I'll try to make a long story short. I had been looking around for my first electric guitar and went to several places, including Guitar Center. During one visit, I spent probably 20-25 minutes with a particular sales person, trying out several electric guitars but not finding one that felt comfortable or was within my budget. I went back home to do more research and found one that had a slimmer neck and thought that might be the one I was looking for. I went on GC's website and found it new for $325.00. That was a little more than I wanted to spend because I still had other equipment and accessories to buy so I started looking for used guitars on their website but didn't see that brand and model nor did I see it at their store. I then went on Craigslist and, surprisingly, found it. I went to that persons house and tried it out and saw that it played well and fit my smallish hands perfectly. I ended up purchasing the guitar along with an amp, strap, hard case and amp cord for $200.00. Financially, that worked for me but I still had to get some accessories. I stopped by Best Buy and saw a 12 pack of picks for $3.50 but they didn't have the other accessories like a guitar stand, tuner, etc. So, I stopped by Guitar Center and started looking at picks but saw some without prices. It just so happened, the same sales person came up to me and remembered me from my last visit. I told him I was looking for some guitar accessories and he asked me if I had found a guitar. I told him I did and he asked me where I bought it and I said from a private sale on Craigslist. I then asked him how much a particular 12 pack of picks were and he had to do a register scan. He told me $5.50, so I asked him if he had any lower priced or, perhaps, a smaller package as I didn't really need 12 picks. He left for a minute and returned with a small quantity of picks that he got from the counter. You know the ones customers borrow when they are trying out guitars? He put them in my hand and said "Sorry, they don't say Craigslist on them", then walked away. I just sort of stood there for a few seconds in shock, staring at those used, dirty picks in my hand. I then got angry and threw the picks on the counter and walked out of the store. On the way to my vehicle, I got really angry at what just transpired and walked back in to the store and talked to the operations manager. I explained the whole story (from my perspective) and continued to tell him that I was very insulted and felt extremely disrespected by this salesperson. He completely understood how I felt and agreed that the salesperson should not have done and said what he did. He asked me if there was anything he could do for me and I told him I still needed to get some accessories but I would not be buying them at Guitar Center. I only wanted a manager to know what happened and if he did that sort of thing to me, he was probably doing it to other customers as well. Unless I absolutely need something and cannot find it anywhere else, I will not be doing any more business with Guitar Center.
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