Guitar Center Is A Joke!

  • Thread starter Thread starter GC_IS_A_JOKE
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welcome to the world of retail...its not just guitar center! but good post tho...which gc do u work at(city, state)???
 
teshan said:
welcome to the world of retail...its not just guitar center! but good post tho...which gc do u work at(city, state)???
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yeah, and if you wouldn't mind, post up those numbers you were talking about so we know just how low we can bargain :cool:
 
All the more reason to get that deskjob degree. Ah, it brings back memories. I remember well the late nights I spent scrubbing a used (disposable!) buttering shield clean at wendy's along with a host of other nasty grill and oven related scrubbing jobs because it was cheaper to have me clean it than get a new one. I was cheaper than oven cleaner that would have made my job humane. I was there until 2am every night. (shiver) Stay in school folks. Stay in school. I think I would have taken a Guitar Center "merchandizing party" any day over the "scrub everything including the crusty green goo off the walls because the inspectors are coming tommorrow party" , but alas, there was none where I lived at the time.

Seriously, minimum wage jobs are meant as transitional jobs and stopgaps, not careers. If no one took them, then the pay and the conditions would have to improve.
 
I worked at a lil kiosk in the mall that selled skin care products n thats how it wuz.... i think its pretty common in sales....
 
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thas prettymuch how any commision job works including car sales which i currently do.......you have no real idea of what the car actually cost ..and yes they do include profit to keep things such as the lights rent and some of the other non comissiond sales people paid .....and i am one of those people who stand at the register and say now what can i really have it for ..one becaues i didnt order a pizza ....and 2 i dont tip pizza delivery guys either ( why because they get paid by the hour to drive arnd in their car now i do tip waiters ) ............
 
I worked there for 3 months! I've run a commercial studio for years, was the best engineer in the dept, knew about all of the gear and (after selling a studio setup to a platinum-selling artist) faded by 5 bucks my last month there.

Fortunately, the job was good enough to 1)supplement what I was doing in actual studio hours and 2) got me networked so that platinum selling artist just hired me as his engineer and had me quit. lol.
cheers gc, thanks for 3 months and a kick ass new job.
 
The armed forces get paid the same if not less (rank dependent), and you complain about some **** like this... Excuse my bias though; with Veteran's Day just passing I have much respect for our fallen troops and those overseas.
 
People really need to learn some basic economics before they open their mouths.
 
SS INC said:
The armed forces get paid the same if not less (rank dependent), and you complain about some **** like this... Excuse my bias though; with Veteran's Day just passing I have much respect for our fallen troops and those overseas.
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Leave it alone... not even on the same page.
 
Please realize that I didn't post here to compare jobs, I'm aware that there are a lot of ****ty jobs but I posted here to spread what Guitar Center is doing.

Please note for those that still haven't noticed from my original post that this is the main part that brings what GC is doing into possibly illegal territory:

On the green screen....

First they have their "Cost"
Then they have the Freight charge
Then they have a "Std Ad Pack"
Then they have "Base Cost"

The first one... "Cost" isn't really their cost, they are making more money on top of this that we are not credited on, and what we are credited on is 10% profit from the "Base Cost" to the sale price. and 2% from the gross sale price.
 
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GC_IS_A_JOKE said:
Please realize that I didn't post here to compare jobs, I'm aware that there are a lot of ****ty jobs but I posted here to spread what Guitar Center is doing.

Please note for those that still haven't noticed from my original post that this is the main part that brings what GC is doing into possibly illegal territory:

On the green screen....

