Hugo Helmer Music, Inc. — Local services in Burlington

If you are in the shop to buy new gear, price and service is tolerable. If you are looking to trade gear and get a fair price look elsewhere. Nothing more than sleazy used car salesmen looking to take advantage of the next unsuspecting person who doesn’t know what gear sells for. Please save yourself time and heartache and go anywhere but here.

Edit: after seeing the response from the owner, there needs to be a little clarification. First of all, Hugo Helmer sold these Taylor guitars in 2016 for a price right around $3,200. After tax, you are walking out the door for just under $3,500. There was a sales associate helping me look at new gear. When I told him the deal I was looking to make (a Vox amp and a PRS Vela) the store associate said let me work on this and left me in the guitar room for 15 minutes. After getting tired of waiting I walked up to the front counter and asked what the situation was. The sales associate (who I found out is the owners son) said that he talked to the boss and $1,600 was the best they could do. Apparently asking the sales associate to personally talk to the boss is considered “verbally lashing out”...it only seems reasonable that if the boss is making the call on the trade in value that maybe I should be able to talk to him!? Why would I want to spend my time trying to strike a deal with a sales associate if they don’t have the power to make a decision? Anyway, after being told 2 or 3 times that talking to the boss on the phone is not an option, I grabbed my instrument and walked out the front door. All that to say, if you give your customer a reason to look somewhere else, they probably will. I recently purchased a Martin guitar from Hugo, a handful of tuners, strings, some humidification packs, picks, etc. Now that I know how much Hugo Helmer values my patronage, I will be ordering from Sweetwater. I won’t have to pay for shipping, I won’t have to pay a small premium on items because they are a small town shop, and finally I won’t have to deal with a dismissive sales staff, locked instrument rooms, and a company that offered a trade in value that is half of what the instrument cost. Oh, and obviously Hugo is making money on that Vox amp and the PRS Vela at their amazing discounted prices, because they wouldn’t sell things for less than they have in them...there were countless ways that this deal could have been made. Playing the game and trying to make a deal work for me (I believe they wanted me to pay an extra $300 on top) was the difference between making me a loyal customer. Instead, they have lost a customer for life, and it seems that they are a bit shocked that someone would call them on the carpet. It seems that they are treating their customers just like Guitar Center would. I guess I just expected better out of a “hometown guy” who runs a...

Great store with a nice layout and a pretty decent selection. Let's put it this way; if you're looking for the usual suspects, you're going to find it here in all the different price points. Their selection of amps could be a lot better, and they don't have anything that jumps off the page when it comes to their guitar selection. My real gripe with Hugo Helmer is that they have a legitimately great local store, but they absolutely ruin the vibe by disempowering customers with what I like to call, "the associate hurdle." They require you to ask an associate before you play a surprisingly large selection of guitars. I get it when it's a $2,000+ or priceless guitar, but Squier Strats?? When I was an 11 year trying to get into playing bass, I wouldn't have gotten almost anywhere if it weren't for the incredibly supportive local guitar store I grew up next to that let me play and tinker around with literally anything in their store. That store is still there to this day in a pass-through town, so this associate hurdle, to me, is in no way an effort to prevent breakage or loss in value... but a way to get an associate to get in the middle of a customer and their creative expression to try and sell you something.

This seriously harms any teenager who wants to go in and play their dream guitar for a little bit and think about their future. Could they ask to play it? Yeah, and I'm sure Hugo Helmer would be glad to let them play it. But will they ask? Unlikely. Chances are, that kid will see that sign, feel uncomfortable about asking, turn around and find something that they can play without permission, and leave uninspired. Hugo Helmer, again, is genuinely a great local store, and you should support them. But they use an incredibly frustrating and restrictive practice that I find only in the most aggressive and pretentious music stores, and I think they can do better. But perhaps, I'm the pretentious one. I just want any musician that feels inspired to play, to be able to play with the least amount of things getting in the...

Over priced. Not great customer service. Bought a pedal and went to go trade it in for a different one they wouldn’t let me because I used a sticker. Giving me 30% cash only had the pedal for 72 hours. If it’s older than 7 years they might have it. Head guy gives no crap. It’s like a little better than best buy. No need to go here unless you are local and have to get something you need, chances are you come in there and it’s dead, you walk in the store 2-3 people look at you like you disturbed them, you probably did because no one comes in. They are little to no help when asked simple questions. Every time I go there and explain my audio situation they give me the wrong cables and they insist that I just keep whatever I just purchased the because “I’ll need it later” this has happened 3 separate times. For my DDJ-SR, RC 505 mk 2 akai. And my guitar. I didn’t need over half the things they insist I kept after it didn’t work. I used to go here all the time during lunch and days off, I have been hundreds of times. It never changed. It’s the only music shop that has a physical repair guy like here for locals, they do good repairs. But just buy online from elsewhere, it will be easier to return, less complications and more affordable. I tried to support the local music shop but they never cared. No one there truly loves music except maybe one guy in like his 20’s/30’s black hair with a lil scruff. He was helpful, chill and was the only one knowledgeable about anything or maybe he just listened. I’m sure the rest employees and the owner are great musicians but sometimes I just the want the thing I need, not to waste 2 weeks getting equipment that I MIGHT need. The pricing is terrible. There’s never anything new. It’s dead. They hate picking up the phone. They honestly give me hope to open my...