Guitar Center = Cardboard Box Problems

BobY · #1 07-28-2021, 05:15 PM

I went to my local GC to see if they had a cardboard box I could use for shipping a guitar I sold on Reverb. I was told they had boxes but the management will not allow them to be sold or given away due to security concerns? Has anyone else experienced this? I felt like thought I was I was looked down upon as being some sort of potential criminal. I bought a resonator there last month and buy my strings there. I may done with them. I was checking out the electric guitar inventory as I need to pick one up but appears it will not be buying from them. Store is in NW Indiana.

dhodgeh · #2 07-28-2021, 05:32 PM

I guess I was lucky a couple of times in that I found a some in good shape out in the dumpster behind GC.

Times changing I guess.

D

Rev Roy · #3 07-28-2021, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobY

I went to my local GC to see if they had a cardboard box I could use for shipping a guitar I sold on Reverb. I was told they had boxes but the management will not allow them to be sold or given away due to security concerns? Has anyone else experienced this? I felt like thought I was I was looked down upon as being some sort of potential criminal. I bought a resonator there last month and buy my strings there. I may done with them. I was checking out the electric guitar inventory as I need to pick one up but appears it will not be buying from them. Store is in NW Indiana.

Me? I wouldn’t take it personally. I’ve had up and down experiences at GCs. But if they have a guitar I want at a good price, I’m in. Just like any other shop.

rule18 · #4 07-28-2021, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobY

I went to my local GC to see if they had a cardboard box I could use for shipping a guitar I sold on Reverb. I was told they had boxes but the management will not allow them to be sold or given away due to security concerns? Has anyone else experienced this? I felt like thought I was I was looked down upon as being some sort of potential criminal. I bought a resonator there last month and buy my strings there. I may done with them. I was checking out the electric guitar inventory as I need to pick one up but appears it will not be buying from them. Store is in NW Indiana.

Of all the lame excuses that employee could have made up, "security concerns" was the lamest. That cardboard is obviously integral to the store's security protocols.

jdinco · #5 07-28-2021, 05:56 PM

I was always sent to the dumpster, which was only a good option on certain days.

buddyhu · #6 07-28-2021, 06:01 PM

Maybe an employee gave away an “empty” box, and then the next day they discovered a nice Martin was gone….

BobY · #7 07-28-2021, 06:43 PM

I tried the dumpster first. It was empty and under padlock. Weird things going on at the Merrillville GC!

rule18 · #8 07-28-2021, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobY

I tried the dumpster first. It was empty and under padlock. Weird things going on at the Merrillville GC!

Lol, for sure!

sevenpalms · #9 07-28-2021, 06:55 PM

Last time I asked they said they needed them for their shipments….apparently had to do with their bankruptcy. I got a couple you can have 👍

sayheyjeff · #10 07-28-2021, 07:17 PM

Years ago, I was able to get boxes at one of the local guitar center when calling in advance. Had to call a couple of time but it worked. Then came Covid, and I was told they were no longer giving away boxes. Boxes were being disposed of instead.

Jeff

Fattymagoo · #11 07-28-2021, 08:06 PM

When I worked at Sam Ash, we were happy to give away boxes. But all it takes is one theft for a corporate chain to make a new rule that affects everyone. No reason to be offended by that. Notice how other people got offended by the way the OP articulated the fact that he was also offended. We are an interesting species.

CMGibson · #12 07-28-2021, 08:24 PM

A few months back I found a Mitchell Guitar at GC I liked and was going to bring it home. I assumed it would be in a cardboard box.They asked if I wanted to buy a bag and I stumbled over that. I told them never mind. No sooner I got on the road I regretted that. Should have just paid and got the Guitar but the price was just on the edge that I could afford that day. All because of a box.

birdsong · #13 07-29-2021, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevenpalms

Last time I asked they said they needed them for their shipments….apparently had to do with their bankruptcy. I got a couple you can have 👍

Me too (have a few; well, like...... 7!)

I've wondered how much it costs to ship a mostly empty guitar box and whether it's worth it.

singlechange · #14 07-29-2021, 12:46 PM

Earlier this year I went to the local Guitar Center in northern Virginia to ask for a shipping box. Though I never purchased anything there ever myself, when I asked for a guitar shipping box, a kind G.C. employee went to the back of the store and got me a guitar shipping box that had been used for one of the new G.C. guitars and gave it to me for free.
Nowadays, I just go to the UPS Store and buy their regular guitar shipping box which is $18.95 now, instead of recycling used shipping boxes I might have. I worry about shipping expensive guitars and if I have to make claim against damages that someone will point out that the shipping box was one that was already old and therefore not reliable.
Robert A.

Blueser100 · #15 07-29-2021, 07:05 PM

I guess GC finally realized that guitar boxes are a commodity and they don’t want people getting a box for free.