Guitar Center — Attraction in Winter Park

We purchased a new Fender Mustang American guitar for our son for Christmas. We ordered online and picked up the guitar the second week of January. We got home and opened the box. Our son was excited to play his new guitar, but realized the guitar was not set up properly. The strings rubbed against the neck and the pick ups. We called the Guitar Center. They said to bring it in and they will take care of it. We bring it in….and after waiting for over an hour, we were told to leave the guitar so they could set it up. All the issues with the guitar were pointed out to the employees during this visit: The guitar was not set up, the whammy bar did not fit and it was missing hardware. We were told it would be ready by mid week the following week and I would get a call when it was ready. I didn’t hear anything so I call on Thursday and was told that it hasn’t been worked on yet but it would be ready after 3:00 the following day. So we wait until Saturday morning to drive down there (it’s 30 min away). Even though it was promised to be ready the previous day, I still call on our way there just to be sure. Of course nobody had started working on it yet. They tell us to come in after 3:00 and it will be ready. So finally, we get there in the late afternoon, had to wait forever again to talk to someone, eventually get the guitar… and the whammy bar was still not attached. They had to order one and said they’d call when it comes in…which meant we would have to make yet another drive down there. They called last week to let me know that part has come in. I go there today to pick it up so I can surprise my son and let him know he can finally play his Christmas gift he has been patiently waiting for. Only to get home and see his disappointment because it DOES NOT fit! So now, I have to back to the store AGAIN! …AND my son still cannot play the damn guitar! We didn’t expect to run into all these issues after spending $1200 on a brand new guitar. It’s ridiculous. While I was there today, I decided to purchase a guitar for my husband. He was surprised and appreciative of the gift, however the disappointment on my son’s face along with the annoyance and frustration of this entire process has overshadowed any excitement and he is ready to be done with that place and return both guitars! No word from store management on how to fix...

Original review was three stars, and posted below. I have updated this after talking to Guitar Center, as they asked me to reach out.

New review: One star. Will never shop here again, unfortunately. I bought a Novation Launchpad Pro for $300 new. It was used. While corporate was responsive and nice to work with, I received an email from the store themselves. It was a copy and pasted template. No explanation or anything for selling new equipment as used. Just an email that was sent after the store never followed up. I made it clear I wasn’t looking for money back or anything of that nature, and the email from the store didn’t address the fact it was used equipment sold as new equipment. It didn’t address anything actually. It now feels like every purchase may be a gamble, and it isn’t great leaving this review, but the fact something was sold as new, was used and missing a cable, scuffed, had the previous owners log in information written on it, and no one will address it is about the worse way you can run a business.

Original review: This review is split, unfortunately. For customer service, the attention and knowledge of employees, and their willingness to answer any question? Five stars. Absolutely. There's a reason I drive twice the distance to Guitar Center than to any competitor that's a lot closer. However, I recently bought a MIDI pad there, which was sold as new and even had a security tag on it. However, upon opening the MIDI pad, it was obvious that it has been used before. There were some markings on the actual pad itself, which thankfully rubbed off. One of the cords was missing, and the rest of the cords were out of their bags. The instructions had someones log in information written on it in pen, where it looks like they registered the product. The fact I paid full price and it was sold as new when it was obviously used if you looked inside makes me want to put this in as a one star. I can't though, because honestly, the customer service there is incredible compared to other music stores and every employee that I have interacted with...

This was the worst customer service experience ever. I purchased some studio monitors online and arranged to pick them up in-store. After arriving at the store I was acknowledged by an associate that apologized for the wait and said that he would be right with me. After finishing up with his current customer, he moves on to another like I wasn't there waiting for him.Then when he gets to the register with his new set of customer’s, he offers me an apology in the form of: "Sorry dude.” After 2 hours of waiting I was approached by another employee there. I explained to him I was only there to pick up my online purchase. There was an issue finding my order and the manager was called. The manager said the system says there are 5 in stock, but he couldn’t find any besides the ones on display. He stated that he should get a shipment in a few days and my monitors will more then likely be on that truck. This was not the case. I ended calling the store and asking to be kept up to date on the status of my order. None of the managers ever called or emailed like they said they would either. After a week and a half, the money was refunded into my account without me canceling the order. I figured “Guitar Center” could not handle the order and cancelled without my consent. After the refund I decided to take my business elsewhere. A few days later almost $400 was deducted from my account to “Guitar Center” which put me in the negative, which came with bank fees. I then called to cancel the order personally and to have my money refunded again. Long story short, after a lot of back and forth with the store and customer service, it took an entire month for me to receive my refund. I would not recommend this store to anyone looking for a good purchasing experience. I am going to have to purchase from “Sam Ash” from now on. I refuse to to purchase from “Guitar Center” again to avoid another negative experience and I will advise my friends and family to...