Guitar Center — Local services in North Charleston

This is the only review I've ever left on anything... Today I brought a cymbal to guitar center in North Charleston with the intention of trading it in for store credit, and buying a newer, more expensive cymbal. I understand that these guys are notoriously unfair with store credit (this was not my first time doing this with Guitar Center and I've had exponentially better experiences at Sam Ash in Atlanta), but for some reason I was hoping that they'd help me out today, as the sales reps are partially commission based and I made it clear that I was hoping to put my credit towards a more expensive cymbal. By the way, I was not trying to grease the rep into getting more than I deserved for the cymbal. I was just hoping for a FAIR number that I would then turn around and use to help the business make a higher margin sale, and the salesperson make good commision on a much more expensive item. I gave them a cymbal that is one the most popular cymbals sold today (Zildjian K crash). I bought the cymbal for around $300 1 year ago, and it was still in great condition when I brought it in. I've found them all over the web for around $200 used, and was offered $60 STORE CREDIT which after some conversation went up to $72. I should have walked away, sold my cymbal on reverb, and gotten what it was worth, but I was being lazy and was in a rush for a gig so I let them rip me off. The cymbal I ended up buying was a 20" Zildjian sweet crash. The cymbal had hundreds of stick marks, fingerprints around the whole edge from hand muffling and had just clearly been played a lot. I'm actually pretty positive I've seen the cymbal being used on a DW demo kit that's been sitting on the showroom floor for years. The sales rep insisted that the cymbal was new and in mint condition and I needed to pay full price. if something is clearly not in brand new condition, you don't sell it as "brand new". I don't hold this against the rep. In fact I don't think any of this was really his fault, but he didn't know much about percussion... Not to be mean, but he didn't even know what the bell of the cymbal was called, which is pretty rudamentary for a percussionist. I highly recommend not buying anything here, at least from the percussion department of this store. Just be patient and use reverb. I'll post pictures of my "new" cymbal when I get done with this rant. But seriously don't buy anything from guitar center's...

I’m not sure where all of the positive reviews are coming from, or maybe I was just unlucky and came on an off day for this store, but my experience was a real let down.

This is definitely the smallest guitar center that I’ve ever been to and it was a cluttered mess! There were boxes everywhere and the layout was a nightmare. Don’t even get me started on the percussion “room”. I think my kids playroom is neater and more inviting. Maybe they don’t have a back room for storage? I don’t know.

I went in to the store to try out a bass that I had been interested in for awhile now. It was impossible to tell who actually worked at the store since they don’t have any kind of uniform shirt or anything so I helped myself to the wall and pulled down some guitars that I was interested in. I came across a cable and pick that was left on an Aguilar/Ampeg setup which was a score!

Nobody once asked me if they could help me with anything or had any questions. And I needed help and had many questions. Eventually a very nice gentlemen approached me and I thought, WOOHOO! Finally!, but he ended up being someone just trying to sell guitar lessons but offered help if I needed it even though he didn’t work there. Weird.

I eventually settled on an instrument that had damage to the finish, like actual gashes down past the gloss and paint finish to the wood in various areas. Definitely noticeable, but did not affect the sound in any way. I had to take the bass to the checkout line in order to get some assistance. I asked how much they would discount it and then they started playing games with pricing and that they could discount it but I’d have to buy the warranty.

I ended up putting it back and leaving empty handed. I thought I made it pretty easy for them to make a sale and move some damaged product but I guess they’d rather have it hanging on the wall. Oh well. Same guitar brand new on Amazon for $10 less with 2-day delivery and no damage so that’s where I’ll be going.

My advice. Make accommodations to make the sale. You could’ve offered a soft case and strings if you didn’t want to budge on the price or something. Do sales stuff to make the sale!

Anyway, no reason for me to ever return here. Not worth the drive to North Charleston from...

So I got these electric drums set around 20 15 or 2016 and my parents couldn’t handle me playing these drums. I felt sad about it so I decided to go head back to the store to get my full refund. I kept the box and I kept the receipt and I made sure there was no damage on the drums whatsoever! But then unfortunately, the employee there said we are very sorry we cannot give you a full refund of your $850. We can least give you 200. I was so outraged with this guy and explained to him that I worked hard for his drum that’s not just like eight dollars in college it quit. This is a lot of money that I got robbed. So this employee escorted me to see the manager. I explain my situation that this was my heart money. I did everything in the books about keeping the drums and conditioning box and the receipt blah blah blah but unfortunately he says no too bad you sign the papers you only give you $200 take it or leave it. Wow, this instrument business is a joke! It breaks my heart that I worked my ass off so I can learn to play music! And then things aren’t going too good at my parents place and I thought oh they can help me. I can get something out. I’ll need to fulfill my skills But screw these people. They’re not gonna give me back my refund and it’s too late anyways I had to sell my drum sets to another company and I didn’t get a lot of money of it. And here’s something I should’ve realized. They course me to sign papers while getting the drum set so I guess they set a trap on me by taking my soul her our money and saying sorry we can do it ours now ha ha ha! Well, what lowlife Company says! And the people run it! It’s a problem with companies these days they don’t value customers needs or their problems. They just wanna take and not get back. Sounds like communism. Yeah, it’s too bad. I couldn’t take them to court because it’s so hard to get an attorney these days! America is getting so expensive too! FU guitar center! Just know I will never stop at your...