"Awful experience! Never going back. Needed 1 saddle for my guitar. They would only sell me a set of 6 for $60. They told me a novice could probably install new saddles in an afternoon, but I was feeling lazy, so I had them do it. They charged $20 for that and said it'd take 2 days. I called in 2 days, had to leave a message, never got called back. I called the next morning, same routine. I called that afternoon, had to leave a message, finally got called back only to hear they hadn't started. They said it'd be done later that afternoon (if they weren't busy) or the next day. Again, this was something they said a novice could do in 1 afternoon. That afternoon and the next day went by with no word. 3 more days of nothing, so I went in to figure out what the problem was, and they still hadn't even started it. I'd had enough, so I took it back. Only silver lining is that they didn't charge me the $20 for installation. I took my guitar to a local store down the street. They sold me 1 saddle, installed it, restrung it (including replacing a missing string), and intonated it for $10 in 15 minutes while I waited. Long story, so in summary: Guitar Center tried to charge $80, took a whole week to not even start the repair, and practically refused to talk to me in the process. Local store charged $10 and did it in 15 minutes."

"DO NOT buy from this company!!! They charged $3,902 of shipping charges for an $150 gift card that we wanted sent to our son in law. Five phone calls later, they still have not fully credited our credit card account. Not sure we will ever get all our money back!! STAY AWAY!!!!!!"

""I registered Attorney General complaints for Guitar Center fraud (failure to honor discount coupons, misrepresentation of product, failure to provide tracking for paid shipping, etc) Guitar Center's customer service prohibited me from contacting Guitar Center and its affiliates & ownership entities Dec 2010
however the letter was not notarized or endorsed by an officer of the company or legal counsel. By May 2011, I was buying again until Sept 2011 when I received a defective pedal. I attempted a return to a local GC and they refused the return in violation of GC's documented and advertised procedures. The
Louisville, KY store that sold me the pedal refused to pay for return shipping, again in violation of GC procedures. My wife attempted to use three gift cards totaling $60 at the Columbus, OH store via online. GC canceled her orders and my orders and invalidated the $60 gift cards. Complaint is now escalated to ownership management at Bain Capital as GC has refused communication."
This is an exact quote from our Attorney General of Massachusetts official complaint."

"Consumer from the north. Against my better judgement I shopped at guitar center. After reading all of the poor reviews.

I guess they have fun charging more to canadian customers. Seeing as they don't mention anywhere why they are charging more. Seems like everything is 15-18% more just because we are Canadian. One example,

DiMarzio DP159 $84.99 USD
DiMarzio DP159 $101.22 CAD

They promised me a price of $67.00 They charged aprox $84. They promised $69.95 for my neck pickup, they charged $80. Been given the run around since I placed my order as well. If they promise you anything don't bother taking them seriously. No wonder they have a 1 star rating."

"I went to guitar center on Sunday before memorial day 9/4/11 to buy some monitors on sale my church is tax exempt, he started going over all this stuff about the law requiring I fill up a form[form that they don't supply like they used to] My church its on file but he refused to honor the Tax exempt, on the receipt he printed my churches name....He gave me 30 days to bring the form back.........."

"I ordered a Tascam DP-02 8 track recorder. I received a used unit. There were songs recorded from the previous owner.
I returned the unit and ordered a replacement. The second one I received was even more used than the first. More songs recorded, covered in dust and the manuals were not in the plastic bag as they should be. Beware when ordering from them. They have lost my trust"

"I ordered a Yamaha Arius YDP181 88-Key Digital Piano over the phone from www.guitarcenter.com on May,28 2011. Besides the free shipping as they advertise on their website, I got a pretty nice Memorial day discount so I was pretty happy I purchased from GuitarCenter.
It was supposed to be delivered on June 7 from 9 to 5. I took the day off and waited for the delivery. The shipping company called me at 5 p.m. and said the delivery guy was in your neighborhood so come down to pick it up myself because it would not be delivered into my apt. I was confused but I thought it was some kind of mistake. When I went down,he said it was either I pay extra 60 something dollars if I wanted it to be delivered to my apt on the 2nd floor or 20 bucks to him under the table and he would do a "favor" for me otherwise the piano would be left on the sidewalk of my apartment building where 100 of people walking by in Queens,NY. He said he didn't even have time to wait for me to call GuitarCenter to sort this out and I had to decide right away. So I sent it back.
Their "free" shipping policy is this: Any heavy stuff like a piano is only delivered to the sidewalk of the building and this ridiculous yet crucial information will not be read or told by any means until the day of delivery by the delivery guy. GC's representative actually said the piano was delivered to my address so their advertisement was not a lie or anything. Seriously? First of all,I was NEVER INFORMED about this by GuitarCenter or by the shipping company. NOT A SINGLE WORD or PHONE CALL about this policy was told by their representative when I ordered it, or by the shipping company, via an email,or on their website, which I read through every pages and policies frantically. When I contacted GC's customer service,long story short,the only response I received was 'it's not our responsibility' crap. Basically what they said was they just took orders but whatever problems after that was not theirs but shipping company's responsibility so if I had a problem with shipping then take care of it with a shipping company. When I ordered my sofa,TV,gigantic cat tree,bed...etc to be delivered, they were delivered to inside my house or my doorstep at least, NOT to the sidewalk in front of the building. They wasted my time and energy and I feel like I was deceived. By the way, their answers or attitude changed everytime I contacted them. I just couldn't trust anything about what they said or advertised, so I requested a refund and will be done with that company for the rest of my life. "

