Guitar Center — Attraction in North Olmsted

On and off through the years, I get a bug to scratch my (very) amateur musician itch. Now that I have GarageBand on my Mac and iPad, it's come up again. And many times since the 80s, I go into a Guitar Center for help and advice, to see equipment (keyboards and synths usually), and get that "hands-on" experience. And many times since the 80s, a trip to a Guitar Center -- whether it be Ohio or California, wherever I happened to be at the time -- felt like a chore. Hard to get someone's attention, hard to find someone who is empathetic to my plight as "forever amateur".

Not this time! I had three goals: check out some entry level keyboard controllers I'd looked at online, see if there was any value to selling my old keyboard, and take a look and compare two much more expensive synths in person, to see if either is something I'll eventually want to sink money and time into.

My visit was early December on an early Saturday afternoon, so it was busy. I found some of what I was looking for, but I needed assistance. Kenny saw my lost look and came out to help me. I rattled off my situation and he pointed me in the right direction. When I asked something he wasn't sure about, he brought over Sam.

Sometimes being a nearly 50 year old guy dealing with "young ones" can be frustrating and/or intimidating (think of the horrors of Best Buy), but these two were the coolest, most helpful cats I've ever dealt with in 3 decades of being a prodigal GC customer. I got my questions and my hands-on, never was made to feel stupid or unimportant, and they set me up with just the right product for a price better than any I'd seen online the night before. I hadn't even planned on buying anything that day (Christmas and all), but it was a great deal. And at no time did I get the hard sell. I could have walked away buying nothing, but still got the impression that either of them would be happy to help me again when the time was right.

I got a killer deal, I felt like an important customer, Sam encouraged me to come back for some GarageBand courses they have, and I know when the time comes to buy one of those pricey synths in two or three months, I'll be heading right back to Guitar Center in North Olmsted. It feels rare to get an exceptional customer service experience these days, but Kenny and Sam (Kenneth W P and Samuel K) made sure I got two. A big thumbs up to them, their managers and the store itself. You almost made the shopping for music equipment as fun and satisfying as actually playing with it, and that's the ideal experience someone should have at a place like GC.

Well done, I'll be back soon. To those who read this: highly...

My review is just like 99% of the others. Terrible customer service. I received the biggest snub I've ever had! I went there to purchase a Cajon, pedal, shaker and seat pad. I went to the drum dept. after I entered the store. There was a guy working, stickering products and doing some stocking. I eventually tapped on a few Cajons but wanted to know if the amount I saw was all they had in stock so I went up to the guy and asked if I could interrupt him for a moment. Before I could even asked the question, about the stock, he said, I'm not a drummer so I can't help you. There's some drummers up front. I said OK and went to the front of the store where another customer was standing and a shaved head, young man was working on upc labels. He never looked at me as I approached him and I stood there for 3-4 minutes before this other customer that had stood there so long I thought he was helped already and waiting for something to be brought to him, said "excuse me" and the bald guy said "yeah" (real professional). After he was given absolutely no valuable information and the worker didn't bother to take him to what he asked about he went back to the upc labels. Again didn't even look at me and I there was only a counter between us. I stayed patient and I finally bothered him enough by just standing there that he asked if I had been helped. I don't know who the hell he was seeing there besides me and him but there was nobody ever next to us. I said the guy in the back said there were a drummer or two up here that might be able to answer some questions. He said, nope, no drummers here. I said I was wanting to stand back and hear my choices as I'm disappointed in the strength of the snare sounds is the reason I asked for a drummer. Is there any working this week. He said yeah, I think Mon. or Tues. This guy was just full of info. and customer service! I left and will never be back. Both people I talked were rude, "I'm too busy for customers" punks who should be fired. The only other person working there was a girl who helping in the guitar dept. I just added up what these two cost your company and it's over $500. Great customer service...

Since GUITAR CENTER cannot update their hours, I will. They close at 7PM and don’t even have the courtesy of letting anyone know on Google until you arrive at the store. This one star review is not only for the hours but for all of the other horrible interactions I have had with GC Corporate as WELL. I love this store but the business practices have been absolutely outrageous.

I ordered a Hofner Violin bass through the GC website. Weeks later without any shipping status updates or even an attempt to reach out to the customer, I took the time to call and ask what the issue with shipping was. They claimed that I never provided a “valid identification” in order to place the order. Even THOUGH they took the money out of my account and NEVER mentioned anything about providing an ID on their broken app.

If you look on the Guitar Center app to see what’s in stock at the North Olmsted store, you are 100% taking a gamble. Nothing is ever in stock when it claims that it is. Instead they will always try to upsell you hundreds of dollars more than what you initially had the intention of spending.

If you ever need something that they have locked in a case for some odd reason, nobody will even bother to help you out. I once waited 45 minutes for an associate to try and find someone who could ring me out in the keyboards department instead of the main register, completely unreal.

And as far as updating the hours, they have the power to post their “reduced hours” section on Google but that would be wayyyyy too convenient for the customers so of course they wouldn’t do that. And these hours were on their door for multiple days at this point stamped ‘starting April 6th.’

For being the only Guitar Center within a reasonable driving distance, they sure do NOT act like customer service is a priority. Smaller mom and pop shops will end up prevailing while these big box stores start packing up. It’s a shame to see a store I enjoyed so much become a...