May be been given a returned unit, when buying new, at Pittsburgh Guitar Center

[rd2rk]

17 minutes ago, patrick2099 said:

Yep. Had the dude simply done what he said, on the original call, I would have left it alone. Mistakes happen. It's how you deal with the mistakes that matter, to me. Hell, had I not called, it may have been next week, before my packing materials even shipped. I hate to sound like I'm being a jerk over something so little, but I'm really irritated by this whole experience. 

 

Now, since they DIDN'T do what they said, they have a store complaint, a bad review, and a Better Business Bureau complaint to deal with. If it's going to be a hassle for me, it's going to be a hassle for everyone. 

 

Personal story. I recently did a fly-gig in Michigan (family event). UAL made it impossible to even bring my Steinberger so, since the GC was 5 minutes from the airport, I rented a guitar.

$70 for the weekend, for a Mexi Squier Strat. I was told it would be an H-S-S model, which was perfect. I told them I didn't want to get there and have them pull something off the wall that hadn't even been set up. I was ASSURED that these were rental units that were regularly re-strung and set up. I said "yeah, but can you have a tech check it out for me anyway?" and he reluctantly agreed.

 

I get there, there's no such instrument, the guy (different guy) pulls one (S-S-S) off the wall. I noticed that the trem arm's hole was open, which pretty much guarantees that the little bitty tension spring is gone. I pointed it out to the guy, who had no clue what I was talking about! It's a STRAT for heaven's sake. If you don't know about STRATs.........

 

I didn't have time to hassle over it, so I just took it and made due. This morning, I received a feedback request from GC about my rental. Boy, did they ever get feedback!

[rd2rk]

58 minutes ago, HonestOpinion said:

I end up ordering off Amazon all the time as well but Amazon, the largest company in the world in market value, apparently managed to avoid paying any taxes at all last year; you can dump a lot of product on the market inexpensively with a dodge like that.

 

Not a fan of the Prez, but when hassled about not paying enough tax he basically said "I didn't make the tax laws. If you don't like it, change the laws!"

 

EDIT: Corporations don't pay income tax. Income taxes are non tax deductible operating expenses that get factored into the price that consumers pay for their products. Only individual tax payers pay taxes.

 

58 minutes ago, HonestOpinion said:

Another approach to simplify things would be to have taxes on online sales be collected once federally and then divvied up among the states but I suspect that would not go well. There would be internecine battles between the states where the wealthier states who spend more online would claim that they deserve the lion's share of the split. Federal level taxation would be incredibly sticky and it would insert a layer of administrative cost between the states and their tax money.

 

Trucking companies deal with something called IFTA (International Fuel Tax Agreement). They're required to report how many miles each truck drives in each state/country. The feds collect the tax at the the pump, then divvy it up accordingly. Yes, it's a ROYAL PITA! It's usually put on the driver to keep track, and when I was driving I HATED it!

 

Fact is, it's a minor annoyance for a corporation to have to keep a database of each state's sales tax (it's downloadable). It's not at all difficult to write software to add tax to an invoice based on that data (as mentioned elsewhere, I was doing it 20 years ago). At the end of the year, the company cuts 50 checks. Companies that complain how tough it would be are full of it. Politicians and libertarian types who claim that it would drive businesses off-shore are either ignorant or dishonest. Oh, right, that's the definition of politician.

[spikey]

11 minutes ago, cruisinon2 said:

Realistically though, most of everyone's tax dollars are frittered away on pointless, feel-good endeavors, given away to any and every special interest with a good enough sob-story, or just outright stolen.

That last part you mentioned is covered over in a "I can sell this for this much and write it up for this much" slimeball. 

 

Quote

The gov't is stupid, lazy, wasteful, and moves at the speed of Dutch Elm disease.

Unless you owe them something...

[spikey]

20 minutes ago, cruisinon2 said:

The only thing that affects my bottom line is whether or not I'm paying sales tax.

 

Exactly, and I'd rather "keep" my hard-earned money if possible. That's not cheating anyone out of anything if I am legally able to do that.

[soundog]

...this thread started as a discussion on returning a Helix to Guitar Center, but has now officially descended into a dissertation on government and corporate taxes.