"Awesome service on low-priced item (PRS SE Custom guitar)! Ordered a used guitar from the Guitar Center in Beaverton, OR. Spoke to the guitar specialist in the store (the phone number for the store was on the GC site). The guy walked back to storage, put his hands on the guitar, and very accurately described it (immaculate condition, needed restringing and a gig bag). I ordered the guitar on Thursday and on Friday, Kelley, the ops manager, emailed the UPS tracking number. I recieved the guitar the following Thursday (from Oregon all the way to Alabama). The guitar was as-described (even better condition). Communication was awesome, follow-up and shipping was spot-on. The price I paid was about half of what the same guitar is going for on ebay...and the condition was as good as any new model in the store. I'm definitely going to monitor used equipment as it comes into guitar centers by their rss feed on my web browser. Kudos to the Guitar Center Beaverton staff!Thanks!"

"Great site. Easy to navigate. Very helpful staff too."

"This reseller disappoints. They charged sales tax on a tax-exempt order, but promised to refund it if they were faxed a tax exempt certificate. That being done, Jordan (apparently a one-man department within Guitar Center) denied the exemption. After 2 phone calls and messages, he finally decided to return my call, and wanted to play semantic games with the exemption. When it was clear he did not want to grant the exemption, I tried to get him to cancel the order, but he refused and abruptly terminated the call. I have had to get the charges for the merchandise reversed from my credit card even though the merchandise has not been received. Avoid this reseller.

Update May 29: They shipped the merchandise to me anyway despite my request that they cancel the order. I had to refuse shipment and return the package to UPS. Meanwhile, Jordan refused any more contact with me, but Dan sent me an email saying that Jordan was correctly applying company policy to my situation.

Dan did not mention whether Jordan's rudeness was company policy as well. I explained to Dan once again that the company policy was incorrect for my state. He responded by emailing me a link to Tennessee's sales tax exemption form. I already had that form, and pointed out that Guitar Center's policy was not supported by the form that he had sent me! lol.

All other major retailers - Wal-mart, Staples, Office Depot, for instance, grant my church tax exempt status on transactions just like this one, yet Dan wanted me to believe that Guitar Center's policy is correct while all the other retailers were not.

He said he couldn't comment on other retailer's actions, but he was sure that Guitar Center's policies were correct. Well, if Guitar Center is correct to deny my exemption, then it follows that Wal-mart must be wrong to allow it on the same type transaction. Hmmm...Dan can try to sell me that foolishness, but I'm not buying it.

He did remove the sales tax charge as a 'one time gesture', for which I was appreciative. However, since I had already refused the package, and since he was still unwilling to alter Guitar Center's mistaken policies, I still cannot recommend this vendor."

"I pre-ordered a new Yamaha keyboard from GC more than 3 months ago. The manufacturer has delayed the shipment to everyone. GC told me in February that I was first to order, so when they arrive I was assured of getting one. Three weeks ago they canceled my order "accidentally". The order was immediately replaced (after I called to ask why it was canceled).

GC received the first few keyboards in last week and I called asking why I had not seen a shipment notification. Answer: I am now last in line. I explained what happened and they can see the previous order but "can't do anything about my place in line". So even if more arrive next week I may still not be _allowed_ to purchase.

This customer "support" is enough for me to be looking elsewhere. Hopefully I can find the product in stock somewhere else so I can cancel my order from guitar center. Otherwise I hope for large quantities of product showing up at their warehouse and after all of the orders placed after mine have been serviced they will fill my order out of boredom."

"I ordered an American DJ trilogy effects light in-store to be shipped to our house. Let me say that the product had a defect from the factory. The bulb was never installed right and would rattle around inside. I took it to guitar center and they took care of it right away. This was no surprise however because Guitar Center (in my personal experiences) has always had excellent customer service. This is just another fine example in my long list of experiences. "

"Just ordered my electric piano from them. Last month, took a couple of weeks to get it here, but order went off without a hitch. Don't order from them online if you're in a rush. Just get it from their store.
But, in my case, i was too busy and didn't have the time or ability to pick up the piano from them. So I ordered it online, free deilvery and all, just took a few weeks. "

"did a lot of price comparison's and seems like everywhere is the same price. I wanted to buy a digital piano. I figured if I could find somewhere outside of the state, I wouldn't have to pay for tax. But they have multiple websites and I ended up comparing against them. In any case, everyone had the same price. I used a 10% off coupon that was good. Shipping was reasonably fast, wasn't the usual 24 hours I was used to, but overall not too bad. Merchandise came in good condition.
Was a good experience. "

"Absolutely horrible company... Ordered on a Monday with overnight shipping over the phone. Was told my order would ship in 24hours... Called everyday checking as the two items were birthday presents for my 4 year old son. Friday morning they said the items are to be shipped that day... Birthday is on Saturday and i "should" get the items on Monday...

Told them to cancel the order as its now too late. They said they can't and i would have to refuse the shipment or pay to ship it back myself.

HORRIBLE Experience, I will never ever shop here or recommend this company to anyone.

"