Stupid things you've been told at Guitar Center

[joelpatterson]

Originally Posted by PRobb

A guy let me play his $40,000 D'Aquisto. I was kinda afraid to touch it.

I bet the feeling was probably mutual!

[Garnettstudios]

(Me passing a conversation about guitar capos)
CUSTOMER: How do I use a capo?
SALESMAN: Well, you do this. (puts capo diagonally across a fret) So, if you put it on two, instead of an E, it will be a.......uh........ (solid 10 second pause)
ME: F#.....
SALESMAN: Oh, yeah!
CUSTOMER: (walks away)

[AvenueKRecording]

I love reading these. They're hilarious. However, I think it definitely varies from GC to GC. I've never really had a problem with anyone at the GC in Plano, Texas except for one drum guy, but he told me straight up that he just didn't know and didn't try to make something up to make a sale. Generally, the employees at GC in Plano are pretty knowledgeable.

[projektk]

I worked at GC, this ****** bag Co worker to this day even tells customers "apogee only sounds good in logic". Best thing I ever said while snaking a sale was "those maudio monitors sound awful" turned into a $1200 sale, fool said he only had a few bills to spend, ha riggght. Glad I got fired, sad at first but bottom line is I'm an engineer and mostly DJs and musicians work at GC. Not a big deal but I'd rather have more of my kind around.

Sent from my LG-P925 using Gearslutz.com

[nooneimportant]

Me: hi I need some short mic stands, whatever is cheap.

GC guy: ok, what are you using them for?

Me: holding mics.

[Paulie Storm]

Originally Posted by Garnettstudios

(Me passing a conversation about guitar capos)
CUSTOMER: How do I use a capo?
SALESMAN: Well, you do this. (puts capo diagonally across a fret) So, if you put it on two, instead of an E, it will be a.......uh........ (solid 10 second pause)
ME: F#.....
SALESMAN: Oh, yeah!
CUSTOMER: (walks away)

I live doing that to them hahahahah

Sent from my DROIDX using Gearslutz.com

[BigKD]

Last year I bought a vox vt50 from GC as a practice amp. Of course it died a few months later. Vox warranty states to bring the amp to the dealer for service. So I bring the pos back to the GC. The guy decides to plug in and turn it on and starts turning random knobs and buttons [obviously he has no clue how the amp works, and I have to explain to him how the controls interact]. "Dang, it really is broken," he exclaims with a confused look on his face.

I look at him like ....you think I'm some kind of chump? OF COURSE IT'S ****ING DEAD

He then immediately tries to sell me a new preamp tube, without ever mentioning warranty claims or even verifying that the tube is indeed an issue. I ask him what kind of tube I need and he replies "I don't know, go ask those other guys." I reply that the amp is still under warranty, and if I open it up I will void the warranty. That shut him up a bit.


Then he replies that they used to know a service center in a different town, but they don't do business with them anymore and that I'd have to ship it by myself with no help even boxing it up and out of my own pocket. [So ******* unhelpful considering they have a crapload of boxes and a massive shipping account with low rates].

Hell no I said.

The rest of the conversation takes place right next to the manager:

Employee's reply: Well, I know a guy [not an authorized vox tech] who might come in on Thursday next week who might have the phone number of a guy who might be able to diagnose it.

Manager doesn't even flinch.




I just gave up after that. I wrote a letter to GC headquarters complaining and have never received a response. F U Guitar Center North Charleston, SC. I have spent thousands of dollars at your store and you hung me out to dry.

I sold the amp for parts for 50 dollars last week. What a waste of money and time.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

If you have a good salesmen who you can rely on then things seem to work better at GC. I have a really good salesmen, Dave, and he is the best. He knows his stuff and he is always always helpful. Some of the other salesmen in the store are one step from being Zombies or Crash Test Dummy stand ins. At my GC the manager Dana is also GREAT to work with.

A lot depends, as it does almost universally, on the people you know and have a long term relationship with.

I went into my local GC and was in the "pro room". I was waiting for Dave to finish up with a client and they had a new "salesman" working. He saw I was looking at the equipment in the room and came over to offer his services. I chit chatted with him, told him I was a mastering engineer and he said "Oh well we got a really good deal on these dbx graphic equalizers and I am sure they are just what you need. "What are you using now" I said a Weiss EQ 1 Mark II and he said "well I am sure this dbx will do a better job" I looked at him and just smiled thinking to myself that he knows NOTHING about what he is selling or recommending but it was on the SPIFF list so he was going to try and sell it. A few minutes later Dave came in and the new salesmen said "this person is interested in the dbx graphic eq for his mastering setup" Dave also smiled, called me by name and just said "I don't think so" and we walked off talking leaving a very confused salesman. I later learned that this "salesmen" had been selling shoes the week before. Maybe he should have stuck to his former "profession".

