Horrible/dumb music salesmen stories thread

[broj15]

I had a guy in guitar center swear up and down that an RG470 was an RG570. I pointed out that it had a lo trs bridge and that 570's weren't issued in that color for the year the guitar was made according to the serial # . Then he was like "man, I get that you're trying to score a deal and all, but this guitar was sold to us by one of the guys that works here and he knows his stuff better than anyone." I told him his guy was either ignorant or a liar and that the guitar just wasn't what I was looking for and then left

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I had a guy in guitar center swear up and down that an RG470 was an RG570. I pointed out that it had a lo trs bridge and that 570's weren't issued in that color for the year the guitar was made according to the serial # . Then he was like "man, I get that you're trying to score a deal and all, but this guitar was sold to us by one of the guys that works here and he knows his stuff better than anyone." I told him his guy was either ignorant or a liar and that the guitar just wasn't what I was looking for and then left

In short: Refused to admit they were wrong.

And while I don't really understand the Ibanez numbering system, I know enough to know a 520 is better than a 320 and that a 7321 isn't even in the same book as a 7620 as far as quality is concerned.

 

[MikeH]

I had a salesperson be an ass to me because I wanted to shave off some of the price for this used ibby. It was overvalued by $200 even if the thing was mint but this one needed so much work that it wouldn't have been worth it even at a crazy low price, but I still liked it so wanted to try and make a deal.

But he literally laughed when I tried to even get $50 off (it's a longer process than described but basically I wanted to see how low he would go since I knew I couldn't get it at any price but sticker after talking to him), he's like oh that's not how these things work, that's not how this works. I even heard him later tell another employee about the "crazy" $50 discount I tried to get. He was basically writing me off as a stupid kid that doesn't know how "business" works, except at that time I just accepted my degrees for business and economics... lol.

If this guy thinks $50 is crazy, he should meet my dad, who walked out with a $250 price drop on a brand new Epiphone Les Paul. I don't know if it was a fluke, or what. But my dad is the king of bargaining.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

If this guy thinks $50 is crazy, he should meet my dad, who walked out with a $250 price drop on a brand new Epiphone Les Paul. I don't know if it was a fluke, or what. But my dad is the king of bargaining.

Kinda reminds me of the Old Man from A Christmas Story.

 

[Pikka Bird]

And while I don't really understand the Ibanez numbering system, I know enough to know a 520 is better than a 320 and that a 7321 isn't even in the same book as a 7620 as far as quality is concerned.

Well, it used to be pretty simple. The first number told you the overall league the guitar was in, the second described the pickup combination (2 = double humbuckers, 5 = HSH with a pickguard, 6 = HSS with pickguard, 7 = rear-routed HSH and a few others) and the last was for the bridge (0 = tremolo, 1 = fixed bridge). If there was a 7 in front then it had seven strings. Then you had the model suffix letter, like the R in RGR meant it had a reverse headstock, a T in RGT was for neck-through.

 

[JoeuJGM]

I've only been to one GC, one time, and fortunately I never had the displeasure of dealing with the kind of BS alot of you have had to. The only reason I was even there was to try out an 8 string or two. They only had one and it sucked so I left with a nice, comfy guitar strap instead
I only go to a small local shop now and everyone there is incredibly helpful and knowledgeable. When I went in for a repair on my 8 string they were demoing a bunch of new Taylor electrics (the ones with the acoustic-type bridges) and I was able to have a great conversation about them, right down to the specs that most people wouldn't give two s**ts about like stacked-humbuckers in a lipstick-sized pickup casing. In a perfect world you could walk into any <insert music store here> and have the same experience any day, not just when that one guy who's a total guitar nerd like most of us is working

 

[cardinal]

I've never had any issues with GC. Sometimes you'll get stuck with someone who doesn't know what they're really talking about, but there's no point in arguing with them. I guess it stinks if they end up misleading someone who doesn't know any better, but it's so easy these days to do your own homework. For the most part, everyone I've been in, the GC sales guys will pull down whatever from the wall and will leave you alone while you tinker with it (unless you're playing really loud, but I can't blame them for that). Just be reasonable: probably not a good idea to go into GC and ask them to pull down a private stock PRS while unshowered and wearing a holey t-shirt and lots of chains/rings/etc. (e.g., things that scratch guitars).