First they have their "Cost"
Then they have the Freight charge
Then they have a "Std Ad Pack"
Then they have "Base Cost"

The first one... "Cost" isn't really their cost, they are making more money on top of this that we are not credited on, and what we are credited on is 10% profit from the "Base Cost" to the sale price. and 2% from the gross sale price.
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Are they paying you minimum wage for every hour you have to work, counting coming in early and leaving late? That's all they legally have to do. They don't have to pay their employees any commission. It doesn't really matter what 'cost' they base the commissions on, as long as they're paying you at least minimum wage for every hour you're working, anything above that is optional.
 
galacticboy said:
Are they paying you minimum wage for every hour you have to work, counting coming in early and leaving late? That's all they legally have to do. They don't have to pay their employees any commission. It doesn't really matter what 'cost' they base the commissions on, as long as they're paying you at least minimum wage for every hour you're working, anything above that is optional.
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No, the agreement when you're hired there is that it's minimum wage plus "commission", and they are not giving propper credit of 10 & 2% because of the fake cost that is listed.
 
some companies buy items in bulk, then resell them to their individual retail stores at an increase, with the profits going to the corporate office the pay the ceo's, cfo's, etc salarys. is that maybe the case here?
 
Corporate umbrella buys (huuuuuggge discount), then sells to locals.

Publicly traded company = yes, that is part of the situation.

They are grimy. Believe that.
 
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yeah, corporations are out to D*ck you. they want to make the most money themselves with little thought of their employees' quality of life. there are a few exceptions. i've noticed most gc reps are either highschool kids or blown out has been musicians. don't get me wrong, i'm sure there are some intelligent people working for them. as for suing gc...good luck. if you were able to get a high level employee to testify on you behalf and get other employees to testify you might have a chance. just keep in mind they have millions of dollars for legal council and you would probably need a lawyer to go pro bono or commission on a class action lawsuit. in the end you might only wind up with a $100 bucks after legal fees and splitting the money with every other employee (since it would have to be a class action suit). after all the time you had spent it would have to be purely for revenge and to expose their practices, and if you do more power to you! i hate gc as well and avoid them at all costs. big up homie and good luck finding a better job.
 
GC_IS_A_JOKE said:
I have worked in sales at Guitar Center for about 2 and a 1/2 years now. Let me give everyone the true run down on what this company is about.

When I was hired I was told that it was minimum wage plus commission of 10% proft, 2% sales. I had to find out the hard way about "FADING". How it works is You have to cover all of the hours that you work with this 10 and 2 percent before you get to see any "Commission".

An example would be:

You make $1200 dollars a month from minimum wage. Now you make $1300 dollars a month from the 10% gross proft and 2% gross sales. You're now thinking, "oh that's not bad, I'm going to make $2500 for the month..." NO, how they have it set up is you have to cover that $1200 with the $1300! $1300 minus $1200 equals $100. So you end up with your minimum wage of $1200 for the month and a $100 "BONUS"...if you're lucky. This is just a big loop hole in the law that Guitar Center is getting away with. Do waiters and waitresses have to cover their tips? Does the pizza delivery guy have to cover his tips? NO, so why the **** do we have to cover ours?

Technically it's not even really commission, it's really just a bonus on top of minimum wage! Everyone else that has been hired since I have hasn't been told about fading either, They are hiring people and misleading them into thinking they are getting something they aren't.

Because of this fading system they have set up Guitar Center gets to tell you how many hours they want you to work without having to worry about paying you anymore because you have to cover those hours anyway. These hours include staying late usually past 1am having mandatory merchandising "parties" preparing for sales and making the store look good. During all of these hours that they have you work as a sales person, you are expected to not only sell AND FADE, but also to mercandise, clean (including the bathrooms), take out the trash, count your draws/money before and after your shift, inventory control and be security to name a few. Basically sales people are running the store for minimum wage, oh and did I mention that Guitar Center still expects you to FADE your hours? At most locations a sales person will be fired if they don't fade after three months from what I hear, but I have not faded for over a year and I'm still employed!

Why havn't I been fired even though I'm not fading? Because it doesn't cost GC anything to employ sales people since they have to fade! If you think about it the only employees GC has to actually pay are the warehouse/operations staff and management!

Since they can't keep coverage and the turnover rate is so high the people that have to suffer are:


*The empoyees that stay because they now have to cover the hours that were being covered by the person that just quit or got fired!

*The customers because now the new people that are being hired are not knowledgeable and hence where most of the customer complaints come from!


