My GC experience..

[Shawn76]

I've not had any problems with the local GC here,they even replaced an item that was past the 30 day mark and have gave me discounts on some things. Most of them know who I am when I walk in and don't even have to ask my name when I make a purchase.
My biggest complaint with GC here is they do not stock enough drum items.The place is full of guitars,pretty much wall to wall and a very small section for drums,so small they had to take down the only acoustic set of drums they had put together to check out. When I bought my Yamaha kit,the store display kit is what sold me on buying them.That was the last acoustic kit they had set up and took it down a few months after I bought mine.
The people I deal with in there are drummers themselves and know about the stuff they are selling.I guess I am lucky and have a GC near me that is decent.
There are 2 other music stores here,both locally owned.One place only has cheaper kits and barely any cymbals and they other place is very expensive on everything. I went in a few times just to see what he had and I seen a 12" wuhan china he was asking $59 for. That's just a small example of what the prices are like.It gets worse.

[GeneralDemus]

I have had both very good and very bad experiences there.

Very good:
When I bought my kit, they had to order it in as they did not stock it. I purchased a 5 piece that they told me would take 7 days. I got a call from them 3 days later telling me that, unknown to them, the kit I purchased had a free 10" add-on tom, AND, it was there already! Not only that, but the guy in the shop brought the kit to my house and dropped it off on his way home from work. I was convinced that I would never, ever shop anywhere else.

Very bad:
I wanted to start recording my drums through my computer. I already had the software (Protools) that I needed and went in to buy a mixer that would allow me to do this. I spent over an hour talking with the salesman about exactly what and how I wanted to do this. He brought out a Xenyx 16 channel mixer with USB output and said this is exactly what I wanted and would do everything that I asked for. I thanked him for his time and advice and purchased it and went on my merry way. Well after days and days of frustration, aggravation, and cussing, I finally realized that USB can only send in stereo, not each channel separately, which was what I had talked to the salesman about the entire time. I was pretty upset at this point and took the mixer back to GC. Guess what? They refused to take it back because the unit he gave me was a refurb! After spending over an hour in there talking to the salesman (who even admitted he might have made a mistake), the manager, and calling their corporate office, they refused to do anything about it and I was asked to leave. This happened a few years ago and I have not purchased anything from them since. I am convinced I will never, ever shop there again.

Protools lets you split stero.