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Originally Posted by Tibbon  I'll agree that VK is probably innocent here, but I'm taking it just as a sign that there' probably better places to buy gear. I don't think for a moment that VK didn't know that something funny was likely going on. The guy that sold them that (and a load of other equipment) knew what he was doing.
I talked to the manager. And he basically said that he didn't want to get into the mess of what his guy was doing. The Pro Audio managers knew this was a dirty deal and told me so. I used to work at this same Guitar Center. I know how stuff would go down, and how people didn't like to be caught in the middle. The store manager position was in transition at the time so there wasn't anyone that I could really go to above that.
I wrote to the VP of sales, and to some other VP over the GCPro Division. They said that they were going to seriously look into it, however over a year later the guy's photo is still on the Guitar Center GCPro.com website.
I saw on the computer where they had been sold to Vintage King. Unless there's more than one Vintage King in CA, then that's what I saw. Like I said, I used to work there so the guys would show me stuff. I wanted to see for myself what the **** was up. There was over $10,000USD "into" this Studer deck, and for whatever reason this sales guy i'm guessing got them to dump it for a grand.
I'm not saying it's VK's fault at all, but they had to know that something was a bit weird when they were buying a really nice Studer and a handful of Neve modules from Guitar Center. To me, there's plenty of other places I can buy great gear from instead of VK, so it's no skin off my back.
Oh, and there were two more AMS 1580S's that I was going to buy from them, but there were "problems" purchasing those too, that involved the same GCPro guy...
The sales guys that I was working with didn't want to get their hands dirty with it. I don't blame them. If I was working there, i'd have defered it to someone else. They were going to roll the deals under the house account anyways since they were negative GP deals. No reason for them to get dirty with it.
I'm not trying to smear VK or GC's name around at all. This is just what I experienced. I'd rather be telling you about getting a sweet deal on a 2" 8-track studer and a handful of other units.
If you don't believe me we could always have bexarametric try to look it up on the nationwide system to see if he can find the deals that i'm talking about. He knows what salesperson I'm talking about that did this. I could try to find the dates for it. I believe it was a President's Day sale or one of those in the early summer/late spring of '06. |
We are all entitled to our opinions and at least you have first hand knowledge as a past GC employee of what goes on in that specific GC store. Good info...
IMO, Vintage King is great to work with and over the years they have always been fair with me, always delivered on time and have good communication.
However, statements you made like this one only confuse the issue and distort the facts:
I'll agree that VK is probably innocent here, but I'm taking it just as a sign that there' probably better places to buy gear. I don't think for a moment that VK didn't know that something funny was likely going on. Huh?
First you acknowledge they are innocent THEN you say they knew something "funny" was going on (somehow painting them as questionable). Accordingly, you say will not buy from them for something they may or may not have done OR had ANY knowledge of?
Simply Stated: You have NO DIRECT evidence VK knew it was buying "your" Studer out from under you in some "unsavory conspiracy". None, Oliver... Therefore, the only party that you CAN DIRECTLY LINK TO THE SALE OF THE STUDER is GC. That is 100% Clear.
Here's why I question ALL of this:
Vintage King is in Michigan NOT California as you stated here:
I saw on the computer where they had been sold to Vintage King. Unless there's more than one Vintage King in CA, then that's what I saw. Hmmmm.
Again, I understand your disappointment... However, if you were GC, wouldn't you sell a bunch of gear to a known person or entity in ONE transaction rather then HOPE it sells during a "sale". Since it's clear commissions are KEY at GC, I understand WHY the GC Pro sales person sold the equipment to his "guys", don't you?
NOTE: If anyone understands the culture of GC and its commission methods, it's YOU, right? Vintage King is innocent here. thumbsup
As we all know, GC is what it is and you have to "roll" with it.
TJ