Guitar Center

Today I purchased what will be my fourth guitar from Guitar Center and truthfully, will probably be the last one I ever purchase there. I was thinking «maybe they have some great deals for Presidents’ Day.» So I thought about doing a trade for an older guitar to help soften the blow of what was surely going to be an expensive upgrade.
Once I waited a considerable amount of time to actually finally get to speak to someone, the trade in was actually quite painless. I knew I’d be getting way less than selling it off craigslist but it was just convenient to do it all at once and I was still getting over $ 500 plus they give you a 10% discount on a new guitar so that helps.
I went to go pick out a new guitar, found one, and purchased it (still paying out of pocket almost $ 1000) and was ready to go, or so I thought. Then the proverbial $hit the fan. They went to get my case, open it up. Surprise surprise there’s a guitar sitting in there.
We then travel down a shame spiral of horrific register wonkyness to try to figure out what guitar I actually have. Luckily for me, turns out the one I picked out was $ 60ish bucks cheaper so technically they overcharged me and I should get a refund right?
They can’t figure out which one it is or which one I actually just bought cause it’s obviously mislabeled. (I had to buy a floor display cause they didn’t have a new one ‘in-​stock’, and they didn’t offer any discount on that either which seems dumb.)
About an hour later, or 4 receipts later, a manager being called over who didn’t stay and ran off, which still didn’t fix it, even after some attempts coming out to saying I owed more money (?) yeah, I don’t think so… cause math… my kids are laying on the floor after their dad even took them for ice cream and shopping and presents and we’re still waiting.
**side note, the girl who was helping us ‘Victoria’ was trying very hard and apologizing of course which is a crappy position to be in, we aren’t really mad at her.
However, what the f&@k kind of inventory system do you have that you don’t even know what guitars you have for sale or how much they are, which ones are in the box and what’s on display? If that guitar had been more expensive so help me hand on bible I would have had a conniption and made them sell it to me at that price since it was mislabeled, misrepresented and not my fault. Also, had I not asked for them to take the case out of the box, I would have left with another $ 1500 guitar and they would have NEVER known!
After all that, I got a ‘sorry’ from our sales girl and we pick up our guitar cases to leave. I grab my guitar case and whoops, they stuck the other $ 1500 guitar in there by accident! I mean seriously?! I was not offered any discounts or products as an apology for seriously wasting my time.
I can’t say that I could ever recommend this location after this experience.

I never wanted to be that « Unilocal“er, and only ever focus on leaving positive reviews… though after going to this location a total of 4 times now and literally receiving the worst customer service (if any), I felt I needed to make it known.
Other than that, beautiful location and convenient to get to as well. However, after the consistent lack of customer service, I unfortunately don’t even think it’s worth going anymore.

I grew up in a town with small music stores without much selection but guitar center has everything. The only thing that drives me crazy is how much they hassle you like car salesmen but other than that there very knowledgeable and can answer most of your questions without hesitation. I just bought a motif xs 7 and a martin acoustic and I can easily see myself spending most of my money here (:

