guitar megastore
okay, so i realize that complaining about the shopping experience at guitar center is akin to breathing, but a recent trip to the local gc reminded me of why i despise megastores. first let me say that the only reason i was visiting said megastore is that a friend of mine gave me a $50 gift certificate. she is a teacher and knows that i play bass so i understand her buying me this as opposed to a more useful trade up music gift certificate (which may not even exist).my goal was to accomplish two things: 1) return a midi cable 2) use returned midi cable and the aforementioned gift certificate to buy a midi merger. simple enough? you'd think so. i walked in through the amusement park turnstyle where i was half-heartedly greated by gc's equivalent to the wal-mart greeter (you know an employee who is incompetent of doing anything else, so they are allowed to sit at the entrance, say hello, and delay your exit by cross refrencing your receipt against any stolen merchandise you may have. after checking in my return item i marched into the keyboards/midi/recording department. after a quick survey of the midi boxes behind the counter, i looked for a salesperson who was not busy. there were three sales guys trying to figure out how one of them could take some recording mics home without paying for them. i eavesdropped:
dude 1: so if I pay now as a ‘layaway paid in full’ that should work right?
dude 2: no because then it would have to stay in the store. Layaways stay in the store.
dude 3: well maybe you could pay in full and then return it afterwards?
dude 1: no, cuz I can’t pay in full.
dude 2: you can’t return these opened. I could sell this to you as a ‘base sale’ [ed note: not to be confused with a bass sale] I think that’s the only way…
at this point i lost interest and turned to the fourth sales guy who looked lost behind the counter.
lost guy: hey man how’s it goin’
me: good. i was looking for a 2 to 1 midi merger. do you guys have anything like that?
lost guy: um, i’m new here, hold on a sec... (he pulls dude 2 away from the microphone discussion to ask about the merger)
dude 2: yeah they’re right there (pointing to the rack behind my head)
now i think that i’m the idiot in the scenario until i see that he has pointed to a 1 to 1 midi to mac interface.
me: oh yeah, sorry, that’s not what i’m looking for. i think it was a midi solutions product.
lost guy: midi solutions?
me: yeah.
lost guy: is that one word or two?
me: (trying not to sound sarcastic) i think it’s two...
needless to say they didn’t have what i wanted. after fumbling through the computer and finding a midi solutions 2 to 2 we gave up and processed my return, at which point the kid produced this gem:
lost guy: okay so here is your IN STORE CREDIT slip, hold onto it cuz it’s just as good as cash.
me: well technically it’s not because if it was cash i could go buy a burrito at taco bell.
lost guy: huh?
me: never mind...
it may be harder to spend the $50 simply based on principle.
posted by kazuhank @ 8:37 AM
3 Comments:
Those GC guys are such ass-clowns. I went in there with my brother to look at basses once, and the guys there were more interested in helping their teen rocker brethren try out their chops on cheap crap than helping my bro who had a pocketful of cash and was ready to buy. Eff them. Good luck finding something there to buy with your burrito money.
no kidding. it will probably end up as strings whenever i need those again. i do have a couple of friends there, so i guess i'm in for a buttload of strings.
don't waste your gift certificate on a buttload of strings!? how about putting some money down on a nice bigital piano for moi?
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