Upon entering I was greeted by someone who I did not see and then I had to wait to speak with an associate at the register. I told them that I had called about this guitar and spoken to an associate named (removed) and was informed that they had 1 left in the color I wanted most. He looked it up and said "It's over there on the grey part of the back wall" and turned away to go back to his previous, apparently more important, task. I went to the section of store he said and found what I thought was the guitar about 6 feet too high to even touch. Back to the front register and another wait. Told him I found it but couldn't be sure since I could not read the tag from that distance. He came back and got a ladder rig to retrieve it, it was indeed the right one and he handed it to me. I started to look it over and when I looked up he was walking away. I know NOTHING about guitars, this is a new thing to me, I only picked this one from a suggestion by someone who plays who I trust. Now feeling completely like I'm nothing but a nuisance to the entire store I head for the register again and just want to pay for the f'n thing and go. We drove 50 miles to get here in the rain on the Friday after work rush to New Hampshire on Memorial Day weekend.
While looking it over in the car on the way home I noticed that there was no tremolo bar on it. I checked online and sure enough it is supposed to come with one. Immediately called the store and explained that I was just there 30 minutes ago to buy this and that the tremolo was missing. I was told "Aaaahh It doesn't come with one." I pointed out that online it clearly states that it indeed does come with one. Nope, it doesn't, yes it does, no it doesn't, yes it does, no it doesn't. Silence. I was then advised to order one from the website at full retail and pay the shipping.
Now thoroughly pissed, I called the HQ customer service number and explained the situation. They agreed with me but made no attempt to explain the stores behavior or offer even a glimpse of an apology when I explained my experience. They were friendly and helpful on the issue at hand however, and have arranged to ship me one so I don't have to travel back to the store to return the entire guitar by shoving it up ........never mind.
So situation pending resolution but I'm likely 2 weeks out from having a complete guitar and the Nashua GC store, will never see me again and unless GC has a really good reason for me to return I'm not going to volunteer to feel like &$%^.
After arriving home I found the email from customer service about my replacement tremolo and the address I gave them is wrong. Wrong town wrong zip, if it ships like this I'll never get it. Back on the phone to GC Customer Service to correct the address. The system decides where you live and what address is best, no overrides possible. We finally decide that I can never get anything delivered unless it is to my post office box so any item over about 3 lbs. I can't buy from them. ?. Just put my address in the way I ask, no other online retailer has a problem with that and things arrive just fine on a near daily basis.
Now my opinion of GC is not good. They use an outmoded sales policy in the store where individual salespeople are on commission I guess since only *original salesperson* could ring me up (another wait while they found him). Yeah that's right, GC uses a strategy straight out of 1983 where NOONE in the store will help you unless they touched you first. The only team work here is backwards facing toward the corporate HQ, customer side you get 1 person, better hope he/she knows what the hell you're talking about. The address thing is a complete mystery, it's like they have a database of addresses they ship to and if you're not lucky enough to live in one of those houses, tough luck mate.
Follow up:
After this letter was received by the Nashua store I received a call from the store's Customer Service Manager apologizing for my experience. He used a phrase that was very telling and gave me some insight. During the conversation he used the phrase " ...our store is trying to turn this around... " . I have to conclude from that that they have had a long standing issue with customer complaints.
I accepted his apology and said I would consider this a one off experience and give them another chance in the future. I received an email from him with his contact info and a note that read in part
" Please feel free to reach out at any time, and I'd be happy to make sure your experience is nothing less than Amazing!"
I am now in the market for a clip on tuner and sent this gentleman an email stating that I would be in the area and would like to give the store another chance. I also asked if he could check to insure that the item I am looking for is in stock.
NOTHING. No reply . I think you can guess where I will NOT be buying the tuner. Fool me once etc... read more