Gravity Music Gear — Local services in Berkley

Yesterday evening I called about a guitar I saw online. I made an offer of less than the asking price to the salesman, Tim, I was speaking with. He said I had to negotiate with his manager Chris. So Chris gets on the phone and I make him the same offer. He counter offers and we come to an agreement on price. This is at abou 6:00pm NY time. He says he is putting Tim on the phone to finish up the deal. Since I do not want to use a credit card I offer to wire the funds. Tim says no...only credit card or Paypay and he says he will send me a Paypal request for payment. I say Paypal would be fine but does he mind if I respond to the paypal request in the morning so that I can transfer some funds. He says fine. So when I wake up this morning I see there is still no PayPal request for payment. I call Tim and he says someone walked into the store shortly after I hung up played the the guitar I had just contracted to buy and offered a higher price. His manager Chris said to sell it to him for the higher price. Not only did we have an agreement, but they did not even have the decency to call and inform me that they sold it or offer me an opportunity to match the price. I told Tim that this was no way to run a business and he agreed. I hung up without any further discussion. Five minutes later, his manager Chris, the same person I negotiated the deal with, called me in quite an irate frame of mind demanding to know why I called the store "sneaky" and "slimey". First of all, I have no idea where he got that because I never said that. I just said that it is no way to do business. Chris then proceeded to belittle and berate me saying since I had not yet paid he could do whatever he wanted. When I said that Tim had agreed that paing first thing in the morning was ok he responded with, "that was a miscommuniction". He became increasingly abusive and when I felt I had enough of his sophmoric ravings, I simply hung up. In disbelief, I might add! Clearly it was not a misunderstanding and it was his greed to sell the guitar for a higher price that caused him to not honor his word. I would never do business with them and I suggest you think very carefully before you do...you might have a...

I first visited this store 3-4 weeks ago looking to sell my Saxophone. The gentleman I dealt with was very kind and understanding, and he made me an offer. I was just starting to try and sell this instrument, and I thought I might be able to get more for it elsewhere. So, he encouraged me to do so, and said that the offer he made was standing. Great, off I went.

Fast forward to today, and I returned, ready to take the amount that I was offered. The gentleman I dealt with previously wasn’t there, and I explained to the other employee the discussion that was had weeks prior. He told me “oh yeah, we keep a log of the offers we make” but then added “but things can change.” After he did his research, he came back to me and made me a new offer, 40% less than what I was offered only weeks before. I told him I don’t think they (as a business) should say that their offers are “standing” just to change their minds weeks later.

Even more frustrating, after scrolling through other reviews of this shop, I see the owner once said “As for customers selling their gear, we always like to offer as fair as we can but ultimately it needs to work for everyone. That is why we hold our offers so customers can shop around their items and make sure they get the best possible price. No pressure at all.”

In my experience, this is a total lie. My advice to anyone looking to sell their gear here is this: If they offer you a price that day, don’t expect it to remain. I have some other instruments that I’m likely going to try and move down the road, but I won’t be trying to do so at this location since they can’t even stand...

I've been here once & that was enough, wasn't dumb enough to actually do any transaction with them after seeing their crappy "customer service" from the second I walked in. I'm not a pro musician (Dad is), just a hobbyist & guitar collector & always on the lookout for stuff for my pops in TX so swung in here just to see what they had. Saw some nice guitars behind the counter & asked about one in particular. The guy wasn't necessarily rude but def not very welcoming. He pulled it down & brought it over to me on the counter to talk about a few of the mods I noticed but every time I got closer to it he yanked it back like a 5yr old with an ice cream cone that didn't want to share. I was pretty taken aback the 1st time & he definitely noticed. Was actually going to ask to hold & strum it a bit just to get a feel (I didn't even want to plug it in) but it got so awkward I just said "Cool" & left.

Now I'm scrolling thru the pics here on Google & notice that anyone holding any guitar (or otherwise touching a piece of equipment) is either an employee or it's an official photo taken by an employee using the Gravity profile. I don't see a single photo of a customer touching a guitar that wasn't staged by Gravity to specifically post here. What's up with that??

BONUS: Parking here is atrocious. Good luck if there are more than 4 people...