8len8
Active member
I’ve never been one to bash Guitar Center in the past, since I can understand what they’re up against with trying to stay profitable in today’s environment, but man, this latest trip there has me baffled.
I go to my local GC to trade in some old pedals (in decent condition) for a new Boss pedal. I know ahead of time that they won’t give me much for the pedals since they have to resell them for fair market value.
- The store is a mess. Opened boxes of merchandise laying all over.
- No less than 5 employees just standing around doing nothing on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe clean up the store?
- The main guitar guy there was playing when I walked in. He played very poorly and out of tune. I’d think they would hire people who weren’t just fans of the instrument, but who could play so they could better support customers.
- When they try out one of my pedals they say the pots are scratchy, and that it’s an easy thing to fix, but they can’t buy the pedal. When I get home I find nothing wrong with the pedal when played through a few different amps and cables, so the problem was with their gear they played it through.
- One pedal had a couple of scratches on the bottom so they took $10 off the buy price. Because of scratches on the bottom where no one looks? Seems extreme…
- I pick a random LP off the wall to try out the pedal I want to buy. The guy there seems surprised that I want to try it on an amp model that’s similar to what I have at home instead of on their “pedal demo station” amp which was some cheap solid state thing.
- The guitar has almost no signal coming out of the bridge pickup. The thing is broken. Nice.
- The new Boss pedal I try has a clicking noise on the output, even when used on various amps and with a battery. I tell the employee and he puts it back in the case even though it’s obviously broken. I later bought the same pedal from Sweetwater and it had no issues.
Like I said, I’m usually one to not jump on the bashing bandwagon, but GC (at least this location in Algonquin IL) is just shooting themselves in the foot.
I go to my local GC to trade in some old pedals (in decent condition) for a new Boss pedal. I know ahead of time that they won’t give me much for the pedals since they have to resell them for fair market value.
- The store is a mess. Opened boxes of merchandise laying all over.
- No less than 5 employees just standing around doing nothing on a Saturday afternoon. Maybe clean up the store?
- The main guitar guy there was playing when I walked in. He played very poorly and out of tune. I’d think they would hire people who weren’t just fans of the instrument, but who could play so they could better support customers.
- When they try out one of my pedals they say the pots are scratchy, and that it’s an easy thing to fix, but they can’t buy the pedal. When I get home I find nothing wrong with the pedal when played through a few different amps and cables, so the problem was with their gear they played it through.
- One pedal had a couple of scratches on the bottom so they took $10 off the buy price. Because of scratches on the bottom where no one looks? Seems extreme…
- I pick a random LP off the wall to try out the pedal I want to buy. The guy there seems surprised that I want to try it on an amp model that’s similar to what I have at home instead of on their “pedal demo station” amp which was some cheap solid state thing.
- The guitar has almost no signal coming out of the bridge pickup. The thing is broken. Nice.
- The new Boss pedal I try has a clicking noise on the output, even when used on various amps and with a battery. I tell the employee and he puts it back in the case even though it’s obviously broken. I later bought the same pedal from Sweetwater and it had no issues.
Like I said, I’m usually one to not jump on the bashing bandwagon, but GC (at least this location in Algonquin IL) is just shooting themselves in the foot.
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