GC can be a GREAT place to shop but it can also be a very big mess if you are a pro and trying to deal with someone who knows nothing about what they are selling.

I have watched some of their salesmen making outrageous claims for equipment that they are trying to sell a client. There was the time a "pro audio salesmen" tried to sell a young person two small 8" PA speakers telling him that it would fill up a basketball gym with sound. Right????

Oh well I have Dave and that is all I need in a salesmen.

[PRobb]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

I chit chatted with him, told him I was a mastering engineer .....
I later learned that this "salesmen" had been selling shoes the week before.

Th amazing thing about that story is the arrogance. He's new to the job and here's a guy saying he's an audio professional. It never occurs to him you might know more than he does.

[insomaniac]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

There was the time a "pro audio salesmen" tried to sell a young person two small 8" PA speakers telling him that it would fill up a basketball gym with sound. Right????

I mean, technically, it could, but it may be difficult to describe that noise a speaker cone flapping wildly in an enclosure just before the whole thing launches itself in pieces into the far side of the gym as "sound".

[saxbass1898]

I'm a sax player who uses a Beta 98 into a SLX wireless pack most of the time, but I wanted to buy the inline preamp for a casino gig so I didn't have to worry about the wireless. I found the item on GC's website, on clearance, and placed an order immediately. Later that evening I get a call from the (very nice) manager at whatever store had listed the item:

"Uh, so I just wanted to give you a heads up. We... can't find the item. I don't know if it ended up in with something it shouldn't have been purchased with, or what. We can keep looking, but I don't know if we'll find it..."

At least he was able to successfully cancel the order and refund my money.

[ooovitaly]

funny shite!

Originally Posted by BlueRadio

I was trying to return a defective sm58 to the 'Pro Audio' dept at Guitar Center the other day...here's the conversation:


me- This thing isn't working. Gain cranked, no signal.

sales genius- Oh, sometimes these need a little phantom power for that "extra boost."

me- No, it's a dynamic microphone. They don't require phantom power.

sales genius- Oh yeah I know, but uhhm, sometimes the phantom power will really boost the signal.

[Garnettstudios]

GC guy: Hey dude! What can I get for ya??
Me: I'm thinking about getting into API 500 series gear, do you know much about it?
GC guy: (horribly confused) ....API.....API.....?......I haven't been working in studios for a couple years, let me go look that company up. (spends several minutes staring at computer) Oh! I remember API!! You don't want that, man.
Me: Can you give me some specific reasons why I shouldn't go for it?
GC guy: It sucks.
Me: What about getting stuff like Chandler, UA, or Neve? Is that better?
GC guy: Man, why not just get this Presonus one? It's got a tube in it for extra warmth!
Me: (leaves quickly)

[Ward Pike]

Good Story, Garnett... although I have the feeling "dude" and "yo" were probably used a few more times in that conversation.

[DMichaelJohnson]

Originally Posted by AwwDeOhh

Got a new (Coleman) monitor controller the other day and ran over to Banjo Center to grab some cables...


Me: I need a couple of XLR to XLR cables, 6 feet in length
GC: Hmm.. we don't carry those...walks over to the wall and says; we DO have Mic cables-- 2 meters in length, will that help?

Every once in a while, they'll get it right on accident...

Even a broken clock has the correct time twice a day...

[anna_britbass88]

Guitar Center & Apple Store / Genius Bar employees...

99.9% of them are useless oxygen thieves.

I get a 30% discount @ GC through a friend who works for an affiliated instrument repair company, I tell her what I want and give her the cash, I don't set foot in that place.

All GC needs now is a food court...

[rdstreets]

Wow. I can't even remember the last time I spoke to a sales rep at GC. Like so many others I just got so tired of asking my question and getting that blank stare over and over. It's sad when you know more about the gear they're selling than they do!

[darkhorse]

I am in need of some strings, so I thought, I'll just re-check the store again if by chance they have something I could use.
Just immediately, flashback, the hold music put me in hysterics, just really terrible, grossly over modulated, impedance distorted, something, could not for the life of me discern what the hell it was, no doubt some employee's in store demo. I swear you would have to try really hard to record something worse than that. Might have been a good joke if it was intentional.

Of course just generic strings and over priced to boot. Made the mistake of mentioning something new, of course they never heard of them.

[Skept3k]

I'm pretty sure these guys get sales commission so that's probably why they try so hard to sound like they know what they're talking about.

I went to a local GC few days ago to audition some monitors. They had the weirdest setup, though. They had all the monitors in they're own section/booth. The area was so small and awkwardly shaped, it had a huge glass window running across, the rack of monitors were spaced very far apart from each other, and zero acoustic treatment anywhere. I really felt pretty pointless listening to monitors in that room, plus the guy didn't have an ipod cable so I could listen to my own tracks.

