Guitar Center

[mjshepherd]

Guitar Center practices economic discrimination in their hiring/promotion policies. According to Guitar Center you are ineligible for management positions if you have a low credit score. Their justification for this is that people with a low credit are a security risk because they might steal from the company. How many struggling musicians out there have a low credit score? Well if you do Guitar Center thinks you must be a thief. I do not believe that any company should be able to base hiring decisions based on credit score. If you think this way to please let Guitar Center know how you feel. 

[AlamoJoe]

 

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mjshepherd wrote:

 

 

Guitar Center practices economic discrimination in their hiring/promotion policies. According to Guitar Center you are ineligible for management positions if you have a low credit score. Their justification for this is that people with a low credit are a security risk because they might steal from the company. How many struggling musicians out there have a low credit score? Well if you do Guitar Center thinks you must be a thief. I do not believe that any company should be able to base hiring decisions based on credit score. If you think this way to please let Guitar Center know how you feel. 

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    I wonder if it occurs to them that a persons credit score might improve if they could get hired, make some money and pay off some of those overdue bills?  I've been in Guitar Center a few times and didn't like the way I was almost immediately besieged by salesman, asking me what instrument I played how long I'd been playing, what was I looking for. Please!  I came in here for some strings and to look around, I'll let you know if I need anything! haven't been near the place since. Sure won't go back now.

[Anderton]

Unfortunately, this is becoming a common practice. The biggest problem I see is that a low credit score can be for any number of reasons, from illness, to an unresolved credit dispute, to mistakes.

I went to start a new checking account and was told I couldn't do it because I had an outstanding bill of $38 at another bank for an account I'd closed. Well, I didn't know about that, so I went to the other bank and said "I'm here to pay that $38 I owe you, it's messing with my credit." After about 15 minutes of digging, they said there was no evidence that I owed them anything, and that when the account was closed there was a surplus and they wrote me a check for the balance.

That has been sitting dormant in my credit score for about four years, and was considered serious enough I initially wasn't allowed to open a checking account. I got a letter from the bank saying there was no issue whatsoever, and I was able to open the account.

Okay...but the clincher: I was told it could take months to years before the fictional problem issue was removed from my record.

Then there was the time my wife was dinged for not paying business taxes for a business she didn't own in a state she didn't live in.

Banks suck.

[iamjcole]

Hey all! My name is Jeremy Cole and I'm the Director of Sales Programs at Guitar Center. I wanted to jump in and offer some feedback to your post. First of all, Guitar Center does not make employment decisions based on a candidate's credit score at all. I believe it

[Anderton]

Jeremy, thanks very much for chiming in. Even better, for making yourself accessible to the community. Very cool and appreciated.

[UstadKhanAli]

 

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iamjcole wrote:

 

 What happened specifically that prompted your post?

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You're responding to a thread that was started by someone who only made one post ever - the one that started this thread.  I wouldn't put too much stock into someone who signs up to post one post without any references and then disappears.

And for the few of you who don't know me but think I might be a GC apologist, that's hardly the case, although they've gotten much better.  I stopped shopping at GC in the late '80s because I was sick of being accosted by aggressive salesdicks who would virtually leap out, block the walking path, and say, "Soooo....what guitar are you going to buy today?" with a daffy smile on his face while waving at a wall of guitars (my friend responded to him with a middle finger and pushed past because, after all, if you can't even begin the first sentence politely, why bother?).  Or another time in which one would look at you with no previous interaction and say, "You look mahvelous....simply mahvelous."  Or the time a salesdick said that a keyboard was analog when it was digital, and when corrected, said, "Well, it's virtual modeling.  Same thing."  Or the salesdick who claimed that the $10 budget cables in a box were as good as Mogami.  Or the one who sized us up and announced that we didn't have enough money to purchase a certain amp and led us to a budget amp instead.  And on and on.  After 5-6 of these in a row, I stayed away for years, preferring to drive a little bit farther to shop at a place with good customer service.  When these sorts of experiences repeatedly occur, that's indicative of an issue in management, not isolated incidents.

Since then, GC has gotten much better, indicating a positive managerial shift, but a few of these experiences can really make an impression for many years.