Most HIDEOUS GUITAR STORE EXPERIENCE EVER......

Okay so, I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Not the biggest town in the world but considering I came from Los Angeles, I think it's small. Maybe the biggest small town on the West!! 2.5 million people in the Vegas Valley. So we have two Guitar Centers. One on my side and one on the West side. Other assorted odd guitar shops that are sketchy at best. So I notice a place in an intersection mall at Pecos and Sunset right by my house. WHAT? J&E Guitars. So then my old buddy Mark Stipanov from Guitar Center (back in the old days when it wasn't so bad) tells me these are good guys and he used to work with them. So Don and I have been meaning to go by for over a year now. But today, after Happy Hour at Brio at Town Square (where GC is) I said, "Let's stop by this place!" I've been revisiting my blue Breedlove fantasy from last year and thinking.... maybe.

So we stop in the mall. Plenty of parking. Walk in the door. There's NOTHING happening.... I think we're the only people there. I was getting ready to say, "Helloooo??" and this guy Eric moves from behind a center divider and says, "Yeah?"

Okay, I've dealt with socially retarded people before so I say,"Hey, we're friends of Marks and we're in the neighborhood and I was wondering about you being a Breedlove authorized dealer."

"Uh huh."

???

"Who is J and who is E if I may ask?" We kept walking towards a wall of acoustic guitars that looked amazing! Santa Cruz's, Breedlove's, Collings..... OMG!!

So then I repeated, "Who is J & E?" He says, "I'm Eric and this is Jesse..." and motions to some huge guy planted on the sofa on his phone. I was getting a bit weirded out by now and I said, "Oh so you guys are J and E! My name is Tom Davis and this is Don Kennedy." and held out my hand. J sat on the couch and barely looked up from his phone, Eric finally stood and put his hand out reluctantly. I felt like I was in some kinda weird off Broadway play or on some bad drugs.

So we started to look around at the guitars because I realize these guys are a big ZERO in the personality area, and ..... these guitars are beautiful!! And LOCKED DOWN TIGHT. And not only can you not take them down without them doing it for you...... they have a LOCK on the strings, so you can't even do a strum and listen to an open strum!!" LOCKED DOWN!! I tried to talk to them about Guitar Center (they both used to work there) and then I talked to them about Breedlove and the guitar I tried to buy last year, and then I went on to Guild and their new guitars, and Jesse on the couch grunted, "We weren't impressed!"

"With what?" I asked. "The imported ones, the Oxnard ones.... which ones did you demo?"

"All of 'em"

Don and I turned our backs and started discussing the guitars. We lingered over a Santa Cruz, then went over to the Breedloves and then the Collings guitars and I said out loud, "With these locks on them, you can't even do an open strum!" They sat there and looked at us.... STARED at us. Finally when I realized that they had NO INTENTION of making any effort to make us welcome or to assist or sell guitars, I just said, "I need some flat picks."

I got some Dunlop .73 gray picks whatever they are. Cost me $4.

The last words Eric said were, "Do you need a bag?"

"No, I think I can manage."

And I walked out. I'm absolutely not sure what the problem was. Are they like this with all their customers? Do they do a good business? And then Don and I talked about it and although I don't want to be paranoid, were they just homophobic a$$holes? So many questions, and in the end the MOST UNCOMFORTABLE GUITAR STORE SESSION EVER!!

Has anyone ever encounter such hideousness?? Jeeze!!!

Guitars locked down AND the strings locked ? Sorry, that just seems the oddest thing I've ever heard ! Then to say they demo'd 'em all and didn't like any tells me the guy is lying or couldn't get a deal to be a Guild dealer. Their customer service made me think they were just a front for something else. You can't sell a guitar with them locked down like that. I don't care if you were decked out like Rue Paul ( no idea how to spell the name ), if you had the money, I'd sell you a guitar. Just don't scratch the expensive ones on your jewellery !

Yikes.

I think the reviews here say it all, especially when the owners decide to respond:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/j-and-e-guitars-las-vegas


My take: it's not just you.

Sounds a lot like a couple of guys that are so full of themselves and their guitar knowledge they are above anyone who's name is not plastered on a billboard or marquee. Great guitars are "alive" and should be played / held / listened to not locked away. I would say you have made your first and last trip there.... and many more here may feel the same.

Sorry to hear that it was such a bad and weird experience Tom. To be honest with you about the Westerly series and the Oxnard Guilds, I have played models of both and Personally I was not impressed with them either. Granted I haven't played a new D55 yet but mt expectations aren't that high from the ones I did play.

