What's wrong with GC

[Jeff-7]

Pittsburg' date=' eh?

Did you make it to EM Shorts in Wichita?

Great little store.

Talk to Lance.

 

I grew up in the other end of Kansas, Ulysses.

Still have lotsa friends in Wichita.

 

Good job declining the credit offer at Guitar Center.

They will gladly hook you into a finance company to make a sale.

They get their cash, you get your credit destroyed for five times the price of the guitar....

 

Nah I didn't head west, was the next phase in my plan if KC/Overland Park had been a bust as well. Will definitely check out EM Shorts next time I run over there though.

[guitarmandp]

Good guys' date=' and another one I like is Nick.

He was in Tempe for awhile, last I saw he was at Peoria.

When I was raising hell about their return policies, he was at least honest about it...[/quote']

 

I moved to Phoenix in 2004. One of the first stops that I remember when I got here was the Tempe guitar center. I went there one time in 2004, and haven't been back since. That place sucked.

 

There's a lot of crime in Tempe. I've had my car vandalized, and broken into on different occasions so I try to keep my visits to Tempe to a minimum.

 

Personal sh!t should not trickle into a business relationship' date=' especially the employees.[/quote']

 

What's funny is I actually saw Donnie a few weeks ago. He didn't say anything to me.

 

I would say we're in complete agreement.

Did your Goldtop ever sell?

 

I sold that goldtop to the Harmony House. They matched the price that Rainbow was offering, which saved me a trip to Tucson. I hate driving to Tucson. It's a 57 reissue goldtop aged by Tom Murphy

 

I'm not making this up, they have had a used Tom Murphy aged goldtop at Bizarre Guitars for years. They are selling it for $10,000! I'm not making this up.

 

I paid $4,000 for mine (I bought it new), and I started looking for a Murphy aged goldtop right before I had my falling out with one of the guys at Bizarre. I was thinking about asking them if they'd sell that guitar to me for $3,500 but I just didn't have the guts to ask them to sell me a guitar that is marked at $10,000 for $3,500. Even though that guitar used at the most is worth $3,500.

 

This brings up one of my weaknesses and another thing that bothers me about Guitar Center. If I see a guitar that I want, that I think is marked way too high, rather than make them an offer for what I think the guitar is worth, I usually walk away. I don't like to waste a salesmans or my time making "low ball" offers that likely won't be accepted. GC has pretty much everything marked at MAP, and in a lot of cases you would be stupid to pay anywhere near the MAP price.

 

The Scottsdale GC has that same Oxblood that I showed you at the Harmony House. They have it marked at $6,000. I got an incredible deal on that guitar at Rainbow Guitars. I wouldn't even have the balls to ask GC to match the offer that Rainbow gave me.

 

This tagline about Guitar Center matching the lowest advertised price or beating it by 10% of the difference is hilarious. Guitar manufacturers have minimum advertised prices, so the chances that you will find an advertisement for a JB Oxblood at less than MAP is highly unlikely. But anybody whose bought guitars before knows that only an idiot pays full MAP price.

[guitarmandp]

I have a GC 3 min from my house. I go there all the time and 'play'. GC is where I test drive what ever I'm thinking about buying.

Then when I decide I find it online from who ever has the best price ' date='free shipping and I pay no sales tax.[/quote']

 

That's one of my main gripes about GC. It doesn't even feel like a music store, it feels like a playground for wannabe musicians.

 

I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world, but I'm better than 98% of the people that go to guitar center to jam.

 

The 2% that have amazing chops and can play circles around me, those guys are even more annoying than the guys who can't play at all. They aren't there to buy, they are there to show off. There's only so many sweeps, or two handed tapping licks I can take before my head explodes.

 

Ever notice how every single person that "test drives" a guitar at GC, either plays punk rock, detuned metal, or the intro to "Sweet Child O Mine"? The good players that jam at GC, play nothing but Yngwie licks.

 

I burned my bridge with a local music store in town, so my punishment is that if I need to buy a humidfier, or some strings, or picks I'm subjected to some of the most annoying guitar playing ever.

