My weird Guitar Center story

[timthetortoise]

Not necessarily guitar related, but close enough.

A buddy of mine has been wanting to get into recording with his own equipment for awhile, so he decided to buy a couple of interfaces. I helped him do some research and he decided on a couple of MOTU 8pres (I hadn't read a single bad thing about them. And hell, it's MOTU. From what I've seen/used, their stuff is rock solid). So, we went to GC and it turned out they'd have to ship them from another store. No big deal. When they arrived at his house, he noticed that the box was very poorly packed. Padding only on the bottom. He also noticed that the packaging on both of the boxes had been opened, and that one of them had actually been used (manual package was opened along with the sticker over the firewire ports taken off). Definitely not a good sign. I told him to bring them back immediately, but he still wanted to give them a try. We tested them out for awhile and couldn't get past an issue of them constantly resyncing, giving dropouts/pops and crackles (he's using a pretty hefty system, dropouts at 44.1khz with 512 samples per buffer shouldn't even be close to happening). So this weekend we brought them back and explained the situation, asking what the alternatives were. Decided to not go with another pair of MOTUs, but thought that the Firestudio would be out of range. Well, the manager of the department comes into the picture. At first I thought he was going to be shitty about it, because that's standard GC attitude ("you did something wrong. Here, try this thing that will not make a difference with your setup and see if it changes anything"), but he actually called another store and had the manager there ship out - confirmed in factory packaging - a Firestudio, and a Digimax FS.

Yep, $300+ difference done as an even trade. I couldn't believe it. He lucked out big time. I felt bad at first for swaying him to the MOTUs, but after this he couldn't have made a better choice. Just sharing my unusual GC story that doesn't end in someone getting A) bad gear or B) a bad deal.

[yoyo]

nice read! very lucky. i've had that happen to me before.... i ordered a guitar, it came in, one of the sales reps SOLD it!! my dad went in, manager got me a nicer guitar, and a pretty nice amp and sold it to me for less than the original guitar was priced.

[bobandshawn]

I thought GC's were great. I once put an AMP on layaway (for about a week), came back to get it on payday for a weekend gig and was told they couldn't sell it because there was still a "police hold" on it. I guess GC's in Florida also operate under a Pawn Broker's license because of used gear. I made a stink because I should have been told before I asked them to hold it!Long story short - I was such a big puffy baby about the whole thing that the manager gave me a FENDER FM212R 100 watt w/foot pedal for $140.00 (price of the other amp).

I've also gone in for stuff like guitar stands and was told that "the generic one is a piece of crap - here, I'll give you the Fender for the same price"! Guitar Centers are WAY more flexible than Sam Ashe...which is the only other choice in my area.

[timthetortoise]

I drive 45 minutes to AVOID Sam Ash. Terrible store. Was decent as Mars Music though.

[starbuck26]

A friend of mine works at GC. All of the dudes who work there are authorized to go 10% above cost when selling something. Some things are marked way up and some things are marked up only a little. As a general rule of thumb you're not going to get a deal on any boss pedals. But why the fuck would you want them anyway?

Just go talk to the dude and say you need to get hooked up. Tell him you have a friend who works in a guitar center. He said that you can get "ten up." Just keep saying "ten up." He'll probably go talk to the "manager" and try to get "10% off." That's bullshit. He's asking the manager the score of the Bruins game. Get ten up or walk. If he's dumb enough to let you walk out and not take the deal, fuck him. Come back another day and get someone who's smart enough to keep shit moving and keep getting paid.

Going into the studio? Need a coupla amps to get different sounds? Buy them all, record for two weeks, and return that shit.

I love that place.

[timthetortoise]

Yeah, I do that at Guitar Centers that I go to a lot, but this was one that's an hour away from me and he already knew a dude there but doesn't really push for deals. Hey, it worked out for the best because he got the MOTUs under regular price in the first place and got some nice TRS cables thrown in as well. Definitely a win/win situation.

[battleminnow]

Originally Posted by starbuck26

A friend of mine works at GC. All of the dudes who work there are authorized to go 10% above cost when selling something. Some things are marked way up and some things are marked up only a little. As a general rule of thumb you're not going to get a deal on any boss pedals. But why the fuck would you want them anyway?

Just go talk to the dude and say you need to get hooked up. Tell him you have a friend who works in a guitar center. He said that you can get "ten up." Just keep saying "ten up." He'll probably go talk to the "manager" and try to get "10% off." That's bullshit. He's asking the manager the score of the Bruins game. Get ten up or walk. If he's dumb enough to let you walk out and not take the deal, fuck him. Come back another day and get someone who's smart enough to keep shit moving and keep getting paid.

Going into the studio? Need a coupla amps to get different sounds? Buy them all, record for two weeks, and return that shit.

I love that place.

In the NW they are rolling out a new "fixed price" program, and now they can only lower costs to match prices, not to make sales. And I know you probably think it is BS, so did I at first, but I have some good friends that work there that can't help me out now like they could before. Sucks for them, because I'll spend my money elsewhere if it makes that much of a difference.

Pete

[ocnor]

This Guitar Center cartoon is great. http://www.heavy.com/video/1047