were behind glass (I've never actually seen a store do this except for the not for sale collector item) and ask people to move belt buckles and zippers so as to not scratch the instrument, then maybe people would treat the instruments with more care. But then again some of those little ****'s don't care.

A new GC opened only a few miles from my house a couple of weeks ago. I'll visit a couple of times to see if there is a knowledgeable salesperson there. I'll have to see if they have gotten more instruments in as the stock was a little low end but the salepeople assured me that more was on the way. Still waiting to try out the MarkBass gear!

 

[Big Poppa]

Steve, I haope you tipped that poor girl.

Maddog..The old days you could keep inventory in the back room.....In a perfect world the damaged stuff would get fixed quicker at GC and I really believe that you will see this. Their fastest growing segment of the guitar and bass market is now $1,000-$2,000 whereas two years ago is was $299. (approx numbers)

Why? I have been predicting this for years due to the almost 9 year long guitar boom.
We are now getting the filtering up from players that started with Strat packs and are now on their third or forth purchase.

 

[adouglas]

Why? I have been predicting this for years due to the almost 9 year long guitar boom.
We are now getting the filtering up from players that started with Strat packs and are now on their third or forth purchase.

Impeccable logic. Can't argue with that.

 

[koogie2k]

My local GC is great. I have never had a bad experience there. I buy all my gear there, minus guitars/basses. Not because the guitars/basses are bad, I just prefer to get them elsewhere. When I go in, I always notice the guitars/basses are being taken down, cleaned, set up, new strings, etc. Very cool salesman in there who help out the best they can.

I do see kids in there mucking with high end gear and not being respectful, but, most of the time, the sales-peeps there keep it under control.

 

[maddog]

We are now getting the filtering up from players that started with Strat packs and are now on their third or forth purchase.

Very good business strategy. Partly why high end audio is dying. They play the snob game and alot of stores won't talk to customers unless they are willing to spend big bucks. As a poor college student I didn't have much to spend but I knew when I got my first job what I wanted to buy. But if you are looked down on when you go in a store why would you go back.

 

[Steve Dude Barr]

Part of it is the price you pay for instant gratification too to some degree don't you think?