 

I bought a humidifier at GC, and a set of strings a month or two ago at GC from the accessories department. There are two people in line. Just as the guy in front of me pays, the phone rings and I had to waste 30 minutes of my time while this idiot cashier was talking to somebody on the phone about GC's return policy.

 

Has the cashier ever heard of multi-tasking? Couldn't I just give him my credit card or cash while he's talking on the phone?

 

 

I buy picks at GC and thats about it.

 

I use Dunlop Delrin picks. GC never has those ): So I have to order them from Musicians Friend.

[cookieman15061]

They get their cash' date=' you get your credit destroyed for five times the price of the guitar....

[/quote']

 

I don't find their credit terms any different than the rest. If you do use a credit card pay your bills on time and you'll be fine.

[NeoConMan]

I dunno CM, have you seen the terms on that stuff - especially the 12 month/no interest thing?

 

We ain't talking a normal credit card here, it's downright brutal!

 

The only place I've seen as bad would be the furniture store chains.

[cookieman15061]

No doubt Neo but I think anyone who does use it and is responsible and aware of the penalty will be ok. I have used it for some used guitars that I found but didn't have the cash for. Paid it off ASAP.

 

I'm not the Gov. I have to play by the rules.

[mcmurray]

Here's what's wrong with Guitar Center: http://www.harmonycentral.com/threads

 

Why couldn't they just leave it alone? People are leaving in droves now.

[NeoConMan]

What are we supposed to be looking at on the HC forum?

[guitarmandp]

I dunno CM' date=' have you seen the terms on that stuff - especially the 12 month/no interest thing?

 

We ain't talking a normal credit card here, it's downright brutal!

 

The only place I've seen as bad would be the furniture store chains.[/quote']

 

I have a GC credit card, and if I use it, I make sure to pay off the balance within a week of the purchase date.

 

I've gotten burned several times. I'd go to pay the bill online, and several times I would have to pay $15 to make a "rush payment" and avoid a $35 late charge. This was 2 days before the bill was due. You had to be like 3 "business days" early at least to not have to make a "rush payment"

 

Then I'd go to pay it 3 days before it was due, only problem is the bill was due on a Saturday or Sunday, and you couldn't pay on a Saturday, unless you made it a $15 "rush payment"

 

I now only use the GC credit card for small purchases, and I pay it off within days. I never buy anything "1 year no interest" anymore. If I buy a guitar I use my American Express card.

[NeoConMan]

There ya go...

 

Something my Dad told me as a kid;

"One good thing about learnin' a lesson the hard way - you'll g@dd4m sure remember it!"

 

:-)

 

 

I guess I'm lucky.

I avoided using any sort of store credit, fought my ex-wife over that crap.

Walked away with $60,000 of HER credit card debt when it was all said and done.

She's lucky she's still alive....

 

If you have your own credit cards, that's one thing, but store accounts are a rip-off.

The store wants you to use theirs, because they can make 10, 20 times as much money on you that way.

They count on you screwing up, and paying them dearly.

 

I've heard the stories, seen the sh!t my own wife did, friend's wives, talked to friends who were car dealers...

 

Then I've stood in Guitar Center, looking at the guitars behind the counter.

All the while, listening to the sh!t the sales guy is roping a customer in with - credit, now add insurance...

 

For every Cookie/Guitarman who can do it right, there's 10 more who can't.

And the reason we don't ever hear about it?

The guys who got fxcked the worst are too ashamed to admit it or talk about it.

It's all their own fault, and they're too angry and ashamed to let anybody know how stupid they were.

 

 

ALL YOU YOUNG GUYS AND CREDIT NEWBIES READ THIS.

 

Back when a new Les Paul Studio cost $999 at Guitar Center, I knew of a guy who paid over

$3,000 for his to try and save his credit - and it didn't work. They destroyed it anyway.

 

1.

He agreed to pay MSRP for the factory hardcase that the guitar was shipped in!

I know Guitar Center will tell you they lower the price on the guitar and then sell them separately.

Bullsh!t.

The MSRP on the guitar reflected the total price in the case, that's what his "discount" was based on.

Then he paid an additional $200+ for the "proper" hardcase, since he was buying such a fine guitar.

 

2.

