Guitar Center customer service story

[jared]

A few weeks ago my audio jack on my Martin DCME got all messed up. The jack was all loose and wouldn't tighten when I screwed it in.

I took my guitar to GC on Sept 23rd. They said they outsource all repair work to 2 places - 1 for warranty work, 1 for non-warranty work. The audio jack is covered by Martin's lifetime guarantee

I called a week later - they said it was still out and that I'd get a phone call when it was in. Called every few days after that - got the same response. One time a GC employee gave me the numbers to both shops - told me to call them and ask when it'd be done. The warranty service shop said he thinks he remembers working on it, and is in the "done" pile to get sent back to GC.

Called today (17 days later) - A veteran employee (who actually sold the guitar to me) said IT NEVER EVEN WENT OUT. He said "my co-workers don't know how to read service tickets" and that it "slipped through the cracks".

He said I have 2 options - send it to a local guy for 20 bucks, or send it out to a martin service center which would probably take A MONTH. WTF! no chance I'm paying for this - it's under warranty - and I don't want to wait another 3 weeks for a simple repair. So after I told him the story I got a call back from GC saying they'd cover all the costs for the local guy and that it'd be done by Friday.

The moral of the story is that GC customer support sucks balls, and that even simple repairs can take over a month to fix due to employee incompetence.

[bighuk]

That's why if it's possible you don't buy from GC and support your local mom and pop shops with in house luthiers.

[Twostep13]

i cant stand GC

[sfmartins]

I understand you man. I had more or less the same issue here once. My guitar needed to be refretted and it took them THREE MONTHS!!! Just because of stupid delays between the store and the repair service!

[Twostep13]

just to relay my customer service story...
a week ago, i took my guitar to a local music shop to get a grounding problem fixed and i went in there a week after i took it in to check on it cuz they hadnt called me yet, and thier repiar guy had JUST picked it up that day... i was pretty annoyed when the guy said it would take another week... its damn hard to go without my ugitar for so long!

[m98ter]

Thats strange....th audio jack in the back of my DC16 Aura has came loose too over the course of the past few weeks too...and won't tighten either. Maybe Martins f'ing something up in manufacturing? Luckily though, I buy all my gear a little overpriced from a local shop but get great service in return.....I'll probably have it fixed in about two hours when I decide to take it in.

[Cor]

I used to hate GC. But then a manager I knew there knocked 300 bucks off of a sale price (Not list) for a brand new Gibson ES-175, to match another stores USED price on the same guitar.

I'll always go back there when I'm home, now.

[c_tietze]

Guitar Center sucks. I was at a store once and this mid 40's guitar salesman comes up to me and is like see anything you life?

I said no, you don't have any left handed guitars.

He says we don't carry many left handed guitars.

I replied, yeah no kidding that's what I just said. I had to sit there while my friend picked up almost every acoustic that caught his eye. Good times