I visited the new Redmond store on 12÷30÷15, a Wednesday afternoon during the holiday season. There didn’t seem to be many customers. They no longer have the guy at the entrance to direct you where you want to go, so I proceeded to the counter in the center of the store right in front of me as I walked in. An employee was talking to a customer, maybe wrapping up a purchase or otherwise chatting about music and stuff. I stood there for a coupla minutes, the employee never even glanced at me or made any attempt to even tell me he’d be with me in a minute. To my left was another checkout desk, there were 5 – 6 young employees goofing around there, essentially doing nothing, flirting with the female employee, horsing around, nobody paying attention to me. I didn’t want to enter the cluster of goofing-​around young people, I turned around and saw a lone female employee sitting at the Rentals desk, so I figured I’d go ask her to get me some help. As I did, someone who appeared more professional, maybe a manager, approached me and asked if I needed some help. I told him I wanted to buy an amp or speaker, didn’t know what I wanted so needed some help figuring it out. He took me to the gaggle of young goofing-​around employees, found me Chris and off Chris and I went to check out equipment.
Chris was great, explaining everything and helping me figure out what to get to amplify my congas for rehearsals with amplified guitars and bass. He explained how to use equalizers in case I wanted to get one some day, and we settled on a used 12″ powered speaker for now. If it weren’t for Chris, I’d give them one star.
I can’t test equipment on line or figure out what I need, I need to get help from humans in a physical store, I am going to spend some money on some equipment, I’d think they’d be waiting at the door asking me what I need instead of standing around doing nothing. I don’t know what kind of pay structure they have there that would cause sales people to stand around and do nothing, but it’s not working. I am now reading all sorts of poor reviews for GC, employees either ignoring folks or pressuring them to buy stuff they don’t want or need. Too bad.

I had a great experience at this store. I had bought a used acoustic guitar from them online, and needed one of the bridge pin holes enlarged. So, I trekked to Redmond store to have the guitar serviced. They had me in and out in 5 minutes – and replaced a string for me – all free of charge! Thank you, I will definitely be back!

I visited the Redmond store to test some guitars that were similar to the one I was considering from Guitar Center online. Guitar Center online and in store are close enough related that you can return an item bought online in the store. Thus, I figured it shouldn’t be a problem to try guitars in store to purchase similar items online. It was a slow day, and thus impossible to avoid the commission salesperson. After pretty much injecting himself into my experience and then suggesting I buy something I didn’t want, he made it seem like I’d scammed him because I didn’t buy a guitar that was more than I actually wanted. I hear that people have trouble getting help at Guitar Center? If that had been my problem, I’d be happy. Instead, I left feeling like I had shopped for a used car. Never again.
I then went to Guitar Center online and ordered the guitar I wanted. At the time I ordered, the system showed my guitar as in stock. As it turns out, their inventory system is awful. The next day after I placed the order I saw online that my guitar was out of stock. Maybe I got the last one? Two days passed and my guitar hadn’t finished processing to be shipped. I called customer service, suspecting the worst. Yep, my order was back-​ordered — until January. Nobody wrote to notify me that my item was back-​ordered. I went online and read the horror stories about how back orders are handled at Guitar Center, so I canceled my order.
Guitar Center is apparently hurting financially. I think a step in the right direction would be to actually become reputable. I bought my first guitar there. I planned on buying what I expect will be my last (but much more expensive solid wood) guitar there. I guess I’ll be getting it somewhere else.

Great store and good selection. Been there a few times now to buy bits an pieces for my guitars and staff has always been around to help when needed. Sure, you get things cheaper on the internet but I prefer brick and mortar for instruments any day.

Went to this store for the first time last week. In a couple of words — not impressed.
The most noticeable item was lack of customer service, no one rep acknowledged me when I walked into the store and began browsing — and no, not all reps were with customers. After spending 15 minutes with no interaction I left.
This is not a good practice when a customer walks through the door how could potentially be ready to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars. Management take note.
The stock in the store — looking at bass guitars and guitars. Ho hum, yawn… nothing special. I really expected more diversity for the «largest music retail chain in the world.»
I will probably visit the store one more time, a second chance if you will. However, I will be checking out some of the smaller independently owned music stores.

The platinum guitar room is kind of lacking. There is only about 3 ½ stacks in the whole store. Plenty of of low dollar guitars. Doesn’t really compare to any of the stores in Texas.

Let me just say I’ve been going to guitar centers since my childhood. Bought my first strat and 87 Marshall jubilee in Sherman oaks California. Seen many employees in my lifetime. But George at this particular store stood out above the rest. Very knowledgable, KIND, funny and very helpful. He was in Charge of all the expensive guitar in the «Special Room». I’ll be back to buy from George! Thank you!