Guitar Center — Attraction in Town of De Witt

What a tough review to make. I really wish anyone at this store cared. Because I would be sad to see it go. (Even though it already looks closed from the outside.) Unfortunately, they repeatedly demonstrate that they simply don’t.

50% of the time you visit this place someone “might” ask if you need help. The other 50% of the time the employees are too busy trying to act cool talking to each other while completely ignoring customers.

There’s been plenty of times I’ve shopped here and had to wait 15+ minutes to be cashed out for a set of strings because there’s only 1 guy working and he’s appeasing a trade or something. The world is a mess right now and everyone is short staffed, so I’ll be patient. But it’s the complete lack of care, and inability to exhibit any sort of customer interaction skills that gets me. It’s really simple to throw out a “Hey man, I’ll be right with you as soon as I can” or “Sorry for the wait, I’ll be right with you.” Maybe it’s a management and training problem? But is a little bit of acknowledgment too much to ask for? This sort of experience has been the norm here for years now.

I stopped in today to pickup a used guitar cab I purchased online, and had shipped to store. I’ll give the employee who helped me credit, because he did greet me as soon as I walked in. I tell him why I’m there, and he starts helping me out. 30 seconds into the transaction the phone rings. So he picks it up and now starts helping this person out. Which I found odd considering I’m standing in front of him in the middle of a transaction already. He has a brief conversation on the phone, then just gets up and walks away from me and the counter without saying a word to me. Just completely stopped my transaction, and disappeared for a good 10 minutes while I stood there awkwardly at the counter. I guess a “Guitar Center, can you please hold one moment?” was too difficult? Anyway, he comes back 10 minutes later and never says a word or apologizes. I’m really in no rush, so no big deal. Weird, but whatever. Not out of the norm here. So then he proceeds to wheel the cabinet out on this giant wheeled cart, pushes it vaguely close to me and mumbles “you’re all set” (maybe?) and briskly walks away.

So I stand there confused for a second trying to figure out if I’m supposed to (or allowed to) wheel this awkward cart the rest of the way through the store, out the double front doors and through the parking lot? As a customer, by myself? I don’t know, is it wrong of me to assume I’d at least be OFFERED help with a guitar cabinet? Anyway, again, whatever. I’m an adult, no big deal. So I determine he’s definitely not coming back and start pushing this cart, making the awkward journey toward the front doors. All while trying to avoid the weird gray area of liability of trying not to run into anything (or anyone) with this cart in the store. I get to the front doors and see an assortment of dollies which I’m assuming are for customer use? I’ve kind of stopped caring at this point. The 2 other employees I just walked past standing behind the counter don’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary, so I continue. I take the cabinet off the wheeled cart and onto a dolly before I leave the store. Home free. Until I get to my car and realize the cab doesn’t fit in my trunk in the box. Considering I’m now 20 minutes into this visit for what should have been a simple pickup, I’m way past bothering asking anyone for help. Realistically knowing I’m not getting any. I ripped the box apart in the parking lot, put the cabinet in the trunk, and and left the box sitting on the sidewalk in front of the store. Normally I’d just take it inside and nicely ask if they can throw it out for me? Considering the previous interaction, and the wait time already. I didn’t bother.

Not my proudest moment, but if the store’s employees can’t be bothered to care, why should I?

I bought my first guitar here in 2006, and it was a great store then. Nobody working at the place now seems to give a single ounce about the store, or it’s...

I've never been to another Guitar Center so I can't use another for reference. What I can say is this place has been on the decline for a while now due to internet sales and such. Today's visit is the reason I will never buy anything here. Ever. I first walked in with the intention to purchase a new 5-string bass. My budget was $1000 dollars. While this might seem like alot to some, it's par for the course as someone who has played for as long as I have. I walked in without being greeted (not something I would base my rating on, I just assume it's corporate policy). I walked over to the bass section. To my dismay it was lackluster at the very best. A collection of low end instruments on the wall were in reach. These were instruments for people just starting out. Awesome. No big deal. Here's where things just get plain weird and really disappointing. The center of the room is littered with a collection of 6 string guitars. My guess is whoever manages the place wanted to create sales floor filler, which is fine, but maybe you should put a demo amp here, as there was not one single amp hooked up. This was my first issue. I had to hunt around the amps and cabs just to find the wires to hook an amp up. Very frustrating. All while two employees chatted it up about some customer that bought something they agreed "was a piece of sh". By the time I got the amp hooked up, I was ready to choose my bass. Only the selection was very scarce. 2-3 five strings at most. Once I found the bass I wanted to try, I had to interrupt the conversation from before to get the bass down to try. The employee came back with a ladder and got the bass. This is where things get unacceptable. The bass was a 400+ dollar 4 string. Something that I would consider mid-low range. a model like this would usually have decent build quality with lower quality hardware and electronics. The frets were so sharp I almost cut my hand. And the back of the bass where the neck meets the headstock, looked like someone had took a knife to the back of it. I immediately had the sales person put it back, I pointed out the flaws in this and he just shrugged and laughed. It's experiences like this that form the opinion I have. The whole point of shopping at a music store is feeling a product that has been setup and taken care of by a luthier. Otherwise, what's the point of buying anything in a store? After the other bass was back on the wall, I tried a $600+ bass that was sitting on the floor. The action was so high my jaw dropped, and on top of that, the intonation was completely out of whack. At this point I gave up on the bass section. I meandered on over to pro audio to check out the keyboards. I don't know what I was thinking. Somehow I figured things would be better over here. Wrong. I've had my eyes on a Roland Juno DS88 for a while now. This sells for $999 plus tax. The one they had there wasn't working. Crackly , distorted, low volume met my ears as I tried to play it. Again I tried another expensive keyboard. A Yamaha DGX-660. I sat down to play it, and it looked like someone who just got done eating KFC decided to have a jam sesh. At this point. I got the hell out of there. At this point I realized, any piece of gear that was more than a few hundred bucks, has probably been used, abused and not taken care of properly. Guitar Center. Get your SH together. This store gets worse with every visit. This was...

I wanted to test drive a Roland V-drum electronic drum kit. I was looking for a step down from their flagship 50's, and their VAD series kits. The TD-27KV2. I Searched everywhere for one to try out. Always disappointed. Walked in to this store, in the drum section, and there sat my holy grail! The sales person walks by as I am looking the kit over. This beautiful technological wonder has obviously seen a few folks either trying to show off, or with no clue how to respect an expensive kit. It obviously had some abuse. I asked the salesperson if I might give it a test drive. He gladly encouraged this, but asked me to use the sticks they had at the kit (very light sticks) for obviously reasons. He started to explain the awesomeness of the kit, and I said I had done extensive research on this very model, and was amazed to find one i could actually try out. He noticed my rolls were light, and I was truly just testing the abilities of the kit. He left me alone at that point. Stick drops, rim shots, cross stick, choking the cymbals. Playing near the lugs, as opposed to the center of the snare. So close to an accoustic kit! Amazing! Then off to stringed instruments, then keyboards, then mics. Every stringed instrument, including the ukulele i took off the wall was tuned enough to play. My Daughter and I spent about 45 minutes just trying everything. The staff was nothing but pleasant, and happy to let us do our thing. If I do decide to purchase that expensive kit in the future, they will get my patronage for sure. Thanks so much to all the staff. None asked if I was interested in buying anything. They just let me enjoy. If I had wanted to buy something, there was staff in every section, and behind the sales counters. I would have had zero wait to purchase something. Highly recommend this Guitar...