 

Here's advice and a stranger thread from someone who is an expert on avoiding taxes:

[spikey]

Descended? Naw... Were just thinking out loud. ; ) And it musta worked for the guy pretty well, cause he bankrolled around 400 mil into over a Billion, that's with a B.

 

[rd2rk]

17 minutes ago, soundog said:

...this thread started as a discussion on returning a Helix to Guitar Center, but has now officially descended into a dissertation on government and corporate taxes.

 

Here's advice and a stranger thread from someone who is an expert on avoiding taxes:

 

That a thread makes a corkscrew turn surprises you? :-)

 

As I noted elsewhere, not a fan of the Prez, but when questioned about not paying enough taxes he said (paraphrased): "I didn't make the tax laws, I'm just taking advantage of them. I'd be a fool not to! If you don't like it, change the laws!".

 

Not, apparently, an unusual (or illegal) attitude.

[patrick2099]

3 hours ago, rd2rk said:

 

Personal story. I recently did a fly-gig in Michigan (family event). UAL made it impossible to even bring my Steinberger so, since the GC was 5 minutes from the airport, I rented a guitar.

$70 for the weekend, for a Mexi Squier Strat. I was told it would be an H-S-S model, which was perfect. I told them I didn't want to get there and have them pull something off the wall that hadn't even been set up. I was ASSURED that these were rental units that were regularly re-strung and set up. I said "yeah, but can you have a tech check it out for me anyway?" and he reluctantly agreed.

 

I get there, there's no such instrument, the guy (different guy) pulls one (S-S-S) off the wall. I noticed that the trem arm's hole was open, which pretty much guarantees that the little bitty tension spring is gone. I pointed it out to the guy, who had no clue what I was talking about! It's a STRAT for heaven's sake. If you don't know about STRATs.........

 

I didn't have time to hassle over it, so I just took it and made due. This morning, I received a feedback request from GC about my rental. Boy, did they ever get feedback!

 

Hopefully you let them have it good!  Honestly, if they (and their district managers) don't know they are doing a bad job, then nothing will change.  I also send letters or emails to companies when I get really great service, for the same reason.  People need to know when their employees are doing a great job. 

 

All I wanted it what I paid for -- a NEW Helix.  Not once did I ask for anything special from them.  I did include the price of a floor model, from Sweetwater, just so they would know that I knew the difference between what I bought and what I received. 

 

At this point, after the frustration they have caused me, Guitar Center probably should be giving me something extra.  I'm not going to ask for it, but the principle of them doing it without me asking would mean more than whatever minuscule thing they gave me, in return for their poor service.  Up until now, they have done the absolute minimum possible, to resolve this.  They should have offered expedited shipping on the replacement, offered to send the replacement when they saw the used one had been received at UPS, gave me an additional discount, gave me a gift card...  ANYTHING to show a little appreciation to the guy who spent four hours driving, five hours waiting on the trade in, and who just dropped two grand in your store, and was greatly inconvenienced.

[spikey]

9 minutes ago, patrick2099 said:

Up until now, they have done the absolute minimum possible, to resolve this. 

Yea that really sux. Reminds me of the GC Manager here. 

[cruisinon2]

Retail is the 4th ring of Hell. Anybody ever see "Idiocracy"? The receptionist in the hospital scene is your average retail clerk...a blank stare and completely vacant affect. It's no wonder Amazon has made gazillions. You don't have to claw through the fog of a room temperature IQ to buy a set of strings.

[Kingbozo]

On 8/5/2019 at 4:08 PM, silverhead said:

It’s common practice among retailers who offer a return policy. Even if there’s nothing wrong with the device it can be returned simply because the buyer doesn’t want to keep it (buyer’s remorse, it isn’t exactly what they thought it was, etc.). As long as there’s no reason to think anything is wrong with it the retailer will simply put it back on the shelf as new. Happens everywhere.

A common ILLEGAL practice.

[patrick2099]

(deleted double post)

[patrick2099]

6 hours ago, Kingbozo said:

A common ILLEGAL practice.

 

Very true.