Everyone's out to make a buck, but don't you make more with repeat buisness? That's something Guitar Center lost with their final round of shenanagans where I was concerned.
I purchesed a rather expensive guitar from them after speaking at length with the sales rep about the product and gauging the benefits of the purchase. Of course I played the instrument and tried it out for a while, but the final selling point was the salesman's gaurantee that, unlike other guitars, "Gibson guitar retain and even increase in value, whereas another brand and model would have a decreased trade-in or re-sale value down the road." Sounds good to me. It played pretty well and would, at worst, retain it's current value. Great. Sold.
Yeah right!!!
After playing the instument sparsely over the next year, I realized that it just wasn't going to be of much use to me and I went down to Guitar Center to trade it in and find something else. Keep in mind, this was no piece of garbage. This was a Gibson SG, limited edition with all the bells and whistles.
I checked out a few options on the wall and finally succumbed to a conversation with one of their carnivorous sales reps regarding a possible trade scenario.
To my severe dismay, the sales rep seemed to lose all interest in my buisness upon realizing that I wasn't neccesarily there to spend big money. Some customer service policy!
At any rate, I listened to what he had to say. What a joke!!! Somehow, the "Caddillac of guitars" had turned into a Yugo within the roughly 14 months I owned it! I explained what they had previously stated rgarding the increasing values and blah blah blah, and he responded with some bull shit about how I happened to have the one model that decreased! Come on man, what do I look like, a jacka*?!
He conferred with his manager and somehow these ripoff artists deduced that my Gibson bore a value of around $300. $300!!!???
The damned thing cost me $1200 just over a year prior to this! To top it all off, I had barely played it. It was pristine. Identical to when I first purchased it, it was scratchless, unmarked, and shining like a new dime. They finally agreed on trading me a mexican-made Fender with a price tag of $350.00 in the end. So, over a barrel, in need of the proper equipment to play some upcoming gigs, and not having much time to find another option, I accepted the trade and left.
The guitar I took plays well enough and has served me pretty well but it's not anywhere close to the monetary value of what they ripped me off for.
I don't go to guitar center any more, nor do several of my friends, and we don't plan to either. They have no regard for their gaurantees or their word, they just spew out any old crap from their collective pie-hole in order to screw you out of your money!!!
So glad there are places like Daddy's Junky Music around, where you're always treated well, fairly and with some degree of respect for your level of intelligence.
I would not recommend doing buisness with Guitar Center to my worst enemy. They have joined the ranks of the used car salesman. I'm sure they could care less about my "little" experiences with them but how many like me will it take for them to wake up?
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