Guitar Center- Corporate Headquarters in Westlake Village , CA (2024)

I would like to express my disappointment with my most recent guitar center experience. I was searching for a drum set for my son, and in doing that I contacted my local guitar center Robinson Pa. where I often shop for all of my music needs. I figured in talking to a pro. In my search for drums, as I know nothing about them. After talking with the salesman for quite some time and asking multiple and repetitive questions. We found the drum kit that best suited my needs. And I was most satisfied with his time and helping me find the perfect drum set for my son. The salesman re-assured me that upon picking the new drum set up the only other things I would need to purchase would be a drum throne and sticks. So I placed the order right then over the phone. In this whole process, my son was involved with the picking of the drum set as I wanted it to be the set that he wanted , spending that kind of money I wanted no disappointment on his end, even down to the color. So after ordering the set, the following week I got an email saying my purchase was in, after calling my son and telling him , because I to was excited , we made plans to set it up the next day.
So I went straight to guitar center to pick it up. After making several other purchases in the store, while the staff was getting my purchase from the back, when they brought it out the box did not look like it would house the items that I was told I would receive. After expressing my concerns and a little investigating on their part , they came to the conclusion that this set did not come with the hardware and such that I was told. So the staff then tried to switch me out to a cheaper kit. Which is not what I wanted , that’s the reason I went with this drum kit. So now being almost $600.00 into this purchase, the manager said the only way to get the things I needed for this kit and was told it came with was for me to spend more money. Now I do not have the extra money that would be the reason I pick the drum set they helped me pick because I thought it was an entire kit. So he explained that it was not entirely the salesman’s fault, which I understand people make mistakes. But me being the customer I feel like it was absolutely no fault of mine, end result is I am still in search of a drum set and now it is 10 days until Christmas. As it was in no way my fault that this happened I was confident that they would make this situation right, being a very big company such as guitar center. But I left there very disappointed and without a drum set. I will definitely tell you that after this experience I am not sure I will take any further business to guitar center, actually myself and my wife bought each other all of our Christmas gifts for one another there, and I am considering retuning the things we bought. I truly did not expect this and have been put in a tight position , because now I have to continue my search in hopes to receive it before Christmas. So end result in this very disappointing experience is I feel as though it was in just to myself, and ultimately if I am not able to obtain what I thought I was going to get from guitar center then end result will be, his extreme disappointment Christmas day. I am sure you are not worried about one customer but I can tell you this that I have never in any purchasing situation been this upset and discouraged, and in this whole experience after thinking about it I wanted to voice my opinion and express my frustration. I believe that management could have and should have handled this situation far better than they did , and in fact that is not a way to operate a business , well I would think. So for what it’s worth I hope that this email , in fact gets the attention it deserves. I really wish that guitar center would have made good on the mistake that they made and not passed the problem on to the customer, being me.

Thank you for your time