Guitar Center reviews and complaints 1
View all 88 complaintsGuitar Center - bad management
This is by far the WORST managed store run by the WORST possible human being. The store manager is a self indulgent ###. I know this because as an employee I witness this first hand and Human Resources refuses to do anything about it. He does nothing but talk down to and belittle his employees. And if there is ever a disagreement with him that he ends up being wrong anyway, he either fires you or makes your life hell until you just quit. Also, if you are a customer then forget it. He puts on the smile and the dance to make them feel important, then bad mouths the hell out of them the second they turn their backs to walk away. He is greedy, lies, and changes stories or events so that he is always right and anything that anyone else could ever do will always be wrong. I could make more money and have less stress working at a gas station than at Guitar Center. And also do not sell any used items to him he will pay you less than dirt for any used gear that has value to it. Plus, on a final rant, of course company and store rules do not apply to him, but heaven help you if you even mess up a little. He'll rip your head off. This is not the military you jerk, it's retail.
Alto's Music has better pricing. WAY better.
Josh Kates is the store manager here. I've met him before, and yes he is a huge [censored]. I saw him embarrass one of his own employees in the drum section just to make himself seem like a big shot in front of other customers. I felt sorry for the employee. It makes you want to not shop there, but it is a commission based pay and i pity any Guitar Center employee. Management is terrible and it hurts the employee trying to make a living.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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Same experience I just bought I went to the store to return unit but they said can not return it. just bought the unit March 31. 2017 return it April 4. I call their customer service pretty much the same thing happen. THIS IS NOT! a good store. The product I bought was scarlet solo. Even the manager from customer service was not helpful!
I worked at Guitar Center for nearly 8 years and led all sales and profit for the Rhode Island location each year...then they sent a new younger store manager named Anthony Barber to the location and things started going bad...
I questioned his ethics when he started dating a girl that worked at the door after the first week of being the 'new store manager'...
I noticed that money was missing more and more and that our operations team was saying that stuff was being stolen more and more...
Then after several months of not getting along with this IDIOT I was fired because I bought a guitar case at cost...
I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG IN THIS SITUATION BUT NOW I AM OUT OF A JOB THAT I LOVED AND THAT I WAS VERY GOOD AT...I AM ALSO WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 7 YEARS!
I JUST WANT TO LET PEOPLE KNOW MY STORY AND HOW THIS GUY ABUSED HIS POWER TO GET RID OF ME BECAUSE I DIDN"T AGREE WITH HIM AND BECAUSE I WAS MORE QUALIFIED AND CERTIFIED THAN HE WAS!
I have attached pictures of this guitar case that I bought for cost and you can see that it was old and broken and I was treated unfair!
I WENT TO HUMAN RESOURCES AND THEY DID NOTHING...THE LADY THAT RUNS THE DISTRICT HUMAN RESOURCES IS ALSO THE LADY THAT HIRED THIS GUY AND HELPED GET HIM PROMOTED!
IF ANYONE HAS EVER HAD TROUBLE IN THE RHODE ISLAND GUITAR CENTER, PLEASE WRITE A LETTER AND LET THEM KNOW HOW YOU WERE TREATED!
Guitar Center El Paso has a store manager dating a sales training manager. This is wrong and serious and exemplifies a situation that IS taboo. Other people that have worked there have been fired for less without a write up! Kenny Flamer needs to involve himself in this A.S.A.P.! This relationship has been presented in public as well while some employees are aware but too afraid to say anything since it may cost them their jobs. Do something please.
I worked for the Guitar Center many years and had some great times and some not so great times.
Unfortunately all the good times I had at Guitar Center were recently ruined forever for me. Most people
who had a bad experience working for Guitar Center blamed it on the pay structure. If I had a nickel for
every time Guitar Center messed up on my pay check I would be rich. I know I have had missing money
on several of my pay check that probably adds up to thousands of dollars. If you are a employee
at Guitar Center and you miss a punch on your time card there is a good chance you will never see that
money or get terminated for missing punches. The right thing to do is for Guitar Center to correct your
time card before it goes to payroll so you get paid. I remember a time when I was on team pay and I sold
$10, 000 gross profit for the company, and when I got my paycheck there was only hourly on the check no commission.
I then asked the manager what happened and he said “I have nothing for you sorry”. Let’s talk about
floor deals. This is when a certain product is sold and the cash has to be put in the safe right then when purchase is done. Here is the problem, nobody wants to carry the companies money in there pocket. And sometimes it could be $30, 000 or more in cash in your pocket, and if the money comes up missing the employee has to pay back or get fired. Well there are so many different variables that could happen to money in you pocket, or you give to a manager who takes it home and blames it on employee.
