davismanLV
Venerated Member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2011
- Messages
- 19,391
- Reaction score
- 12,235
- Location
- U.S.A. : Nevada : Las Vegas
- Guild Total
- 2
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!!!
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!!!
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