You guys probably know your stuff, but imagine how much crap they must put up with during the day, too. I'm sure tons of guys come in that are completely clueless and broke that give them a hard time.

 

[MAJ Meadows SF]

So last year when I was between jobs, I picked one up at GC store 777. It lasted a couple months before I landed a contracting gig and moved, but I did enjoy it. I've been in and out of all the major chains and can say it varies greatly from place to place. I think in Florida most of the GC stores are solid, and probably because most of the employees are actually reputable musicians, band members, metal heads, jazz players, or have had careers in music to some level. When they actually give a shit about their craft and have experience with gear, it helps make for honest retail, which is NOT always the case unfortunately. Good management makes a big difference too. But I think part of the problem is the over focus on sales instead of gear knowledge. The testing for certifications is ok, but easy to take. They really need to train people in person on the basics and advanced knowledge to understand gear. There are a lot of dumb customers, a lot of gear noobs, but there are also plenty of us that know more than the store and they have to be able to handle that. I could never take the full salesman approach. I'm just not really cut out for retail anyways, and GC was the only job I could manage because I actually gave a damn about what we were selling and the customer being satisfied. That means you start slowly but eventually make enough good connections that people come back for more business because you get what they want and deliver good results. Lying to make sales pisses me off like no other. The store I worked in was one of the few that really stretched themselves to satisfy the customer over "selling them whatever we had in the store", including advising on stuff we can't carry. That's what brought so many people back, including foreign customers, who wound up dumping a lot of money into the place. This made the difference from our store which pulled several million a year versus those that could only make a few hundred thousand. I think a great example was in dealing with Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth. He was patient as hell on a busy day and respected how we focused on the amount of customers being in front of him instead of doing celebrity worship. He waited for his turn, and got the attention needed to grab a custom shop Tele, and left. All of those customers I dealt with are regulars now, plus Jon came back for a setup (I've never seen 11-60s put on a Tele), jammed on some ENGLs, and tossed me a copy of Iced Earth's latest dvd. He came back weeks later to get a starter guitar for his daughter. You know you are doing something right when people come back and ask for you, and most of the people working at that store have similar experiences.

I haven't been in many stores like that, and have seen plenty of them lie through their teeth just to sell something. I hate when as soon as they realize you aren't going to buy something they don't pay any attention to you. I'd rather have someone come in, buy nothing, but jam on stuff and enjoy themselves (without badgering them to buy shit), then to be a cold asshole just focused on gross profit. The stores that have better gear and boutique stuff do so partly because they sell well, but I guarantee it's because they have solid client relationships, know their stuff, and actually care about what the customer wants. Plus they treat a Dean buyer the same as a PRS PS buyer.

 

[Rosal76]

There's a music store that I normally go to and they had a classical guitar that has a hole in the body in which you can clearly see through into the body. I asked if the guitar was discounted (from it's MSRP price) and the sales guy holding it said, "it doesn't affect playability".

 

[Andromalia]

Music stores in Paris aren't too bad in that regard. While I was living in Ireland it was pretty funny however.

 

[ImNotAhab]

Music stores in Paris aren't too bad in that regard. While I was living in Ireland it was pretty funny however.

Any good examples?

 

[goldsteinat0r]

I was buying strings once and for no good reason this 19 year old kid was trying to sell me a synyster gates signature schecter. Not my speed at all and I politely declined. Just the strings thanks. Throughout the transaction (which for some reason took 20 minutes to ring) he KEPT saying "dude play it! When I do I feel like THE REAL SYNYSTER GATES MAN! TRUST ME!"

