Gordon of Eden
Active member
Sorry I meant BONGOS not Bogos.
I hate to be a GC basher as they have done well for me in certain areas but their fair-lame bass dept. and sevice (or lack there of as of late) are really beginning to stand out. I am entering the bongo market and also wanting to get an SR5 HH or HS. The 2 GC's in my area have been void of bongos for untold months. The did however have 2 SR5's in the configurations I want to try.
I walk in and was immediately NOT! greeted by the greeter (I've noticed this the last 3 times Ive gone in). I went over to the bass dept. spotted the instruments of choice and tried to flag down a sales associate as the basses were hanging as high as possible in the back most corner. Alas no sales associates in the area.
I am in retail myself (manager of a very nice jewelry store in portland) and if a customer waited more than 2 minutes before they were greeted by an employee there would be hell to pay.
I'm already in the store for 10 minutes and there are probably 5 other customers throughout. So I look around the store starting to my left as I'm facing front and moving clockwise. 1 guy standing at the counter in the drum room with his head down. 2 guys standing in the hallway leading to the back talking. 1 guy actually helping a customer at the accessory counter. Facing fron I notice the girl at the greeting counter not so much looking at me as through me as though I was an apparition. At the guitar counter 1 dude on the phone since Ive been there and another dude stacking and moving boxes and gear as though his very life depended on it. More to the right 1 employee alking through the amp stacks doing apparently nothing but looking busy.
15 minutes in 2 more important manager types standing 5 feet away from me yacking away about gear (but apparently not interested in trying to sell any).
1 very hot female employee walked past me twice on her way from and to the pro audio dept. She only aknowleged me with a scowl as though I was only there to check out her hotness. (She was more interesting than any of the instruments I'll say). I think there was at least 1 more guy in pro audio who seemed to be talking to a customer.
Thats alot of employees on a Tuesday AM and for as few customers as there were I should have been trying to escape with my life!!!
I walked over the greeter and asked her to put out a call to anyone who was not busy to meet me in the bass dept. as I want to try 2 instruments. She said "Go talk to someone at the guitar desk".
Long story short. I tried the 2 basses, liked them both althought the strings were so dead i couln't get a proper feel for the sound. I asked if any bongos were expected in the near future and after a few minutes thought was told there would be no more, "nobody likes those".
Also when I asked him to hook me up to a little mark through a 2 10 cab with tweeter as that would be the closest to my actual rig. he mumbled a little about something not being hooke up and plugged me into a tube head through a more vintage style cab, 1 15 no tweeter.
I switched it myself after he walked away. he never returned.
Had I wanted to purchase one of those he would have lost the sale as I would have gone to the other side of the store to find someone who really did not know I was there and give them the commission.
Sorry for the endless rant but GC used to be a Mecca for musicman basses and as it is they don't seem to be freshening their stock at all let alone even attempting to sell anything.
Very dissapointing.
Thanks to all for listening.
I hate to be a GC basher as they have done well for me in certain areas but their fair-lame bass dept. and sevice (or lack there of as of late) are really beginning to stand out. I am entering the bongo market and also wanting to get an SR5 HH or HS. The 2 GC's in my area have been void of bongos for untold months. The did however have 2 SR5's in the configurations I want to try.
I walk in and was immediately NOT! greeted by the greeter (I've noticed this the last 3 times Ive gone in). I went over to the bass dept. spotted the instruments of choice and tried to flag down a sales associate as the basses were hanging as high as possible in the back most corner. Alas no sales associates in the area.
I am in retail myself (manager of a very nice jewelry store in portland) and if a customer waited more than 2 minutes before they were greeted by an employee there would be hell to pay.
I'm already in the store for 10 minutes and there are probably 5 other customers throughout. So I look around the store starting to my left as I'm facing front and moving clockwise. 1 guy standing at the counter in the drum room with his head down. 2 guys standing in the hallway leading to the back talking. 1 guy actually helping a customer at the accessory counter. Facing fron I notice the girl at the greeting counter not so much looking at me as through me as though I was an apparition. At the guitar counter 1 dude on the phone since Ive been there and another dude stacking and moving boxes and gear as though his very life depended on it. More to the right 1 employee alking through the amp stacks doing apparently nothing but looking busy.
15 minutes in 2 more important manager types standing 5 feet away from me yacking away about gear (but apparently not interested in trying to sell any).
1 very hot female employee walked past me twice on her way from and to the pro audio dept. She only aknowleged me with a scowl as though I was only there to check out her hotness. (She was more interesting than any of the instruments I'll say). I think there was at least 1 more guy in pro audio who seemed to be talking to a customer.
Thats alot of employees on a Tuesday AM and for as few customers as there were I should have been trying to escape with my life!!!
I walked over the greeter and asked her to put out a call to anyone who was not busy to meet me in the bass dept. as I want to try 2 instruments. She said "Go talk to someone at the guitar desk".
Long story short. I tried the 2 basses, liked them both althought the strings were so dead i couln't get a proper feel for the sound. I asked if any bongos were expected in the near future and after a few minutes thought was told there would be no more, "nobody likes those".
Also when I asked him to hook me up to a little mark through a 2 10 cab with tweeter as that would be the closest to my actual rig. he mumbled a little about something not being hooke up and plugged me into a tube head through a more vintage style cab, 1 15 no tweeter.
I switched it myself after he walked away. he never returned.
Had I wanted to purchase one of those he would have lost the sale as I would have gone to the other side of the store to find someone who really did not know I was there and give them the commission.
Sorry for the endless rant but GC used to be a Mecca for musicman basses and as it is they don't seem to be freshening their stock at all let alone even attempting to sell anything.
Very dissapointing.
Thanks to all for listening.
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