Guitar Center — Attraction in Whitehall

The people who work here are very nice, however they are terribly understaffed and customer service is poor at best. Do not get your guitar set up here. The tech is not very good at what he does. I bought a $2,250 Ultra II Stratocaster yesterday, I was the first person in the store at opening and despite telling them that I was there to buy, I had to wait about an hour and a half until I got service. I was very close to walking out. This is after coming twice in the last week and not being able to get help. One person was trying to serve everyone and he took like 10 sales and trades before attempting to help me. Several other people left because they couldn't get service and a line was forming . They did not offer a discount and all the gentlemen did was set me up. He did not give me any one on one time to ask questions about the guitar or help me in any way other than plugging me in. It's a 20-minute drive for me. I've been coming to this store for 15 years and it has gotten bad in the last 3 or so years... It's a shame, they are popular and could make much more money with 2-3 more employees in store. (I changed this to three stars from two because it seems that the owner has responded to me. I'm not actually going to reach out to their store because I don't want to torture those poor people that work there. But I do appreciate the owner reaching out. That shows integrity.

Edit: I added it into the main text, but do not get your guitar set up here or have work done on it here. When they did the setup on my Strat I said that I could intonate it myself if need be, but they assured me not to worry. When I picked it up I was very suspicious about how low the saddles were set. Almost all of them were near the bottom of their height range. (I have perfect pitch and playing on a poorly intonated guitar drives me up a wall, so I am meticulous in my intonation process.) Of course I had to redo almost the entire setup other than the bridge's float. The tech intonated it (poorly might I add) without stretching the strings at all, so within a day. All of the strings were totally out of tune when played on the fretboard. This could be serious if you decide to purchase a guitar and don't know how to intonate...

Worst customer service ever! I've worked for GC in the past, i've shopped at well over 20 different locations, never seen such inept mgmt. I called the store on 9/10 and was told both guitar models i was interested in were in stock. Came in the next day only to be told that they "both" must've sold out (In 24 hours). I had them order one of them for me and was told it would take 3-5 days. Two weeks later i find out it's on back-order (No notification or anything). I was told it would come on 9/23. I called on 9/23 and spoke with the mgr (Robbie) who said he'd speak with his warehouse guys & get back to me by the following morning, nope! I called late the next day and spoke with him again. He literally could not answer a single question without saying, "I don't know, or Maybe." So they had my money, but couldn't even offer me a guess as to when i would rec' my guitar other than "Maybe in a month or two." I called Customer Svs and explained the situation, they got right on it & shipped the guitar to the store overnight (Awesome, right?). I go to pick up the guitar from the store and was treated like, "Here, take it and get out!" I asked if they could look it over for me & "Set it up." The tech was busy, so another employee pretty much just tuned it (Like 2 steps down btw). Then he stuffed it in my case and walked away without a word...no help at all. I couldn't figure out why he was acting so strangely when he locked my case before i even had the chance to touch my new guitar. Sure enough, as soon as i got home and inspected it, the scarf joint on the neck is coming undone. The store told me it would take another 1-2 months. I called Ibanez directly and they are setting one aside for me to come pick up at the factory (Close by). As a former professional musician and current studio owner who has spent tens of thousands of dollars at GC throughout the years, this store has lost my business to Sweetwater or literally anywhere...

I mean, I bought a used guitar from this store through the guitar center website. The listing stated that the guitar came with a gig bag. However, they did not ship it in a gig bag. Instead, they wrapped it in thick bubble wrap and boxed it up and send it to me that way instead. Unfortunately, the plastic had a reaction with the guitars finished and left these permanent splotches all over the guitar, pretty much every square inch of the body front and back. I emailed the store and sent them pictures and it has them to give me a partial refund so that I could use the money to try and have the guitar buffed out. Even if that meant doing all the work myself so that I could actually afford it with the refund. I only asked for $100 refund on a $600 guitar since having the guitar refinished would probably cause way more than $600 and wouldn't even be practical. I've never refinished a guitar before but I looked online and learned what I could and figured I would at least give it a try. I didn't want to get just stuck with returning the guitar and not ever being able to get it again, it is a rare instrument. Long story short, they never responded to my message even though it's been over a month. I figured I could call the store but I already sent them an email with pictures directly to the manager's email, I don't do well with confrontations and I especially don't do well with having people be rude to me over the phone so I just tried to do it through the email since they were going to need to see pictures anyway. I ended up having to buff it out myself and I actually wasn't able to get all the spots out but I guess it is an improvement of sorts. I mightve beeen able to do a better job if I couldve afforded the supplies. I just used whatever I had around the house, it came out okay I guess....whi am I kidding, it still looks horrible. If Only They had just sent the gig bag that was included with...