Colin M.

Once upon a time I worked at Guitar Center. I was trained in customer service pretty well and felt compelled to learn the products and add-ons not just for my own sales numbers but for the benefit of the customer as well. It appears as though the training program I was put through is no longer in service because the service is lackluster at best now. I went to guitar center to get a loop pedal. I knew which one I wanted (The Boss RC-1) and was hoping to get in and out. Here are areas to improve in, take notes guitar center employee's, because if I had been confronted with a sales associate who gave a lick about me OR knew the products at all I would not be writing this review.
1. No one approached me to help for around 10 minutes. I get the employee's are busy with calls and customers and what not but no one even acknowledged me. All it takes is 2 seconds - "hey man, sorry we're real busy with phone calls and customers right now but we see you and we'll help you out ASAP." Simple and effective.
2. I knew more about the guitar products I was buying. This wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the fact that I'm a drummer. I told the sales associate what I wanted and the first words out of his mouth were "I think you should get this pedal (pointing to the RC-3 which is twice the cost of the RC-1) It has way more recording time. The one you're looking at only has like 30 seconds." If I hadn't known better I probably would have listened to him and spent way more than I wanted to OR needed to. The RC-1 has 12 minutes of recording time. Associate said 30 seconds to try and upsell. He didn't know the product and he pulled a pretty shady tactic to try and get me to spend more money. Gross.
3. In the area where he COULD have gotten me to spend more money he completely failed. Instead of thinking about add-ons I might need he went instantly to "I really think you should buy the protection plan." From working at Guitar center I know this can be hit or miss and I NEVER get it. The problem is I needed an adapter, a guitar cable, some picks, a chord book, NONE of which he suggested at all. All of that is forgivable EXCEPT the power adapter, that should have been the FIRST THING he suggested! I was about to check out when I was like "wait, this doesn't have any adapter does it?" Ooops. Thanks for nothing sales associate.

Guitar Center has their work cut out for them if they want to stay the nations leading musical instrument supplier, because I feel like every time I go there the customer service is worse than the time before. The only reason they're getting 2 stars is because they have a great selection.