Lets think about this, that means that Guitar Center is never responsible for cash, check, etc and always the employees has to pay back. These are just a couple of the problems at Guitar Center, and honestly I forgave Guitar Center for stuff like this sometime ago because I liked working there. I was recently fired from Guitar Center in Lewisville TX for something that I learned from the store manager. Keep in mind I was a STM stands for Sales Training Manager and well experienced in buying used gear. A kid walked in Guitar Center to sell a guitar, and some effects pedals. The guitar did not work, and had no strings, ducted taped up with other stickers all over it. We told the kid that we could not buy this guitar (Schecter Omen 6). The kid offered to get rid of the guitar for $20, I wanted help the kid so I gave him $20 in the parking lot not in the store and it was done. The next day I told the store manager out of good faith about the guitar, and he said he would take care of it. I came in for work and after buying new strings and donating money to Haiti through Guitar Center I got a phone call, it
was the HR dept at corporate office. After asking me many questions about the guitar I was told to go home. Three days later they called and fired me for this. The only reason I did this is because my store manager had bought a Schecter Hellraiser for $150 from a customer after telling him we cannot buy it for the store, the guitar he bought worked great and he needed a guitar because he just joined a band. ( This is a Conflict of interest). I explained to the Hr dept about this and they did not care about the store manager buying a $900 guitar for $150 from a customer, he still is the manager of Guitar Center Lewisville.
Guitar Center, Inc.
A class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of current and former employees against the guitar and amplifier retail store. The class claimed Guitar Center improperly documented and enforced break time and lunch time periods for hourly retail store employees in the State of California. Guitar Center has agreed to a preliminary agreement which will make cash payments of up to $3.5 million to fully resolve claims by eligible class members. (Dec-16-05)
Leland P. Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Guitar Center, commented, "While the Company denies all liability or wrongdoing in these cases, we chose to settle these lawsuits in order to put them behind us and avoid the distraction and additional, unnecessary legal expenses that we would otherwise incur."
For the people that do not know what a settlement is, it’s when a company or person pays there way out of trouble. I was one of there managers that would enforce no lunch breaks. The way it worked was Guitar Center would get a bunch of cheap pizza on a really busy day like July 4th sale. The employees where given
a couple minutes to gobble down some food and then was told to get back on the sales floor for a really long day, not even a fifteen minute break, also Guitar Center will take an hour out of your day for lunch even if you do not take a lunch.
Guitar Centers mission statements.
Our Core Purpose
Build a vehicle that allows all associates and customers to achieve their goals, pursue their dreams
and reach their destiny.
Our Core Values
INTEGRITY Steadfastly adhering to our commitments and ethical code.
HONESTY Doing the right thing in our business decisions and not allowing deception or fraudulent
conduct to have a place in our culture.
WINNING Playing and winning as a team at everything we do and never being satisfied with just
Competing.
LEADERSHIP Encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in everyone so as to bring innovations and creative
solutions to the forefront and mentoring associates to achieve their full potential.
Guitar Center will lie too you.
Think again when you are filling out that application at Guitar Center for a job.
I worked for Guitar Center for almost eight years and now I have to start over. I’m 33 years old with a house, wife, and five month old daughter.
I always thought Guitar Center’s idea of business and store layout was awesome, but its all about the people and a lot of the employee’s at Guitar Center do not live up to the core purpose not even close especially a lot of managers, Hr, and all the people who are doing the wrong thing. You know who you are it will come back you one day. Also keep in mind that you have no job security like you think. One day maybe Guitar Center will respond to all the complaints made by good people out there in the world that were unfairly treated at Guitar Center and stop making gin pigs out of employee’s. I now do not recommend anyone to shop or work there, they don’t care about you believe me I was one of the brain washed managers who only saw dollars signs in my head when I saw a customer. “Guitar Center made me screw some of my best friends over and, so that being said I’m truly sorry for anything I did to any of my friends while working at Guitar Center. I now see the light and all the good things in people again. Thank you Guitar Center for firing me! And by the way I still get a check every two weeks that comes from Guitar Center, I guess it’s just another way too settle for Guitar Center!
God Bless,
Dank
F U Guitar Center! I will NEVER EVER buy anything from Guitar Center again, I will never even set foot in Guitar Center again, I will not even accompany someone to Guitar Center and wait in the car!
I HAVE ALSO SPENT YEARS BUYING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OF STUDIO GEAR, RUMS, ETC FROM GTR CTR.THE SALESPEOPLE THERE ARE ABOUT THE SALE.WHAT EVER MAY HAPPEN W MISSING OR LOST SHIPPING ORDERS, PARTS, BACK ORDERS WHATEV.ARE LEFT TO YOU.THE MAIN THING I THINK IT TOOK ME A MINUTE TO UNDERSTAND IS(WE LOVE MUSIC, THEY WORK IN A STORE THAT CATERS TO MUSICIANS)YET..FROM THE RUDE STAFF(ONLINE)TO JUST NOT KNOWING HOW TO DEAL W LOST ORDERS, THEY JUST DONT HAVE THE SAME TRUE LEVEL OF PASSION OR KNOWLEDGE THAT WE WOULD EXPECT FROM A STORE GEARED TO SERVE@THUS TAKE OUR HARD EARNED CASH.I SPENT 8GRANG REDOING HALF MY STUDIO.I ORDERED THE GEAR ONLINE AT A GTR CENTER TO CHECK THAT ALL ITEMS WERE IN STOCK)THEY SAID ALL ITEM WERE IN@THAT DAY WHEN I WENT TO MY BANK THE FUNDS HAD BEEN WITHDRAWN ONLY TO SPEND THE NEXT 2 MONTHS CALLING, WAITING@TRYING TO CANCEL OVER HALF THE(BACKORDERED)GEAR!