If GC actually was legit and didn't try to think of every possible way to screw their sales staff this problem with not having knowledgeable employees wouldn't exist! Most of the sales staff at GC have less than a month experience because of this! I know my district sales manager wanted to fire me but they wouldn't because they knew they don't have enough help as it is.

Now on top of this FADING BS you have to deal with stuff like this that makes it even harder to fade:


*If you're opening shift you have to come in an hour early before open which is pointless! These are extra hours that you have to fade against!

*If you're closing shift you have to leave "as a team" with all of the other employees even though it usually means standing around for an extra hour and a 1/2! These are extra hours that you have to fade against!


*So you work @ GC and you think your going to still be able to perform at your gig on Friday night? NOPE, You have to work Saturdays, they are mandatory!

*GC makes their sales staff work 6 days a week during March, August and December on top of even more extended hours every day! These are extra hours that you have to fade against!

*They extended store hours! We get the same amount of business compared to before having extended store hours, it's just spread out over more time! These are extra hours that you have to fade against!

*When you are doing all of the stuff that GC requires you to do like be a telemarketer and call customers, merchandising, cleaning ect...your "managers" are the ones taking the sales because they don't have to do these things.

*Customers saying "what's the best deal you can give me" after spending a 1/2 hour with them and you're now at the
register...Do you say the same thing to the pizza delivery guy or girl?..."What is the best price you can give me for that pizza...oh and is it ok if I don't give you a tip?"

*Marty Albertson creating a letter that goes out to "Only our most valued customers"...(Everyone that has ever purchased even a pack of strings in the past). The first time it was 20% of your entire purchase and the last one was 10% off your entire purchase! WTF! That's all of the profit margin right there and they still expect you to "FADE"!


Guitar Center lies to their employees! COST on the green screen ISN"T really GC's COST! GC makes more profit than what's displayed on the green screen! This is profit we make the company that we're not credited on! On top of this what exactly is the "St Ad Pack" in between "COST" and base cost? I was told numerous exuces such as "That is what pays the bills like rent, electricity, heat..." If that's the case then WHAT THE **** DOES GC DO WITH ALL OF THE PROFIT? BULL ****... "AD PACKS" are just another way for GC to make profit without giving the proper percentage to the sales person that busts their ass merchandising, being inventory control and the janitors!

Why do you think GC plays 90% of the ****tiest ****ing music on earth in the store on Guitar Center radio? Because they are looking for the songs with the cheapest licensing fees! This also brings me to another point. GC recently setup a program for employees called "GAIN" where empoyees have a chance to get their music on GC radio. This is just way for GC to not have to pay licensing fees for the music being played on GC radio!

Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to mention for those that didn't know that the Green Screen is just what Guitar Center calls their sales terminal computers. They look like Microsoft DOS from 1980! What the hell does GC do with all of their profit that WE make for them?

When I quit Guitar Center I'm going to send most of what's here in a Green Screen email to everyone in the chain so that I can open most of the employees eyes that are brainwashed!

I can't wait until I quit. Guitar Center can suck my ****ing balls.
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Damn, mannn....that's ****ed up.....i gotta thank you for letting ppl know about it though..you really should get with others and sue that fukin company. these corporations are nothin but evil man. i work for fye selling their bull**** ass membership cards, and we don't get commission off that shht. fuk the corporations. I almost ended up working for GC too..fuk em
 
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not only that they have people that work there that have no idea wtf they are talking about...i was in there this morning getting my motif rack...the dude had no idea what i was talking about and he shows me a motu rack (idiot)...then i asked him and another guy about external hd and the one dude didnt even know they sold them. i told the other guy i needed either a 160 or 320, and the next thing he said was...how many gigs do i want (hello i jus said 160 or 320)...they are totally clueless about the products they sell...from this point on i will not be dealing with guitar center anymore...the only reason i went there is cuz i have gc card with a good amount of money on it and i needed the rack (already maxed out my samash card buying the m3)...so long story short FUK GUITAR CENTER!!!!
 
you can use the m3 kinda like a vsti plugin right? hows that working out?
 
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