From my own recent experience, I ended up buying a Fender Strat HM (the yellow one), during the early days of the pandemic. First, their physical store - for wh

From my own recent experience, I ended up buying a Fender Strat HM (the yellow one), during the early days of the pandemic. First, their physical store - for where I bought the guitar for pickup - didn’t have a record of my purchase. So they had to reverse my charge, then charge me again on the spot so I could take it home. Second, I got it home, and it was all sorts of wrong. Every single fret had buzz, the neck was warped, and while the guitar “felt” great, it just wasn’t playable especially for a $1300 guitar. I had no choice but to return it. Then I went to Sweetwater. Completely opposite experience. I ended up buying a 7-string Ibanez RG752M (again, the yellow one), sight unseen. The customer service was absolutely stellar, I got phone calls from two people asking me how and when I’d like to receive it, etc. The guitar came completely and properly set up, ready to play. Sweetwater has a 50-something point setup for all guitars over like $300. No wonder GC is going under.