Anyway, they had a deal on Yamaha HS80 @ $299ea. They guy kept going on about the deal and it's only for today. Well there was a pair of them in the box and he kept saying how he only had this one last set "man", it's really good deal "man", today only!

So I look up and on the shelf storage I can easily see 3 other sets of the same monitor... XD

[deft_bonz]

A friend of mine got told at a music store, that gold will improve the sound

bwahahahaha

[490440]

I was in oklahoma city for some certification testing for work and I stopped by the guitar center to kill some time. I’ve been playing guitar a long time now and over the years have run across gear that I don’t need to replace.

I pick out a passable LP and decide to try out amps. The salesman comes over and hands me a cord, I tell him I’m just trying out amps and he’s going to get bored watching me. He stays.
I start out with the egnater amps and am not real impressed with the china version ( or maybe it was just me ) The sales guy is all jacked up and saying how killer it sounds and all that.
I try the Vox’s and everything else that seems decent. The whole time he is right there saying how killer this or that amp sounds.
I get up to try something else and he is turning on this B-52 half stack. I tell him I’m not interested in a half stack ( esp not that pile of crap ). He’s tells me That the way I play I need a big amp.

Uhmmmmmm ok.

I tell him I’ve got amps at home that I really like and if I did buy something it would be small and I would just mic it. He asked me what I was playing through. A couple of Vht pittbull 50st and ul100 heads and a pittbull 45 combo and a rocktron vendetta head and a couple of marshall cabs with V 30’s, plus some rack gear. I’ve been playing for 20+ years now a person will accumulate some decent gear.

He looks at me for a moment and then tells me he hasn’t heard of VHT before but he knows rocktron makes pedals. If I would like he could work with me on trading my gear in on a mesa or marshall or maybe a line 6 amp..............I thanked him and told him I would consider it.

I did find a cool little marshall class 5, it sounded pretty good. Neat idea, the voicing isn’t for me.
They had a mesa 25watt mini head, 4 channels or something that sounded very good.

BTW if you run across a 90’s vendetta head, buy it. 4 channel, midi, tube head. They reissued the name in a junker, but the original is made in michigan and sounds great.

[PRobb]

Originally Posted by deft_bonz

A friend of mine got told at a music store, that gold will improve the sound

\

He was absolutely right. Enough gold will enable you to book time in a high end studio and nothing improves your sound like a high end studio.

[deft_bonz]

Originally Posted by PRobb

He was absolutely right. Enough gold will enable you to book time in a high end studio and nothing improves your sound like a high end studio.

I even believe the plug cover wasn't even gold. It looked very just like gold painted plastik

[jeremy.c.]

Originally Posted by deft_bonz

I even believe the plug cover wasn't even gold. It looked very just like gold painted plastik

It's not the metal that conducts optical better, it's the color gold that makes it work. You know, lasers and magic and stuff.

[Paulie Storm]

Hi I can help you with your pro audio needs! NOT!

[deft_bonz]

Originally Posted by jeremy.c.

It's not the metal that conducts optical better, it's the color gold that makes it work. You know, lasers and magic and stuff.

It gives the audio the necessary bling

[darkhorse]

yes but gold is pretty

gold does have better conductivity and connection transfer not to mention no corrosion issues, but sound, ...unless you are able to hear Eric Johnson differences in electrons or types of cabinet screws...

[deft_bonz]

Originally Posted by darkhorse

yes but gold is pretty

gold does have better conductivity and connection transfer not to mention no corrosion issues, ...

True, but not for optical cables

[projektk]

Originally Posted by Skept3k

I'm pretty sure these guys get sales commission so that's probably why they try so hard to sound like they know what they're talking about.

I went to a local GC few days ago to audition some monitors. They had the weirdest setup, though. They had all the monitors in they're own section/booth. The area was so small and awkwardly shaped, it had a huge glass window running across, the rack of monitors were spaced very far apart from each other, and zero acoustic treatment anywhere. I really felt pretty pointless listening to monitors in that room, plus the guy didn't have an ipod cable so I could listen to my own tracks.

Anyway, they had a deal on Yamaha HS80 @ $299ea. They guy kept going on about the deal and it's only for today. Well there was a pair of them in the box and he kept saying how he only had this one last set "man", it's really good deal "man", today only!

So I look up and on the shelf storage I can easily see 3 other sets of the same monitor... XD

$50,000 in Sales with $10,000 of it being profit is about $500 commission check for 1 month. 2 guys at my store that I used to work at got something like that, a few more got about $100. Its hard to pull commission checks at GC.

Sent from my LG-P925 using Gearslutz App

[shrimpbait]

Here is a good one .... just recently saw this and had to laugh (for a couple of reasons)