I bought a program and a Key board MIDI from the store in Kendall. Before I asked the attendant if the product that I bought was good for what I need. He looked at me like saying “Where you come from?” and replayed that he didn’t know how work every thing in the store, because he usually serve people that know what they by. He didn’t try to find an answer from any other attendant. I think that the guy thought that I am stupid because I said that I am a Composer that doesn’t know music at all. So I bought what I don’t need because the manuals don’t show any options to do these; and any body in the software Cakewalk community can tell me how.

Guitar Center was once a store that would adjust prices and haggle to a degree on the price of instruments, Guitars in particular. Now the STICKER price is the price charged. No more deals so No more reason to go there. Also they used to buy vintage instruments for resale. They paid a fair market price. NOT ANY LONGER !!! They don't seem to even be familiar with many Vintage Instruments, their value etc. But they offer a pittance of the actual value. They are either really uneducated as to Quality VINTAGE Instruments or they are trying to rip-off the seller and then charge top dollar from the buyer. I will not shop there any longer. They are not a GOOD DEAL type place as they once were. It is a store that charges a premium for inferior instruments. Other guitar stores now BLOW GUITAR CENTER PRICES SERVICE AND INVENTORY OUT OF THE WATER. GO SHOP ANYWHERE BUT GUITAR CENTER!!! They are only interested in making money NOT INTERESTED in the musician!!
They even push lower end instruments. It seems as if the higher # of sales is all they care about! Also they used to honor their 30 day return policy NO PROBLEM now it is like pulling teeth to get them to honor THEIR AGREEMENT!!! DECIDE FOR YOURSELF BUT BE FORWARNED!!! ONE LAST POINT>>> THE WORKERS ON THE FLOOR KNOW VERY LITTLE ABOUT WHAT THEY SELL!!!

I have been trying to make a complaint to the Guitar Center ombudsman or similar dept for more than 1 week without success about the following situation:

Dear Mr. Lawrence,

I live in Brazil and I have been a loyal GC customer for more than 3 years. I travel round 2 to 3 times per year to the US and whenever it is possible I stop and buy products from your stores. I already bought from Las Vegas, NYC, Hollywood, Edina, Salt Lake City etc and never had problems before with any of your stores.

This time I spent the total amount of US$ 672.54, US$ 312.80 (attached orders #6174107 and #6174110 ) ordered by internet and delivered to the La Mesa Store in California, US$ 13, 12 in the La Mesa Store and US$ 346, 62(receipt attached) in the San Jose Store.

With La Mesa Store things went pretty good and what I would like to complain is about the San Jose Store.

I am attaching an excel spreadsheet about the list of products intended to be bought in the San Jose Store.
My main item was the Fender SKB Molded Case- Strat-Tele Right and Left Hand, code #104785118. I had checked before the availability of that item in that particular store by the net. To sum up, I ended buying 15 items from that store, as you can see by the attached receipt.

Firstly I had to wait almost one hour in order to get the case. They said to me that checking the stock they had 4 of this item at the store, but they made me wait almost 1 hour to get it. But that was nothing compared to what was about to happen:
1. As you can see looking at the excel file, it was perfectly clear that my order for the electric guitar case was for the fender one, code # 104785118. If you check the GC receipt (last item), you can see that it stands for a similar brand (SKB), probably code #541664, configuring this way a Badwill of the San Jose Store employees. So after a wait of almost one hour they gave me the wrong product and did not even tell me that it was replaced!
2. To make things worse and to my surprise, when I get home and tried to accommodate my strato inside the case, I realized that it did not fit. If you could take a look at the attached photos, you could find out that although the case is described in the GC receipt as a Strato/Telecaster Electric Guitar, I was given a Bass Guitar case (probably code #100241436), that unfortunately for me is useless. In this second episody, I really don´t know if it was Badwill again or incompetence of your employees.

I consider this an absurd! Guitar Center really let me down and I would like to know specifically what can be done to solve the problem that you have created.

Sincerely yours,

Roberto Braga

i was late on some payments between 2 and 3 years ago . They reported this to my credit. I completely paid the debt for almost 700.00 in full and they just reported this again to my credit in 2010, when I have had it at a 0.00 balance for 2 years. Very aggravating. It cost me 57 points on my credit. It is 643 when it should be 700. I going to try and appeal it.

Guitar Center of SF practices Bait-and-Switch. I contacted Guitar Center SF on 9-19-10 asking if they had any yamaha 12 string guitars in stock and associate Ben informed me they had 2 of them. I asked if he could hold one and he stated he needed 10% down. I told him I had two amps I wanted to trade in and requested how much they usually pay on trade in's. Ben informed me that they don't like giving trade in prices on the phone but stated they usually pay 80% used market value based on google pricing. The next day I arrived to the store only to find they had no yamaha 12 string guitars in stock however, they tried to sell me 2 different more expensive guitars. Their trade in price changed from 80% used market value based on google down to 50% used market based on e-bay. Guitar center uses bad business tactis which are illegal in order to get customers to come into their store. In my case it required a 110 mile round trip, $6 in bridge fare and $15 in fuel just to get to the store. When I arrived there was no parking and I had to lug two large amps up Van Ness Street only to find out they were lying to me on the phone. Not a good store to shop at. Corporate did nothing to rectify the situation and I had to file a complaint with The Better Business Buerau.