Guitar Center

I called the East Brunswick NJ Guitar Center Sunday 8/23/2009 in the early afternoon to order a used guitar amplifier from their "USED" website. I spoke to Cameron and purchased the amplifier and related to him that I would like it shipped out on Monday 08/24/2009. Cameron said that it was no problem at all and it would go out Monday 08/24/2009. I called on Tuesday 08/25/2009 to get a tracking number and when I spoke to their operations person he related that the amplifiers had not been shipped yet because "they did not have enough shipping material". I then talked to the manager Mr. TJ Shovlin and told him I was very irate because I was told my purchase would go out on Monday 08/24/2009 and that I had not received any calls telling me about the delay. I said that it was unacceptable not to contact a client about the apparent dilemma. TJ responded by saying that it was too early for him to be "yelled" at and that he would refund my money if I didn't stop "yelling" at him. All the time referring to me as "Dude". When I requested that he not call me "Dude" he stated that he would call me "Sir" but that I was acting like a 5 year old and I didn't deserve to be called "Sir". I was irate but I was not yelling.

TJ's lack of professionalism and inability to turn around a negative situation shows his complete failure to manage successfully a nationally recognized corporation. I apologized to TJ for being upset and I related that it was a common occurrence throughout the Guitar Center Chain where customer service is lacking in quality and expertise in problem solving. He reacted by saying that this had never happened in his store and since I was being unreasonable that he was not going to expedite the shipment (presumably to teach me a lesson not to "yell" at him "this early in the morning"). All the while threatening to give me a refund instead of sending the amplifier.

I can see many things wrong with TJ Shovlin's managing Skills and they are:

Lack of respect for customers. Calling someone "dude" shows total disrespect not to mention immaturity.

Inability to manage negative situations and turn them into positives by threatening to not expedite, threatening to not sell, and basically using cheap tactics to get his point across.

Lack of responsibility by acting as if he is the victim. Apparently one can't complain too hard to Mr. Shovlin or he starts extorting. Not a good quality in a General Manager.

Finally, lack of professionalism. If a client is angry (very angry in my case) due to a company's obvious mistake/bad service, the last thing a Manager should do is to aggravate the situation further by fighting with the client.

As frequent on-line and in person customer of Guitar Center, I have had many issues with the Guitar Center chain of stores in particular:

Lack of professionalism

Lack of product knowledge

Lack of ethics when selling

Lack of communication skills

Lack of common sense overall by their sales personnel

One thing must get into Guitar Center's management heads:

The customer is the one thing that keeps you in business. Treat them with respect and professionalism.