Then he agreed to a Guitar Center warranty for two years. Better than Gibson's warranty....

Covered any problems, all he had to do was bring the guitar back to Guitar Center, they could fix it.

If they couldn't fix it, he would get another brand new guitar! (And you know they would sell his old one.)

 

3.

After the really cool, really friendly, really smart Sales Dude had all this on the hook, then he made the kill.

For an additional 10% off (remember how much they had jacked up the price?) he could open an account.

Yes sir, he could qualify for a Guitar Center credit card and get all kinds of rewards.

He had the cash to pay for it all there, but took the bait of One Year/No Interest - use their money, eh?

 

4.

Like Guitarman sez, he paid off the account well before the 12 month deadline.

They kept mailing him a blizzard of sh!t, offers of every kind, sales flyers, exclusive specials for credit card folks...

And there were small fees that kept popping up on his zeroed account for 5 bucks, 20 bucks....

He would call them, spend all day on the phone, tell them to close the account, they would apologize.

 

5.

Then his next bill would come, and he would call them again.

Guess what?

"Oh, yeah, that bill was a mistake. Your account should be closed, it just takes several weeks for it to go thru."

 

6.

Next bill comes, with $100 worth of fees and sh!t, so he calls them again.

Spends hours on the phone.

"Looks like you've done everything you need to, the account should be closing anytime. Just ignore that bill."

 

7.

Now the kill...

He ignores a couple bills, the balance is like $300, and he says "Fxck it, I don't owe those *** holes anything."

 

8.

The next bill he gets is around $1,500. This is AFTER he's already paid $1,700 for a $999 guitar.

There's a letter explaining how he did not fulfill his obligation to pay the account balance in full.

All the interest on his purchase is now retroactivefrom the purchase date at 24.9%.

His account "status" has now changed and is in a different "program" now.

 

He has the interest, all sorts of fees and penalties for not paying his bill on time, and interest on the fees!!!

 

9.

Of course he calls them and starts raising hell.

They hang up on him.

He can't get a real live person to talk to him, only an automated menu to make his payments.

To be helpful, the automated menu warns of the substantial late fees and penalties.

 

10.

Weeks later, he finally finds an account manager who will "work" with him.

They set up a payment plan for one year and waived some of the fees.

 

The new $999 Les Paul Studio in the factory hard case cost him a little over $3,000.

And they dinged his credit for being "late" on several payments while he was fighting with them.

To add insult to injury - he went from having very little credit to having BAD CREDIT all in one fell swoop.

 

 

 

Guitar Center might have bought that LP Studio - in the case - for $750.

Cash deal, they might clear $200 on it, in a sale that takes maybe 20 minutes.

But that's not how they operate.

If they can spend an hour, using three employees to lure you into other sh!t, they might clear $800 on it.

THAT'S MORE THAN THEY PAID FOR THE FxCKING THING! That's a profit over 100%!!!

 

Now, look how many people our victim had to deal with.

How do ALL of those people get paid on a guitar deal that nets Guitar Center a measly $200?

 

They don't.

 

That's why it's so important for Guitar Center and their creditor to make those ugly deals.

That's why it's so important for our victim to pay over $3,000 for a $999 guitar that cost them maybe $750.

We're talking about a $200 profit that became a profit of well in excess of $2,000.

 

Are you okay with that?

Do YOU wanna be "that guy" who got screwed that bad?

Remember this too - once you use credit, there's no returning the guitar after the thirty days - if then.

Whether you want the guitar or not, you have no choice but to pay for it.

 

Doesn't matter how badly the consumer gets hurt, because they've closed down all the competition.

Where else you gonna buy?

 

 

 

Go ahead, shop at Guitar Center all you want to.

And the next time Guitar Center asks if you would like a Guitar Center credit card, jump on it.

[Blackie]

Thats horrible...............it's a good thing I destroyed my credit years ago when things were not as F'd up as today.

Cash and carry ........no cash no carry for me.

[NeoConMan]

And the interest rates have gone up dramatically since then.

 

Anybody care to whip out their Guitar Center credit card statement and tell us what the "fine print" says?

[guitarmandp]

And the interest rates have gone up dramatically since then.

