I have countless GC horror stories. I’m a big nerd and keep all of this stuff in a spreadsheet. Here are the current stats:
134 total orders since 2016 and I’m sure you can imagine the cost
Out of those, 60 had some kind of problem which resulted in some kind of corrective action. Such as, forgot power cable, forgot case for the guitar, broken strings, broken tubes, etc. That’s a 52% failure rate. I also consider the *multiple* times one of my orders was cancelled out of the blue and when I pressed them, they told me it “caught on fire.” After I heard that one for the third time, it’s a bit hard to believe. Most of the time these are easily solved though, they just send the missing item or whatever at their expense.
Out of those, a further 38 orders had what I mark as a “major” issue. This includes egregiously bad packaging jobs, outright broken and damaged gear, cracked head shells due to their fault and not the shipper, broken headstocks, broken bridges, completely wrong item sent, and all sorts of asinine stuff. These are full or partial refunds.
—-
So we can say it’s down to the stores or individual people all we want, but the reality is that the store policies/processes contribute to this lack of accountability. Yes there is a 45 day return policy (only 3 days for Vintage gear by the way, so you’d better check for a warped necks the day something shows up or you’re boned) but that is their ONLY good policy. They will refund shipping if the problem is obviously their fault, but I’ve been lectured by people at my local GC who refused to refund shipping or tell me that returning an obviously broken thing is going to get my account banned from future purchases. I just smile and then call the customer service line and they refund the shipping for me then.
Anyway, I still cruise their listings a lot because it’s a good way to find good gear for cheap. The same lack of accountability that results in all of the problems is also how I’ve gotten a vintage JCM800 for $550, Mesa triple rec Rev G for $780, a Kramer Stagemaster for $750, a Charvel model 5A for $500 and other ridiculous deals. I just always assume there’s a 50/50 chance it’s going to just waste my time and gas money driving it back to my local GC.
—-
One short story. I once wanted a Fender Super Sonic combo, back when the 60w was the only version. I bought one from GC online and instead, a red knob Super 60 showed up. Anyway I returned it but I saw that same Super 60 pop back up at more than 5 different Gc’s a few months apart. They spent more money shipping that amp all over and getting it returned than the amp even cost (it was $399 which was a great deal if it were a super sonic, so it got purchased a lot). All of that could’ve been fixed by one person fixing the picture/title. I just don’t get it. And I still see this happen by the way, there is a Blankenship plexi I used to own that’s back on there and I’ve seen returned at least twice. There’s also a Mesa Mk IV rack mount head in a brown tolex rack shell that has completely blown caps on the main pcb that I saw again for the 4th time that just disappeared again, likely on its way to another buyer they hope will just not bother to return it.
I bought it. It weighed 4.
