Guitar Center — Attraction in Oakdale

I am very disappointed with Guitar Center for lots of reasons...including the Woodbury location & the website for national sales. Here's my story.... I sold ten thousand dollars worth of drum gear 2 years ago because I had not actively played in the prior 3 years but 2 months ago I was asked to play in a local band. I started to put together a drum set from a used set of Pearl drums...I finally was able to afford some additional gear by making an additional thousand dollars. I had made numerous so-called wish lists with the most important things first. I use Amazon quite often for most of my purchases in pretty much any category but I had heard that Guitar Center had used gear nationwide...again I made more lists to comply with some used cymbals, rack and other misc. items. So I called the 800 number 4 times to finally get someone to help me sort out the web site issues...at that time I spent 5 hours with a online sales person to find out that 90% of what we put in the sales cart was not available because of listings not being updated..(strike one)..I felt sorry for the person and just ordered a new Meinl cymbal pack for what was listed as $299.00 with free shipping...but it ended up not being true...(strike two)...but I did finally find a used Gibraltar drum rack for $269.00 with some extras on it making it seem like a good deal...but it was incorrect when arrived a week later...(strike three)...I called the online Guitar Center and was told to take it to the nearest GC for a refund, so I did. When I arrived at Guitar Center I waited almost thirty minutes to be waited on for a refund...(strike four)...the manager finally approached me and said he would help me. I gave him the receipt and told him a brief story of what happened. He then asked me if I would like an in store credit or put it back on my MasterCard...so after everything that had conspired I just told him to put it on my card...never asking me or showing me a possible exchange option or give me a receipt...(strike five)... Twenty-four hours later I called my credit card company and it had not yet posted on my account...I called Guitar Center in my town and the manager who refunded the drum rack to me said it could take up to ten days to post...(strike six)...I lost my cool and got upset with him about everything that led up to that moment. He then said he tried to give me an exchange when I was there the day earlier...not so..he said he would call me back so he could give me an exchange for my troubles...the drum sales man called me a few hours later and after talking to him for a awhile said he would have to okay it with the manager...(strike seven)...to give a discount after I had no money because it was in limbo waiting to post on my credit card...the manager stated I should call him when my funds were back on my card so he could give a deal. I called my credit card company everyday and on the 5th day it finally cleared on my credit card but only because I hounded them every day...so I called Guitar Center when they opened for business and told him my situation...in addition the refund amount was 10 dollars less than the purchase amount...after telling the manager of this he said he would have to contact the drum sales guy at home because it was his day off...the manager said he would talk to me later. I waited for a few hours before calling him out of politeness but I had a show to play the next day...the Guitar Center manager then told me that he would honor my ten dollar lost in the refund but could not give me a suitable drum rack with two cymbal arms like I was promised for my troubles without having to pay an additional amount...(strike eight)... I told I would call him back after I thought about it for a few minutes...Amazon had one drum rack left that I could get shipped in 24 hours @ $275.00 but with no cymbal boom arms...so I called Guitar Center and told Phil the manager of my plans and that sorry he could not help me or make me the deal. Ok...by using Guitar Center I lost $50.00, a whole week, major anxiety and go with your...

I have done business with Guitar Center and its entities for over 20 years. This most recent interaction displays an escalating pattern of poor customer service, deceptive billing practices, siloed management and a general lack of responsibility for issues they have created for themselves.

We worked with the institutional department to purchase sound equipment for a marching band. The large order was serviced through a purchase order and the local store (Bloomington) repeatedly mishandled the transaction. They asked us to provide the purchase order number and a tax exempt id and the purchase could go through. Having provided the requirements, they told us they could not process the payment without a Net30 account which would take up to 8 weeks to setup. They could not look up purchases we made with them from three years ago in order to reference the payment information. Every payment issue they encountered on their side they solved by making our organization do more work.

They also said they could not produce an invoice for us to present to our finance secretary to approve the payment. We ended up paying with an institutional credit card, which is never a good situation for a public school as it creates accounting difficulty and extra work. It is basically a last ditch effort to deal with companies like Guitar Center. Once payment was made, our order was split up into three UPS deliveries and they never told us. When the first part was complete, we were notified that our order was ready, only to drive to the store and pick up a handful of items.

They use UPS delivery notifications and pay absolutely no attention to how it is communicated to their customer. We picked up the next delivery several days later only to find that a product was damaged. They could not exchange the product in Bloomington and directed us to do so at Oakdale. We were told we only needed to provide the order number and identification and we would be "in and out the door". When we returned the item for exchange at another store (Oakdale), they refunded the item onto the institutional credit card and asked us to create another charge for the replacement. We had to pay for the replacement out of personal funds in order to leave. It took the better part of an hour and involved two more calls back to the Bloomington store while sitting in the parking lot with an unboxed replacement we had no way of paying for through the school.

Customer service blamed the store managers and told us we should have dealt directly with the institutional department. Customer service relayed no ability to escalate the issue to a complaint and dropped several calls. Customer service did not reply to any calls unless directed to do so through an escalation. Their final suggestion was to "keep telling our story" to mangement at Guitar Center in the hope that something would change in the future.

There are several reputable local music equipment dealers in our area that will give you a much better experience. I suggest trusting other local businesses like Groth Music or reputable online stores like Sweetwater rather than working with Guitar Center at all. If they cannot get it together, the world will simply...

I visited Guitar Center (Maple Grove, MN) today and I was mortified, the experience was scary and embarrassing. Having previously purchased an expensive equipment, I went to the store to use my Reward Points and waited in line for about 30 minutes, finally I reached the rep behind the counter. His name was Marky M, extremely rude, obnoxious and immature, and he made no apology for the wait.

First Marky attempted to sell me product warranty, I allowed him to finished explaining the process and details, then I kindly informed Marky that I was not interested and would not be buying warranty. Marky immediately became agitated and asked: “May I know why you are not interested in this warranty?” I explained to Marky that I usually take great care and historically; I have never had to replace things because of damage. Marky continued to be agitated and informed me that he was also a very careful person and he breaks stuff, he continued to argue about product breakage even though I had informed him that I was not interested.

When I did not accept the warranty Marky attempted to sell me, he said: “I am not sure where your hostility is coming from.” Even though I was calm the whole time and I am always a calm and non-confrontational.

I left the store because Marky was extremely rude, had no sense of humor and appeared as a complete narcissist. I was concern he was going to jump from behind the counter and hit me. Because even when I attempted to calm him by asking him about a TV show, he responded. "TV is Garbage." Who says that to a customer?

After leaving the store I called to complain and spoke to Phil the manager, which was a waste of time. Phil explained that the incident did not reflect the Marky he knows and maybe it was a misunderstanding.

I expected Phil to say: “We are very sorry and Marky extends his apology, he is very sorry.” Instead, Phil makes excuses. “That’s not the Marky I know.” Sure, no one suspected Ted Bundy as a serial Killer because that behavior did not represent the person they knew. Just because you see something different that does not mean the behavior does not exists.

I will never go to another Guitar Center store and what happened to me exemplifies why most people prefer to shop online.

This was one of the worst experiences I...