I went there 2 weeks ago for the first time, and bought a $230 guitar. They were offering a 15% discount, which would have been around $30.
When I was paying, the employee said the total was $247. I asked if that included the 15% discount, and he said "Yes". I knew something was wrong, so I went out to my car to look at the receipt. There was no 15% discount. I went back in, and another employee refunded me the 15% bringing the total to $207. I know mistakes happen, but what irritated me was that the first employee looked me right in the face and said YES when he clearly knew the discount had not been applied. But that's ok, it is the holidays and it was late at night, and the 2nd employee went above and beyond to correct everything.
Tonight I went back and brought in a guitar that I've had for around 20 years. I was looking to upgrade and wanted to see what the trade in credit would be for my old guitar.
I asked the man at the register if he would mind looking at my guitar and letting me know what the trade in value would be. He said YES he could do that, but first he had to help other customers in the store. There was no one else in line, which was a bit confusing, but I said "Ok no problem, take your time, I'll just go look around."
After about 20 minutes, I walked back up to the counter and the manager was there this time. I asked him if he could look at my guitar for me. He looked me square in the eye and said "No I can't, I have to do Christmas stuff."
Not understanding the definition of "Christmas Stuff", I asked what it meant.
He said "Its Christmas time and I have to help other customers." Then he said he could help me if I came back on Monday at 1pm, which would be slightly difficult for a person who works during the day. I thanked him for his time, and apologized for interrupting his "Christmas Stuff."
I take full responsibility for the entire interaction. It was my fault for being ignorant of the definition of "Christmas Stuff," Which I still don't understand clearly. I was a customer, there to make a purchase. But apparently there exists some sort of a discriminatory "Customer hierarchy" that I was clearly unaware of as well. He did say that "Everything is online" which I assume means that he would have to type some letters into a Google search engine to find out the value of my guitar upon which he would offer a trade in value. A 30 second process which I have already done twice.
The correct response would have been "Sure I can do that for you, but it may take me a little while longer than usual as I have other customers to assist as well, but if you don't mind waiting, I'd be more than happy to help." To which I would have responded "Sure no problem, it will give me more time to pick out the new guitar I want." So not only did I walk out with all my money in my pocket, they also just lost a customer for life. Which stinks because now I'll have to drive further out of my way to go somewhere else. read more