As far as having Guitars on lockdown so no one can play them without explicit permission and supervision, Maybe the years of working at Guitar center and seeing the hoodlums that come in and bang on all the guitars in the acoustic room just to say they have played one and not caring if they scratch them up or bang them around taught "J and E" a lesson about protecting the merchandise. Regardless if you wanted to play one of them they should have unlocked what you were looking at and let you try one out.

Honestly there is no excuse for the way they acted or the lack of a friendly environment for customers which leads me to think there is a reason they have so many nice guitars on the shelf instead of selling them.

I know I am from Texas and a lot of people have preconceived notions about how we are down here but that Homophobic crap attitude they displayed (If that is what it was) doesn't fly with me personally. It is their store and they have the right I guess to deal with who they want to but personally I wouldn't have even purchased the picks from them. People have a right to be who they are and that shouldn't have any bearing on how they are treated in life let alone a retail situation. I guess that is a two way street but I as a customer have a right to not do business with them and also to let everyone else I could know about the experience you had so others don't wind up in the same situation. Personally they sound like a couple of A-Holes to me.

Keep on looking my friend, I know you will eventually find that Blue Breedlove you are searching for!


TX

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

davismanLV said:

were they just homophobic a$$holes?

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No, sounds to me like they're just regular a**holes. Lots of those around. :tranquillity:

Joe

you know i have learned over the years you see some odd things in the music industry, typically I don't question it but locking up guitar strings so they can't be played, and homophobia among musicians... are not 2 of those things! come buy a guitar in New York or Brooklyn, no issues here!

killdeer43 said:

No, sounds to me like they're just regular a**holes. Lots of those around. :tranquillity:

Joe

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And isn't it nice when they announce themselves right off the bat. No need to wonder "are they or aren't they."

HAAAAA HAAAAA!! Oh man, you guys are right. I read those reviews!! Apparently it has nothing to do with me, it's them. YIKES!! So there's three Breedlove dealers here in Vegas. GC screwed me around last year for almost 3 months on that deal. I posted on that. And now J & E Guitars. So now... I'm down to Sam Ash.... I don't like the store or the layout but they honestly have some nice people there. So they're my next step!! Jeeze...... it makes me wonder how these guys stay in business.

Anyway, I just was shocked out of my comfortable existence with these two guys staring at me like, "WHAT DO YOU WANT??" And then these STRING LOCKS that even though the guitar is inaccessible to me and I can't take it down, I can't even strum it. That's an evaluation tool for me. See how it rings open? Why could that hurt the inventory? Open strumming? YIKES.....

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, amigos. YIKES that was creepy...... who does that??

I saw the title, and then I saw who started the thread and I figured Tom had walked into Guitar Center again.

I vote with GAD. J&E are not interested in running a business that depends upon good customer relations. I'm sorry you and Don wasted your time.

Well, we're playing guitar now and enjoying the current inventory..... I have no problem with that. Las Vegas is a super liberal town so I just mostly got an a$$hole vibe than anything else. I'm sure at the end of the day, they'll be logging that $4 sale and thinking Vegas sucks...... :stupid:

Hey Tom, you are welcome to come shop at Casa GAD any time. I'll let you play ALL the guitars! I just won't let you leave with any of them. :excitement:

That's a super good offer, amigo!! It keeps me from worrying about spending any money!! It's raining tomorrow, but possibly the day after.... LOL!! :encouragement:

I've even got a blue one, though it may be a tad outside your comfort zone:

That would be like putting some kinda foreign thing in my hands but..... I'd give it a go. It's just the drive...... you know?

davismanLV said:

That would be like putting some kinda foreign thing in my hands but..... I'd give it a go. It's just the drive...... you know?

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Totally worth a week in the car to get you're 80's shred on!

Lmao!!!

davismanLV said:

Well, we're playing guitar now and enjoying the current inventory..... I have no problem with that. Las Vegas is a super liberal town so I just mostly got an a$$hole vibe than anything else. I'm sure at the end of the day, they'll be logging that $4 sale and thinking Vegas sucks...... :stupid:

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So they graduated GC University and figured they can beat 'em at their own game if they just up the sales obstacles.
Or maybe they make a living appraising guitars at Gold & Silver Pawn, you know, Rick's place.
Maybe they're actually Chumlee's buddies.
Of course Vegas sucks, it's all the cellulite.
Brain cellulite.

Every GC I've ever spent time in generally ends up feeling like some version of a bizzaro musical circus.
I can't recall if I've ever left a GC feeling good.
One time in San Francisco, my son an I occupied the high end acoustic room at GC for about an hour, jamming away...
every few minutes, like clockwork, young sales guy would come in an ask if he could help us.
But the oddest thing about the SF GC wasn't the people, it was the guitars... there had to $100,000 in inventory
in that room... I played 20 guitars that afternoon, and not one sounded alive.