Guitar Guitar Epsom

[geoff1711]

Hi All

I went into this new and large store today, and I have to say I was not impressed by the attitude of the staff.

These are a couple of questions I asked and the reply, not word for word but pretty accurate.

1) q) what are the bodies of the Electromatic Gretches made of?
a) Oh bass wood or something cheap like that

Some of these had price tags around the £500 mark

2) q) the Fiesta Red on the 50's Strat looks the wrong colour?
a) yeah well the cheap Fender's colours never come up right they just use whatever is laying around that's close, spend 2
grand on one and they'll probably respray it to the colour you want.

Again we're talking guitars at around £500, granted not custom shop. But even in these days of high costs 500 quid is till, in my books, a reasonably large sum of money.

Further discussion seemed pointless due to the glazed look in the eyes of those I was talking to.

I left the shop feeling that at the sort of spend I was considering I was not worth the effort, and of course, I'm not young and probably to them just another boring old fart, having said that yes I only buy mid range guitars, but on average I buy 2 or 3 a year.

Is business that good for Guitar Guitar that they don't need to bother with me?

Geoff

[stagetech]

I know what you mean. But I found a real gem.
Called into Morlings music shop in Lowestoft. They are very knowledgeable, took the guitar off the wall set it up with an amp, provided a plectrum and were happy for the customer to spend all day trying guitars.

I only went in for a set of size 12 strings, came out with a 50's classic vibe. But no regrets.

Ian

[Tim]

Hi Geoff
I am really sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Guitar Guitar in Epsom. I had exactly the opposite experience. My Fender Custom Shop Strat 56 NOS in Fiesta Red (bought from Guitar Guitar's email service last November) developed a faulty middle pick up. It was sent back to Fender and was OK for a while, but then went again. By this time, the Epsom shop had opened so I went in there to get it fixed. They were very polite (and I am a true old fart). The gave the guitar to Charlie the guitar tech who found out that the middle pick up was again faulty. They did not have the right pick up in stock but contacted Fender and arranged for a guitar with the same pick up to be sent to the shop that day. They replaced my fauty pick up and the guitar was fixed (for nothing) within 24 hours. They also fitted a five way switch (it came with a 3 way switch) and a tremolo arm spring for nothing. They gave me a load of strings and plectrums as an apology as well, as well as giving me a tour of the shop. I was really impressed with their service and attitude. I accept it was a £2200+guitar at stake but I could not have had better treatment.
I think it's a great shop with a fantastic range of instruments. I am sure they would appreciate your raising the issues you have with them so they can put them right - I got the impression that Mike, the manager I dealt with, was anxious to provide top class customer service.
Best wishes
Tim

[John Boyd]

Hello Ian,
I'll be interested to hear your comments about the 50's Classic Vibe.
I have just bought a neck and body in the US and will collect it in 10 days when
I visit my son. I plan to use a set of 57/62 pickups in the set up.
Cheers,
JB

[geoff1711]

Hi Tim

I think your story reinforces my comment, your guitar was over £2K, my feeling was that if I had been up that end of the shop I'd have had better service, as I was looking at sub £1K products I got the service to match the price tag.

Geoff

[Tim]

Hi Geoff
I know my guitar was a £2K plus model, but I hadn't bought it at the shop, although it was from the same chain. There were other customers in the shop when I was there looking at much cheaper end products and they were getting good attention. I think you were very unlucky to get the poor service you did, and it would be worthwhile registering your complaints with them.
Best wishes
Tim

[leddo]

Sadly, some guitar store sales persons are like car sales persons...if they think you are going to spend money that day, they are your best friend in the whole world. If you don't look as if you are going to spend any money you are made as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit.
I have experienced similar disinterest at a Guitar Guitar store when the guy I spoke to at first virtually ignored me to go and speak to one of his chums from a local band. But rather than throw a huffy, I continued on my quest, found a sales person who was actually interested in helping customers and bought the £800 guitar from him. The other guy's face was a picture as I stood at the till handing over the dosh.
Sadly, you get good sales people and bad sales people in every type of store. Don't dismiss Guitar Guitar because of one or two cretins. The good will outnumber the bad I am sure.

[geoff1711]

Hi Phil

yes I think the problem with many guitar shop sales staff is that they view it as a means to pay the bills until they become the next guitar god and forget that there are some very hard skills to be learnt along the road to becoming a good sales person.

Basically if you scorn some ones choice of product you are also scorning their judgement, if a product is good enough to hang on a shop wall then it's good enough to treat a prospective customer with the respect he or she deserves.

In fairness to Guitar Guitar they have come back to me requesting my phone number to offer a personal apology, and if I'm honest whilst I'm looking for a little treat for myself I did only pop in on the off chance because my daughter was completing some course work at the local technical college, I mostly use PMT or failing that Andertons I have a buying history with both, they may still think I'm an old fart but they do greet me with a smile and are helpful.

It's easy to dismiss us baby boomers as out of date, but looking round Shadowmania I wonder how many guitars the audience there could have fielded on a good day, 5000, 10000? and how many on this forum?

In fact that's quite an interesting question, how many guitars do we each own? if I start looking at the less usual culprits in my arsenal, things like acoustic basses, travel guitars, lap steels, resonators and add those to the more usual I have around 20, in fact when a new one comes in an old one has to find a new home because I run out of space - good old Ebay.


Geoff

[JimN]

Sadly, some guitar store sales persons are like car sales persons...if they think you are going to spend money that day, they are your best friend in the whole world. If you don't look as if you are going to spend any money you are made as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. I have experienced similar disinterest at a Guitar Guitar store when the guy I spoke to at first virtually ignored me to go and speak to one of his chums from a local band. But rather than throw a huffy, I continued on my quest, found a sales person who was actually interested in helping customers and bought the £800 guitar from him. The other guy's face was a picture as I stood at the till handing over the dosh. Sadly, you get good sales people and bad sales people in every type of store. Don't dismiss Guitar Guitar because of one or two cretins. The good will outnumber the bad I am sure.

Let me retell my famous guitar shop story, every word of which is true.

Back in the early 1970s, the Dallas company (trading as Dallas Arbiter by then) used to run several well-known West End music shops: Sound City and Drum City in Shaftesbury Avenue, and a smaller shop in Charing Cross Road which went under the name "Modern Sound" (the premises are still in use as a music shop to this day). Passing the CX Road store one Saturday in March 1972, I spotted a nice Burns (black) Bison hung high on the party wall, just to the right inside the window. I was in the market for a new guitar but was resigned to never getting a Marvin because Baldwin was then out of business in the UK. The 1964-style Rezotube Bison looked like an acceptable substitute, at about £80. I walked in, intending to look at and try out the Bison. But all thoughts of the Bison faded from my mind the moment I got inside because further back on the same wall was a Burns Marvin, priced at £110.

I asked if I could try the Marvin. The shop assistant, answering Geoff's description (a legend in his own mind), immediately answered my request with a question: "Are you going to buy it?". A little surprised by this turn of events, I said that I would buy it if I liked it and if we could come to a mutually acceptable deal. To my even greater surprise, he said (and this is more or less verbatim): "We don't have to fuck about with a guitar like that".

Had this been a few years earlier, when Burns guitars were still available new and more plentifully second-hand, I would have been tempted to tell him just what he could do with it, but because owning that model was a longstanding, but as yet, unfulfilled, ambition, I bit my tongue and said nothing in reply.

I bought the guitar and still have it. I even have the receipt somewhere. I've never forgotten that lippy salesperson.

Of course, Dallas went out out of the retail business a few years later...

JN