"That's it, I can't shop at GC moving forward. I just returned a new 2018 Gibson Les Paul Standard as my wife bought it for me for my birthday. How sweet is that?

Anyway long story short, it was a heavily used floor model with 5 or more areas of damage, neck dents and an actual half inch paint chip on the head. When I returned it the knuckle head said "Yeah, but we're blowing these things out at like $1000.00 off." I said, "Everyone's selling these for that, and they don't look like they are dropped from an airplane." I also stated how lame it was for him to justify selling a beat up guitar as NEW, then trying to justify it. These guys are just not very bright, it's not their fault.

"

"1.) They’ve changed their website so you can no longer search for used gear.
2.) When you COULD search for used gear, I emailed them several times from their website and no ever got back to me.
3.) I ordered a guitar from their website for my son. I received confirmation that it would arrive before Christmas. Over a week later, still no guitar. When I called them to find out where is was, they said, “Oh that item is on back order.” No notice - not an email, phone call, text. Nothing. They were just going to wait for months until another shipment came in. I was furious to say the least. "

"As usual, Guitar Center is terrible. I ordered a few rack rails for some equipment boxes I'm making. I live overseas so all my orders go to a warehouse in Florida. I ordered five rack rails. First they flagged my order because of a billing typo. I had to call about 3 different times before the order even shipped. They then sent 3 packages, from 3 different places, which all arrived at 3 different times. Even tho at first the email they sent me showed 2 packages, it ended up being 3, so I ended up mistakenly sending my consolidated int'l package WITHOUT the content of the 3rd package... so now I either can't do my project because the other pieces are sitting in a warehouse, or I have to pay an extra fee to ship the ones that Guitar Center screwed up the shipping on.... because of their sloppy shipping & lack of customer care I'll never trust them to order anything online in a timely and organized fashion. Get it together, Guitar Center. No wonder you're having difficulties surviving as a business. What an awful customer service experience. Lesson: AVOID GUITAR CENTER. Buy via ebay or amazon or whatever direct next time."

"There are so many guitars to choose from. Like always it's "just" a question of money."

"Today I took my 40+ year old antique Hawaiian ukulele in to be restrung. We waited almost an hour for the technician who had gone out for a cigarette and finally another guy took our info and said he'd pass it along when the technician came back. A couple hours later we returned to get it and found the natural strings had been replaced with white strings, and a couple chunks had been chipped out of the wood - Jeremy the technician said "oops - sometimes that happens when you cut the strings." He also said it probably wouldn't stay in tune because of the strings he put on it. That's the reason I took it to be restrung in the first place! I am not pleased. This was a sentimental souvenir from my 16th birthday. I can use a wood marker or something, but it will never be as nice as when I took it into Guitar Center. Next time I will find a music store with people who actually care.
"

"Can’t get a Damn Straight answer On a Damn Tracking Number Not Even an Email And I’m a Long Time Customer But I’m Telling You Sweetwaters Music Here I Come!"

"Guitar Center showed that they had the Bose QuietComfort 35 ii in triple midnight was on sale this morning. I placed an order while it was still in stock. In the afternoon, I received an email stating the headphones I ordered are on back order but more inventory is coming and it'll be fulfilled when they get more in stock.

However, when I went back to the site, they had a note on the triple midnight saying they no longer carry that particular headphone, but they still have the black and silver ones in stock for full price. So I contacted customer support to get confirmation on if it's truly no longer carry or if it's backorder. The support agent said they no longer carry and that I would have to order one of the other colors at full price. He refused to honor the price that I ordered at, saying the manufacturer won't allow them to discount the item.

Complete bait and switch scam going on. Do not order from them."

"Over the past few years, I have bought a number of items from Guitar Center, most of them used, most from non-local stores. Obviously I could not test them in advance so I typically call the distant store, ask questions and if satisfied, make the purchase. Because our porch is completely exposed, I take advantage of their ship to store option.

First, nothing has ever been damaged in shipping and a couple of the items were relatively large keyboards. They were well packed and protected.

For the most part, everything has been as described. When I chose not to keep a few of them, returns were handled efficiently. Note that unless an item is defective in a way not disclosed, they will not refund shipping costs.

Soooo . . . overall, my many experiences have been good. Some of that is thanks to Eric Seely, the Ops Manager at my local store. Over time, he has been very helpful when GC or I make a mistake and he just makes things right.

I do have one significant complaint about GC. Their website and inventory update system is not real-time. Many times I've clicked on an item and immediately get a page saying the item is not available or worse, order it and later get an email saying 'order cancelled'. Frustrating!"

"Bought a product online from one of the stores, payment is accepted. Product is out of stock, Guitar Center never notifies me. I have an order number and invoice and assume it is being processed. Customer service advises me that I should probably deal with the store directly and makes no effort to try and locate another product, offer a discount, nothing. The business model I guess is just to cancel the order without the customer's knowledge or consent and hope the problem goes away. "We're sorry we can't do anything to help, maybe we can give you free shipping if you buy another product. How else can we help you today." You did nothing to help me in the first place, how can you possibly be competent enough to help me with something else? The more you try and engage them, the more dismissive and condesending they become. Please, please, please don't give them your business they clearly do not deserve it."

