Good: If you are looking for any audio or music related gear you can probably find it here. From sheet music to obviously electric guitars of every make, amps, drums, basses band instruments and a pretty substantial pro audio dept.
I frequently go here for cables, strings, stands and other 'low ticket' items that would be prohibitively expensive to ship from the internet. There is a wide selection of cables and the store is geographically convenient to me. Bad: The huge down fall of this place is the staff, who embody the stereotype of the pushy fast-talking salesman.
As an audio professional, I walk into Sam Ash knowing exactly what need. What I am confronted with is a general lack of knowledge and candor on the part of the sales staff. In short, I get smoke blown up ass at every turn. I would never buy a big ticket item here.
Often times, members of the sales staff smell like alcohol and show great difficulty in operating the register.. Improvements: Almost every time I go there is a problem checking out. It always takes too long and I have received incorrect change at least twice (always in my favor). The last time I went I did not get a receipt because for some reason they weren't able to provide one after an exchange.
I would like to see the sales staff have more humility because they really don't know as much as they like to make themselves sound.. Other: I have been shopping here for a long time but all my big ticket purchases are online because I can usually find a better deal on B&H with free shipping. Anything the salesman is 'allowed to negotiate' barely covers sales taxes.
Sam Ash will have the occasional "save $100 if you spend $X00" but Guitar Center has these sales too, and their staff is a lot easier to work with in negotiating the terms of a final price when buying a big ticket item it's associated accessories..
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