 

Anybody care to whip out their Guitar Center credit card statement and tell us what the "fine print" says?

 

Actually I'm not nearly as smart as you think. I had 3 bad experiences 5 years ago where I learned the hard way several years ago not to deal with those store credit cards. I didn't really want to get into this because I didn't think it was anybody's business but I will bring out some skeletons in my closet.

 

I am very good about paying my entire credit card balances off on time, but I have never been good about the store credit cards so I now pay them off within days of making the charge. The biggest reason I pay them off early is because I would wait until 2 days before the bill was due and then it wouldn't accept my payment unless I paid $15 for a "rush payment".

 

The only reason that I use the Guitar Center credit card at all, is because the credit card companies cancel credit cards that don't get used, which negatively impacts your credit. Any purchase I make over $100 gets paid for with an American Express card, and I've made some huge purchases this past year. I get 1.25% cash back. I got $3,000 back last year.

 

Anyways here are a few of the mistakes I made 5 years ago. I have learned from my mistakes and I've decided that the risk of using a Guitar Center or Best Buy credit card is greater than the reward.

 

I had a Carvin 7 string guitar custom made and I got it through one of those 12 months no interest deals. I set it up on autopay to automatically deduct the minimum payment with the idea being to pay the rest off when it was due. What these banks do though is they make your minimum pay extremely low. It was a $1,200 guitar, but the minimum payment was only like $15. They make the minimum payments extremely low, and bank on the fact that you won't have the money in 12 months. The way it was setup online, I had two choices, pay the minimum or pay the balance. It wouldn't even let me pay 8.5% each month. Anyways my car got broken into about 5 months after I bought the guitar and my checkbook was stolen. I closed my checking account and I switched everything (or at least I thought), I changed my health insurance, cell phone, cable tv, electric, american express, chase, etc ... to get automatically withdrawn from my new bank account. I totally forgot to switch the Carvin until a few months later I got a call from some jerk at a collection agency demanding the entire balance. I paid it along with a hefty finance charge for breaching their contract, and this hurt my credit. In 2 or 3 years it will be off my credit report, thank god.

 

I'd like to sell the Carvin. I rarely ever play it, but everytime I've ever opened the case I can't stop thinking about how my car got broken into, and what a nightmare that was when my checkbook got stolen.

 

I bought a computer 4 or 5 years ago for like $1,000 with a Best Buy credit card that had no interest no payments for 12 months. I never made any payments and I figured I'd just wait until the last minute. For some reason I had it in my head that the payment was due in November. It was actually due in October and I got socked with a 20% finance charge.

 

The bank that has my Best Buy card is HSBC bank, and they also do the Guitar Center credit cards as well.

 

I bought a laptop from Circuit City, 5 years ago for $1,600 and this was a similar deal, only you had to make payments, but their was supposedly "no interest". There was a big ad in one of those Circuit City newspapers that they send out advertising 12 months no interest. Anyways I divided the total up by 12 and that was my payment for 12 months. I was getting finance charges. I said something to my mom and she said "Oh, they credit all of your finance charges after you pay it off". I was young and stupid and didn't know any better so I continued to make the payments. After paying off the entire laptop, I didn't see any credit so I called customer service and told them that I had 12 months no interest and they should give me a credit for my finance charges. The lady on the other end of the phone said "I have no idea what you are talking about". I told her "What about the big ad in the newspaper", she said "You better go to the library". At that point I realized I was screwed.

 

I vowed never to buy from Circuit City again. I made one more purchase from them in 2008 when I bought two bluray discs at "60% off" of heavily marked up prices during their going out of business sale.

[dem00n]

Isnt Circuit City gone?

[guitarmandp]

Isnt Circuit City gone?

 

Yes' date=' I bought some stuff at their going out of business sale. But if you went to the going out of business sale, you really weren't buying from Circuit City, you were buying from the liquidator.

 

[chungkey]

And the interest rates have gone up dramatically since then.

 

Anybody care to whip out their Guitar Center credit card statement and tell us what the "fine print" says?

 

I'll give your friend $550 for it, if it's black.

[Blackie]

What now..............................please............................Duane !