Guitar Center Idiots vent

[Heady Jam Fan]

I bought a Microverb from Guitar Center two Sundays ago - I had to call in to buy it and the store manager took the call...

It was GC in Syracuse NY, so two business days shipping away.

Saturday this past weekend rolls by and no Microverb, so I call in...

1st rep - says he can't find the order with the order number they had given me, but will have the operations department contact me immediately.

Time lapse 15 minutes - I called back...

2nd rep - says he cant find the order with the order number they gave me, and there is no such thing as an operations department.

3rd rep - I got back in touch with the manager, he found my order quickly with the order number he had given me and says the operations department will contact me with a tracking number Monday (today).

Time lapse to today...

No call from operations, so I call in and get in touch with operations after having to talk to two other reps. Apparently the shipment had been returned to them - they wrote down my address wrong or something. They never thought to call me back or email me and let me know or double check my address - they just let the package sit there waiting for a few days for me to realize something was wrong.

Love their used prices, hate buying from them. I thought about pressuring them to overnight it, just for the principle of it.

[webephishin]

You shoulda....poor customer service always blows.  Sounds like u really got dicked around hard.  I agree that I don't like to buy from GC, they are the walmart of guitar stores...it just feels wrong, but ur right about the prices.  I usually goto a music go round thats bout 20 minutes away.  The customer service there is awesome- they always have an answer for my questions and they are down to earth guys that don't try to sugar coat anything.  Most of the GC staff that I've dealt with (in the guitar department) are, what I feel, under qualified.  Don't take this the wrong way- I don't think EVERY GC employee is underqualified, just some of the ones I've dealt with.

[MomaDan]

Only time I bought something from a big chain shipped it went fine. Now if only one of these shops carried any type of Mangan strings. Amazon sent me the wrong strings too! Can't win em all

[Stecks]

Well, that's corporate America for you.  I think it largely depends upon which GC you go to - they probably don't pay much to their employees - most of them are pretty young and not trained very well.  I go to one of the GC's here in Cleveland - have built a rapport with a few of the guys there whom I completely trust.  But that's rare. 

I went to that GC on Sunday night to pick up some strings and patch cables.  Saw the guy who sold me my axe 10 years ago - still remembered selling it to me, asked how it was, blah blah, we BS'd for about a half hour.  Great dude, super knowledgeable.  I was walking around the store - a bunch of pretty damn nice PRS's, a bunch of mid-range (aka overpriced) Fenders, and A TON of low end beginner/student model guitars.  Lousy bass selection.  Amps were pretty standard, a bunch of Fenders, VOX, Line 6 and the like, nothing really amazing.  Their used selection, aside from a slick JEM and older Schecters (when Schecter was actually a GREAT guitar... they REALLY fell off.  Got mine in 2002 - wouldn't buy any of their schlock now), blew.  Their used amps were rip-offs.  They had a SFDR and SF Princeton Reverb - both BEAT to shit with el-cheapo tubes.  For the Princeton, they were asking $1100 if I remember correctly - are you KIDDING me?  Anyone who buys that thing is gonna have to spend at least another couple bills to have it serviced.  They had a used Mesa F50 - get THIS - for $1350.  Are they on CRACK?  Two guys, probably late 40's early 50's were playing on them, and I started talking to them about old Fenders (kind of a hobby of mine).  Told em to go on eBay if they're looking for vintage Fenders - I wouldn't pay half of what GC was asking for the two SF's I saw on Sunday - not in such horrible condition.  My 71 SFTR is basically mint - was offered $1800 for it about a year ago - turned it down but MAN was I tempted...   

Ok, enough knocking them - as I said, I know a few guys there who are AWESOME.  I can give you his # if you want to deal directly through my dude.  He knows his stuff.

[fulltone1989]

I've been working at at a local independent music store doing their online schtick and since then I've never hit the GC again. Only bummer was having to buy different strings (Work doesn't stock DR's.)

[Heady Jam Fan]

Thanks all for reading my rant - lol.

It was really about frustration or that it was a really difficult or stressful thing to figure out - but rather:
1) How I got completely difference info from each person I talked to - is there an operations department? Is my order in your system?
2) How they didn't even seem to think of contacting me when my order got returned to them.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Finally got it today... doesn't work.

Now this is getting frustrating, gotta talk to three people each time just to figure out one detail. Then half the time they need to ask someone else and call back - good luck getting a call back.

Fuck Guitar Center.

I plugged it in and it worked for a second, then crackled and the reverb stopped - the dry signal passed through. Unplugged the power and it worked again for a couple notes. Now - only dry signal. The unit comes with a defeat switch jack that send the effected signal to ground, so I opened it up to see if it was shorting (sending to ground - which might make sense since I heard a crackle), can't see anything wrong. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if it didn't get shipped 3 times instead of one (to the wrong address, back to GC, then finally to me).

[Happyorange27]

Fuck Guitar Center. 

[Heady Jam Fan]

Yea, a lot more hassle since then trying to figure out how to get it back to them and to replace it.

Basically they said I could pay to ship it back, go to a local Guitar Center (an hour away), or schedule UPS to pick it up and wait for them - not ideal with two jobs and grad school. I let them know there is another one for sale at another GC store and they have it reserved for me, but it has to ship to their store, then they have to ship it to me and they can't do any of this until they have the broken one back.

Every time I call, I have to talk to three idiots before someone at all helpful, then they say they'll call back within 30 minutes and never do.

I'm usually not the type to complain, but this is shitty. I wrote to Guitar Center's main email about this, told them about how much I spent at GC over the past 6 months and that I have referred a lot of business - both friends and on public forums, and I really hope they make this right because I don't feel comfortable buying from them again let alone sending them business.

If anyone has experience with a Microverb and has any ideas for fixing it, any help is much appreciated - would much rather get this one working than dealing with GC anymore and waiting for a replacement.

[sour d]

I would make sure you have the correct AC adaptor. Give the knobs a bunch of full turns.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Thanks - the power supply they sent is 9.5vac 750ma. Seems it should be plenty of MA, but looking at the Microverb manual, it should be 9vac... not sure if this made the difference, if so, hopefully that extra 0.5vac didn't fry the unit. It powers up just fine, just no effect - only dry signal.

[sour d]

I just looked at one of my alesis power supplies and it is 9v AC 830ma.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Do you think the power supply could be the issue? 0.5vac is not a big difference...

Would it be worth living up a 9vac supply, or just send this pos back?

[Happyorange27]

Power supply is prob fine dude. In tolerance.

[Stecks]

Return the damn thing