30th Street Guitars — Local services in New York

This shop has been in business for almost 30 years, and if what I’ve observed in my visit was consistent for how they do business, it makes sense why they remained in a hole in the wall location for these decades. I have doubts that they’ll be around much longer, and I’d say good riddance.

Their main competition (Sam Ash on 34th) just closed down after around fifteen years of operations at a prime location, NYC is not kind to this type of business, so you would think that there would be more efforts with the wind of chapter 13 is in the air.

My visit, I’ve observed low foot traffic, a premium (pricy/higher quality) guitars on the shelf, and an absolutely abhorrent staff and owner. I’ve put more effort into selling their products than the staff had, just by conversing with fellow customers. Staff just lounge around and gossip all day, are not helpful about details regarding their products, and the owner with his inflated ego behaves like he checked out about a decade ago. His only input was harassing me about irrelevant things that he couldn’t even articulate, and when I asked about this further his only response was “well, it’s my shop”. If he keeps this up his behavior, my response is “not for much longer”. Even his staff was not aligned with what he was harassing me over, there were no signs on the walls for prohibiting this activity, so I wouldn’t be aware. Feels like I was being singled out. Bad feeling for a customer to have in a retail setting.

For a place that features the spirit of classic rock with the images they put up, the actual vibes due to the workers and owner is like a low end greedy shop that’s on the verge of chapter 13. With relatively more premium products, you would think that they’d have a higher understanding of their sales cycle. Nope, it’s like they want a walk-in to drop 5K on a guitar after holding it for 10 minutes. With a small location, premium product, and a relatively lower traffic area, you would think that they would be better salesmen.

While I was impressed with their selection of guitars, and was beginning to be interested in a purchase, I left with a bad taste, and for this reason alone I will choose to not give them my money, especially when I could get the same products in a myriad of different paths. Do better,...

Really horrible customer service. Condescending staff. Provide innacurate information as to what they have in stock. Worst part was customer service. Ask sales rep to explain odd looking pickup that has 3 strings railed (lower 3) and upper 3 ln poles on a reverend.

Sales rep tells me "thats called a bridge and its designed to hold the guitar strings in place" really? 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Are your customers so dumb that they dont know the difference between a bridge and a pickup? 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Told me they had the bigsby pedal in stock, went back the next day to buy it and nope. Turns out sales rep didnt know it wasnt in stock. Happens. But i did expect him to say "ooops sorry". I ask him "is that all you gonna say?" "Dont i deserve a simple "sorry" i was mistaken". He wouldnt do it.

Asked to speak to owner and he didnt believe that i deserved a simple apology for making my way back to the store 2 days back to back because i was given faulty info the first day.

FINALLY... im DISABLED and use a cane. Same sales rep on day 1 shoved me to the side to get by me without a simple "excuse me need to get by". He just shoved me!

Had to use stack of amps to balance myself. Speechless.

In sum, arrogant, disrespectful service. And to bad. As a tourist i had heard so many good things about the store. Guess i got the sales rep AND owner on a bad day? 2 days in a row? Unlikely, but certainly possible.

First time in my life i write a review about a any kind of store etc... im the kinda person that just puts a 5 on uber eval because i just cant be bothered to explain a lower score? If i took the time to write this it means something.

I was really upset after i left the store. My wife was there both times andsaw everything. Aftee day 1 she asked me why i wanted to go back after all that happened on day 1. I told her i dont care, just want the pedal (which, like i said tirns out they didnt have it in stock after i was told they did on day 1). Wife was right. Shouldnt have gone back.

I have been reading some of the other low reviews and they all mention customer service as a serious problem. Specifically "the guy with the beard". Thats him! Thats the one that was...

About 8 years ago I purchased a 1979 Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitar from a guitar store in PA. It was pretty beat up showing that it was played a great deal but the sound was amazing. There were some issues with the bridge and saddle that I put up with. Unfortunately the guitar developed some serious buzzing which really kept me from playing it the past two years. I was reluctant to bring it in to get fixed because I was afraid of the costs. I didn’t pay that much for the guitar and was not sure I wanted to put a large sum of money into it. I had never had any guitar work done in the past and I really didn’t know where to turn. After doing my research I decided to bring my guitar to 30th Street Guitars. I met Matt who patiently listened to me explain what I felt the issues were as well as my concerns. Matt enthusiastically explained what he would do and even did a little research in front of me on a part that would solve my bridge issue while keeping the repair price down. Matt also gave me an estimate and I was very happy that it was a price within my budget. I picked up the guitar yesterday. Matt brought it out and explained all the work he did. He had an incredible sense of pride. He had good reason to feel that way. He went out of the way to fix and repair several issues that he discovered that we didn’t even discuss. The guitar now plays and sounds incredible. Matt’s work was beyond my expectation and he was right on with his estimate. Once I got home I had trouble putting the guitar down. I’m very happy and relieved to know that if I ever have any issue with any of my guitars I now have the right right person...