Well, its official. I have absolutely no reason to ever set foot in a Guitar Center again. I’ve been pulling back for years, but now I am done. There is simply no reason to patronize the Walmart of Guitars anymore.
Last year, I already said I would stop sending students / Parents there. I sent a parent to get a $40, 3/4 size Yamaha guitar that we found online for their 6 year old. They had no idea whether the child could do it or would stick with it. Obviously we were not expecting much from a $40 guitar. But it HAD to be better than the toy guitar they started with. But the parent walks in, asks for the guitar and the teenage salesman immediately tried to upsell them to a $149 guitar. Lame. Super lame.
Well, today I tried to exchange a 20′ Monster guitar cable that I bought at GC some years ago. The cable failed and as it is guaranteed for life by Monster, the procedure WAS to simply bring the broken cable in and swap it out for a new one. “No questions asked”. Well, apparently not anymore. According to GC “people were cheating and cutting off ends of cables and returning them for new ones”. Well, uhh, excuse me, that must be YOU GUYS AT GC! Cause when I bring the cable back, I bring the whole cable back. No bs. But apparently it must be like the time I bought the brand, new software package from GC only to get it home and find that the Registration Code had already been used. Hmmmm.
Well, if Guitar Center can no longer provide ANY CUSTOMER SERVICE WHATSOEVER, whats the point in shopping there?
And now they are my direct competition, by offering extremely compelling (sarcasm!), high quality [sic], Guitar Lessons in a Closet! Yay! Yes, you too can get awesome guitar lessons from your local pimplyfaced teenagers inside a well, equipped (NOT), darkened closet! FUN!!
Lame, lame, lamest. Done.
I can buy all my gear from Sweetwater Sound and get actual support as well.
I can get my strings online.
I will buy my guitars from Drum City Guitar Land, Wildwood Music and other local shops. Never from GuitarMart anymore….