I was like "Ok....like....NO THANK YOU." *leaves*

 

[Konfyouzd]

They always think I'm gonna buy the $3k Taylor acoustic bc I can coherently play the intro to Call of Ktulu.

 

[TedEH]

This isn't quite as bad as some, but I went into Steve's Music in Ottawa once looking for preamp tubes, was handed a "Mesa" branded tube, and when I asked if they had other ones to try I was asked why I would ever want to do that. These say "Mesa" on them, so clearly they're amazing. They didn't even stock other tubes, since they're all the same right? This is coming from the kind of store that keeps any non- Fender or Gibson guitar in a tiny room at the back of the store, and literally markets themselves with the phrase "if we don't have it, you don't need it".

 

[tacotiklah]

^Cringe-worthy.

 

[mongey]

my mate had a great one . he was buying a nice acousitc. on sale price in the store was $1800 , but on the hand written tag the 1 was kinda close to the $ sign . the young guy on the counter looked at it and actaully said " I cant tell if thats a 1 or not" and my mate says " nah its $800 not $1800 " and he rings him up for $800 without checking which my mate pays cash so he cant be traced and gets the hell out of there

it was a big chain store who are notiroius pricks so its a win to the little guy

 

[Pikka Bird]

^Man, I hope that guy wasn't some poor schmoe trying to pay his way through college or something. Was he one of the notorious pricks?

 

[mongey]

^Man, I hope that guy wasn't some poor schmoe trying to pay his way through college or something. Was he one of the notorious pricks?

nah he wasnt a prick. my mate loves him

 

[UnattendedGolfcart]

I can honestly say that I don't think I've had more than one or two truly helpful statements of information told to me in the Guitar Center near me in the last 5 years that I've gone to that store.

I haven't suffered with ridiculous know it alls as much as other people in this thread, but most of the information I get is just not helpful at all or entirely irrelevant. For instance, over my spring break I was looking at getting a new delay pedal, and I went to that GC to ask about their pedals. The only two they had there that I was interested in were the Boss DD-7 and the Carbon Copy. I already knew a fair bit about them, and I just wanted to see if the sales associates could tell me anything I couldn't find online. They couldn't. In fact, they had less info on them than the basic Musiciansfriend description.

One of the guys was trying to get me to buy the Boss because, quote, "I'm just a Boss guy, I haven't used the Carbon Copy though". Okay, you're recommending me pedal A on the basis that it's a certain brand, and you've never used pedal B to compare? The other girl talking to me there told me to get the Carbon Copy because "analog just sounds better and more true". Wut. Why does it sound better? They couldn't give anything more past their surface level reasons. I already know I want a TC Flashback over either of them, so I didn't buy anything that day.

There's one old guy there who has worked there for years, and no matter what the hell I tell him I'm looking for, he recommends me a Gibson. No matter what.

Once I went in to the store asking if they had any 8 strings available, that old guy gave me some weird look, although two of the other associates there were After The Burial and AAL fans so they knew what I wanted. They couldn't help, unfortunately. I told them I already had a 7 string and was looking for 8 strings, and I got directed to some cheap $300-$400 7 string Ibanez.

Sometimes I just think if you don't have anything helpful to say, don't say anything at all. Or say "We can't help". Don't direct me to something I specified I'm not looking for.

 

[TheStig1214]

So I bought a new amp yesterday (NAD post in the Gear section coming soon. I just need a cab). It was shipped here in NY from an Ohio Guitar Center. It was shipped in an amp box with the footswitch, tubes and power cable separate from the amp. The salesman, whom I've never seen there before btw, asks me if I want to plug into a cab to try it out. I say sure. He plops it on top of a Egnater 4x12, plugs it in and tries to turn it on.

I thankfully stop him before he turns on the amp with no tubes in it.... oh marone.....