Selling you things they don't actually have
So I'm not denying that this company does some things well, pricing and product range tend to be good, and the ability to earn credit towards future purchases through memebership points is nice. But after my latest incident (and in seeing from other reviews that this kind of occurence is not that unusual) there was no way I could go above 2 stars. To recap, they had an open box special on a Squier bass I was interested in. Seeing that the price was so attractive, I jumped on it right away, buying it immediately and feeling really good about the purchase. Then a week passes by and don't hear anything from them. Then another and I get a message apologizing for the delay but saying the item has been backordered (I knew right then the shennanigans were coming). A few days later I'm told by them sorry, you "stumped us," we don't have this item anymore, we'll be returning your money. They included a phone # for a customer service person to call if I wanted to discuss further. Well of course I did, I was aggravated as hell and wanted some satisfaction for the nonsense they pulled on me. But from the 1st moment I started the call I could tell this guy had gone thru the most basic "dealing with clients 101" training, expressing lots of pretend empathy and understanding, always staying calm and pretend friendly, but doing nothing for me in reality. You would think that given how they screwed me out of a legal purchase I made, how they kept my money for a few weeks, denying me the opportunity to purchase the same instrument or something similar from someone else during this time period, that they might've thrown me a bone in compensation, a gift card maybe or at least a % off a future purchase coupon. But no, nothing. Instead what I got was the CSR's sales training from MF kicking in and him pushing other basses they have in stock on me (none of them being on special like the previous one mind you). He even offered me the opportunity to buy it right there and then from him on the phone using my cc, how lucky for me!!! Such absolute crap. I'm sure they either had some favored customer jump the line ahead of me to get the bass I bought, or maybe someone from the company saw what a good deal it was and took it themselves, or it's possible it was simply a bait and switch scheme along and they never actually had the item but used it to lure suckers like me in. Whatever the case, it's a gross way to do business. Cutthroat practices like that are ruining the retail sector and they didn't even have the decency to try and make things right with me, just pushed the hard sell instead. So if you've transacted with them and never encountered this situation, God bless you, I can understand your having mostly postive feelings. But me, I can't pretend this never happened and will be looking to purchase my musical equipment elsewhere. I may not always love Guitar Center, but they never F'ed me over like this.