Guitar Center reviews

2.8

41% would recommend to a friend

(2,732 total reviews)
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Gabe Dalporto

28% approve of CEO

24% positive business outlook

Guitar Center has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,732 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Guitar Center employee rating is 21% below average for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
2.0
Oct 8, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Excellent employee discount; purchase goods at cost. Extremely relaxed atmosphere. Open enrollment in employer provided insurance.

Cons

Low, complicated pay scale (for sales associates) that is poorly explained by supervisors. Excessive emphasis on menial activities that take time away from sales (cleaning during and after shift, logging instrument repairs, arranging displays, etc.). Clientele that are often ignorant and rude, who also expect you to know every nuanced thing about their favorite instrument, band, accessory, etc., or you perpetuate their "corporate musician" stereotype. Primitive and cumbersome operating system used to check out customers ("Green screen"). Lack of professionalism, ambition within the sales associates.

2.0
Apr 27, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Working at Guitar Center is great. I love the people I work with at my store, it makes me sad to see that some have been stuck with bad management and fellow employees...but it happens I suppose. The discount is pretty awesome, and the environment is fun to work in.

Cons

Haha where to start... First off, I don't blame anyone that is non-corporate for any of my issues. I have had my store manager go to bat for me all the way up to the president of GC. At that time I was a COA (doorperson) and had been for quite some time. I had never once received a raise!!! NOT ONE TIME! Considering the turnover rate for door-staff, you would think they would have wanted to keep me around. I was being paid minimum wage, and my hours were being cut due to corporate paycheck obligations...aka they were jipping (lol...jip) the Operations side of GC to put more money in their pockets. So my store manager convinced me to switch over to sales...saying I would make more money. I switched over to sales, and have been on the sales floor for the past 8 months. Let me tell you...the commission plan sucks. Although it makes sense in a way...it makes it extremely hard for me to ever get a good sized commission check. There is no way you could live comfortably as a sales person unless you were grossing about 40K in sales per month. The goals for AM's is absolutely ridiculous. I won't go into that though... They have changed our commission pilot about 4 times in the past 2 years. Ridiculous. I hear a lot of the other salesmen wishing that it were how it used to be back in the "old days"...because they were getting more money. I wish they would change the commission plan to something that was more fair. I've started checking my paycheck every period because I seriously think they are adding the numbers up wrong. One last thing...this PRO-COVERAGE crap pisses me off...granted, it is a good protection plan to have for your gear, but if a customer doesn't want it, so be it. They can come back in 3 months with a crack in their symbol and I can tell them "Hey...the Pro-Coverage covered accidental damage......you should have got it!" But to dock someone's pay because people don't want to buy the warranty? Bullsh*t.

3.0
Mar 20, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great environment and cool people. There are great opportunities for self directed individuals. If you a a musician it's like working in a candy store. There's no where better to work if you want to build up a nice collection of cool gear.

Cons

There is a mis guided sense of performance and accountability. The review process seems forced and not very genuine. Upper management is making great strides to correct the errors of the past however this is also accompanied by moving to quickly or not moving quickly enough. Management has a very unclear perception of how the customers view the company as well as how the line level associates view the company.

Viewing 2665 - 2667 of 2,732 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,796 Guitar Center reviews submitted anonymously by Guitar Center employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Guitar Center is right for you.