"Avoid giving money to this company at all costs. I purchased something on the phone with a representative who ensured me I could pick up the item on my way home from work as it was in stock at a certain location. Perfect! I went all the way to this location where they informed me the data on the website was incorrect. That's ridiculous in the first place, but whats worse is the employees there did absolutely nothing to figure what i was supposed to do next. No one took any initiative of ordering a new product or calling another store. They simply said too bad and did not clarify whether a new order would be shipped or not as it was on record that i would have picked it up that day. I waited around for an hour until I ended up calling the company customer service where they were also unclear about what I was doing next. Every person told me something completely different (2 day shipping from another store, 7 day shipping from supplier warehouse, I would have to pay for shipping now). Now, 2 days after placing my order, I have still not received any shipping confirmation. I have no idea what is going on and every time I call it's "you will receive notification when it has shipped". No timeline at all. I inquired about getting my money back so I can place an order with a different company who guarantees next day shipping, but was told it will take 4 days to get my money back anyway. I am so disappointed. It feels like I am dealing with a shady backyard business not an established corporation. It is truly a wonder this company is still around. Would love to see them go bankrupt."

" You have lost a longtime customer I bought some new gear on 11/15/2017 for Xmas presents for my son after he picked up the guitar we found out he is a lefty for playing. I had some medical issues and was unable to return the items within your 45 day time frame. So when I was able to bring the gear back all still new never used I figured since they could verify the purchase that I could sell them back to the store I know I would take a hit on them but I thought it wouldn’t be something I could live with but for 2 bass guitars a bass amp and guitar amp I couldn’t even get what I paid for one amp. Now knowing that you make 100% markup on used gear I will not be shopping at your stores anymore especially since you are supposed to be here for musicians. I understand you have to make a profit but to insult your loyal customers is not a good way to do business. So I will sell my gear privately and shop at smaller establishments or online but not at anouther guitar center and I will let all my my band members and bands that I know how you truly do business. Thank you for your time."

"Bought a sure sm57 mic, (used) but in great condition. Paid for it online. Get a email the next day saying my order was cancled. Called customer service they said they sold the item, but not to me. When i asked for a simliar item they had one (same condition) but it was 10$ more. They would not drop the price to what was advertised, and they told me sorry have a nice day. Will never buy anything from them again. New or used. "

"The tech at the Roseville store is a legend in his own mind told him I was a tech asked him for some advice treated me like a moron.I was doing my own before he was born ...**** idiot "

"Man, what a heart breaking experience. I get an e-mail from Epiphone on Jan 8th about a Les Paul 1 out of 100 signed by Slash of "Guns N Roses" guitar and the very next day when the website and pre-orders are taken for this I am on the phone and paid in full with my credit card and assured I am going to get this beautiful and one of a kind guitars. So for two weeks I'm jumping for joy and dreaming about getting this. Only to get an e-mail on Jan 19th while I am at work by Product Specialist Mark Lund "Sorry for the news but we got slammed with orders on the Limited edition Epiphone Slash guitar You ordered. Unfortunately we had to cancel your order because we sold out before your order completed processing. We regret that we cannot send you that guitar so as a one time only offer, we will give you $100 off an alternate guitar over $500. This is an agent only exclusive deal I am offering you" ....REALLY? So on January 9th when all my information and my credit card information and the $1275 I was putting down for this....that wasn't a completed process? If I call this store ASAP on the very first day of pre-orders and I am assured after giving all my information to get one, I get an e-mail almost two weeks later that the order is cancelled to only be offered $100 off my next guitar of $500+ which is exactly the same deal all Guitar Center customers were offered from Christmas to New Years Day and be told it's an agent only exclusive deal? Is that suppose to make up for losing out on a 1 out of 100 guitars signed by Slash of "Guns N Roses"? Man, what a heart breaking experience. It's like packing your bags and being allowed to board the plane and just when you are about to take off to paradise and see the person you love you are told to get off, sorry your money isn't good enough and here's a free pack of peanuts to eat on the way home. Man, what a heart breaking experience."

"We bought a defective instrument from them but didn't notice the defect until our daughter took it to school for her class. Unfortunately this occurred beyond the 45-day return window. After getting the run-around for several weeks by their 'customer service' they finally sent it for repair/replacement. When the replacement arrived I tried to sell it back to them as a 'used' instrument or as credit towards the purchase of a new instrument. We were told, "We sell them but do not buy used instruments of that kind". The manager told us to try selling it on Craigslist.

We still have it after 6 weeks on CL.

Pretty bad that when they admit that they sold us a defective instrument but will not stand behind what they sell.

Do yourself a favor, shop elsewhere!"