Guitar Center: The Almost Rant
I really don’t expect this month’s blog to be long, in fact, it was actually going to be a rant about a purchase I made from Guitar Center in Fairfax, Va. The rant as this blog was meant to become a fast and quick resolve through calm, reasonable dialogue between myself and the store manager of the Fairfax Guitar Center, John.
In late April early May I was researching guitar amplifiers, I wanted something around the house to noodle on, wasn’t wanting to gig or start a band, but something not too big with a warm, bluesy tone, The Fender line of tube amps fit what I was looking for; Blues deluxe reissue, NOS, Blues jr.
So after many hours/days of reading reviews, watching Youtube videos, I settled upon a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue, 40 watts, in good condition from Guitar Center. Though I saved many amps in my “wish list”, I was sure this was the one, I placed my order finally on May 25th.
The big day had arrived on June 2nd, I had delivery showing by the end of the day per the UPS app on my phone, I’m not sure if the delivery required my signature though both UPS and FedEx sign my name and leave the item on my porch without my consent. That’s another story for another time.
So it was no surprise to me to find a box (a very large box) sitting on the front porch, at first glance the box appeared tattered, torn, beaten up. No way this was my amp, had to be something else, maybe the wife ordered something and my package was coming later; Nope!! further inspection of the shipping label clearly showed it was from GC. My excitement quickly turned to anger, not only at the condition of the box, but the poor tape job on the outside of the box as well, but clearly UPS was not innocent in this. I at first decided to hold off expecting the contents till the next day since I had other pressing issues to contend with at the time, but I felt I needed to confront this. So I opened the box.
First, off I noticed the lack of bubble wrap, just one piece laying across the grill cloth; the rest of the packing consisted of wadded up paper, little to no protection for the amplifier inside.
At first glance, the amp looked unscathed, unlike the outer box (eye roll). I started to feel this situation wasn’t as bad after all until I decided to get my guitar and plug it in, hit a note on my guitar, and nothing. Well maybe I needed to let the tubes warm up, still nothing, just the unsettling sound of the reverb echoing every time I moved the amp. So after further inspection, I noticed one of the preamp tubes was shattered completely just hanging on barely from the glass and wires, from its socket. Then I noticed the impact point on the back left corner of the amp.
I didn’t waste any time and soon I was on the phone to the guitar center, well I got to the store and was transferred to someone I thought was located at the Fairfax store, later on,. I spoke to someone named Logan, told him my situation; from the poor packing, damaged box, and broken preamp tube, His response to me? “What do you expect when you buy a used amp”, what?! are you kidding me.
After serval minutes on the phone with Logan, and me repeatedly telling him it was the preamp tube(s) I needed, what does this young Man do, well to add insult to injury, he sends me the wrong tubes, I received the 2 larger tubes that are in the amp, I then decided to order the correct ones myself,
Once the correct tubes arrived I decided to take my amp to a local guitar repair shop, Alpha Music, I told them to do whatever was needed to get this amp back to 100%, and they did, wonderful work.
There was still one thing I felt compelled to do, Call the GC Fairfax store and speak to a manager about my less than satisfactory experience, not so much to be compensated for my trouble, but to hopefully pass on what I had to deal with so no one else would have to experience the same. It was a Thursday when I spoke to their customer service manager lets call him “He that shall not be named” (his idea prior to the blog being written). He in turn referred me to the store manager, John (that wasn’t in that day) on this matter, so I decided to call back the next. day.
So that Friday, July 30th I called John, I won’t get into the whole conversation John and I had. I will say it was calm, John checked his computer about my order, the person Logan I spoke to about the replacement tubes, which John told me I must have gotten transferred to the distribution center, that is why there was no Logan that worked at the Fairfax store when I inquired. This is where it gets interesting, John also told me that the amp I received was actually not the one I ordered, I noticed this when I looked at some screenshots I did of the one I thought I was getting, it had some marks, it showed use, character.
The amp I had in my possession was actually a newer one, according to John, he said he had 2 at the store at the time I placed my order and one was missing, seems there was a “new” person they had working at the store and he shipped me the wrong amp, it should have dawned on me the amp I had was different, how many used amps come with the little cardboard info sheet that lists the features of the amp.
The bottom line is I know that retail folks always get the short end of the stick when it comes to complaints, they’re treated like crap on a daily basis, the store manager at the GC Fairfax store was very intentive, understandable, and showed a genuine concern in what I went through that lead to our conversation. All I wanted to do or expected the end result to be was to be heard, not a lot of yea, yea, blah, blah, blah, I just needed to be heard, and I came away from the conversation with just that, John also refunded me my shipping which was very generous. I will be shopping at this store in the future.
