If this is in the wrong section please move it.

So here is a thought I've been having...

I really like buying amps, taking them home and tweaking/pushing them. It's just not the same at the store. Everyone blasting away with drop D power chords on rectos... just drives me crazy.

Is it wrong, as far as whats socially acceptable, to keep buying and returning amps from guitar center. Am I taking advantage of the return policy in a bad way? I feel like it's renting amps for free...

I think it's kind of a silly question, but I am wondering what a community of guitarists will think about it.

I think it's fine, as long as you end up with an amp you're happy with as a result

i don't think there's anything wrong with it at all. it's their policy and they put it in place to incentivize customers into purchasing. many of those purchases would not occur if they didn't have that return policy. they know they are going to get a certain amount of returns, but they are hoping (like car salesmen) that when you take it home, you will fall in love. and that does happen to a lot of people. more discerning or pickier customers are an unfortunate (for the salesman) biproduct of this policy. still, i'd utilize it as much as you can until you find what you want.

I'd just be open about it from the outset - "I'm not 100% sure, but here's my card - run it, and if it doesn't work out after I take it home and put it through its paces I'll just bring it back."

As long as you're not lying to them it's probably cool...

I agree with Drew, honesty is the best policy. The best place an amp is going to sound for you will be in your home, so there's no reason to feel it would be wrong to do it, as long as you're genuinely trying to find an amp that suits you.

Jimmy

Personally, Id be pissed if I bought an amp I thought was new and found out it had been brought home and worked out over and over.

I didnt get if you're trying to find an amp to ultimately buy or just playing them for 30 days at a time. scenario 1= okay I guess, scenario 2=d1ckhead.

Caution! If you get to the point where the sales guys know you as that guy who buys things and keeps bringing it back all the time, the store might change the policy at least as it pertains to you.

For example... guy comes in and buys $10,000 worth of gear and whatnot on Monday, returns all of it after ten days. Then proceeds to buy another $8,000 in gear that day and returns it after two weeks. By the third time around the sales guys are geting frustrated and the store is not going to be so happy to sell him another pile of stuff he will just bring back in two weeks. If that happens they are going to be overly harsh about small dings, scuffs or marks of any kind on the merchandise. They may have to refuse to take it back the third time around if it has any mark at all anywhere even on the case!

Now I know that sounds pretty cruddy, but honestly think of it from their perspective. The store automatically orders one of whatever they sell through their inventory... if someone keeps buying/returning stuff they end up with loads they don't really need. Then consider the poor sales blokes who are working mostly on commission... one day you think you did great and then a few weeks later you find out someone returned it all. If that same guy does that to you several times you aren't going to want to help him at all because he keeps messing with you and that is time you could be spending helping a customer who actually will like what they get.

Soooo anyway. It is cool when you have buyers remorse or get it home and it just doesn't quite suit your needs. But the idea that it is okay to more or less free rent merchandise until you find what you like is not so savory.

My best advice to you is to find someone to let you take whatever it is into the platinum room and crank it in there. The GC guys are great about letting you bring in your own guitar and crank up whatever you want as loud as you want in those rooms. We spent hours blasting an EVH 5153 and a few Deizels and a huge Marshall stack in the room. The sales guy kept cranking it louder and louder and telling us to just wail on it. Most of the sales guys at our local store here genuinely want you to find what you'll be happy with even if it means coming in every day for a few weeks and playing the crud out of everything they have.

I dunno, I've returned most of the stuff I bought in Guitar Center because it was crap. If they had better facilities for me to see if it's crap or not in the store, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. Case in point - I bought an acoustic from them and kept it, simply because acoustics are in a separate room and I can play the ones I like without any interference. So I spent a few hours there and walked out with a Breedlove. And then they cut me a good deal on it. What's not to like?

Sounds like you have a pretty sweet guitar center. The guys at the GC around me are the complete opposite. They couldn't care less about how you feel. And the majority of the time they aren't even willing to help. I have to bring in my own cables and guitars and usually set up the amp because even when I ask for help I am usually ignored or brushed aside. Seems like all they care about is making a sale, but they assume that I'm just there to play with the expensive equipment... I'm young, but I work hard and CAN afford it. sorry... I'm ranting.

Its been good to see different opinions on it. I'll probably just keep saving for the amp that I know I will enjoy. I don't want to be known as "that guy" at the only decent place for guitar equipment around.

Guitar Center to me is like a cancer on the face of the guitar world. If i had the money right now I'd open an opposing chain, fix all the bs and problems of GC and run them out of business. They DO only care about making a sale b/c they are commissioned sales people. They are obviously not committed to the instruments at all in any way, as most ppl have trouble finding a guitar on the wall that's in tune. They're rude, usually lack knowledge on the products theyre selling, etc. I know some ppl have had positive experiences, but my experience with about 6 different ones has been exactly this way.

Yeah I hate grabbing a guitar off the wall and finding it out of tune. But it's only mildly annoying. I understand people play them all the time and they can't have someone tuning guitars 24/7. But it'd be nice.

I concur.

Absolutely, but im not talkin bout when you grab a guitar off the wall and its not in tune...I'm talking about when you CANT FIND a guitar on the wall that IS in tune. Lol.

find what you like. then ask for it new in a box. if they don't have it. tell them to order it. don't take a floor model.