I hadn't heard from the customer service rep since I called on the 15th (last Friday), so I called again and of course got a different rep and had to start from square one. He tells me the same thing, but said he would call instead of e-mail the Concord, CA GC store and he would put me on hold. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. He come's back on the line to see if I'm still there, then puts me on hold again. Comes back a few minutes later giggling and said he accidently put us on conference and he can't disconnect. Whatever.

The manager of the store comes on and says, "Sorry, dude. This was a return and it came back in the soft case, no hard case." !!!!! They sold me a returned guitar as a NEW guitar. Manager hangs up and the nervous rep says they would ship me a free hard case. We go back and forth for a bit and I told him it wouldn't be a free case seeing as how I've already paid for it, and now we have to deal with the fact they sold me a used guitar as a new guitar. 😡 

He goes thru all these different scenarios: ship the guitar and case back and they'll refund my money and ship me a new one when they get a shipment in in February; they'll ship me a hard case but it won't be an Alvarez case, and they'll give me a $30 credit for selling me a used guitar as a new guitar; or they'll credit my card back $100 plus the tax charged. I really didn't want to send the guitar back because I do like it. Who knows if the next one they would send would be as good as this one. 

I ended up taking the $106.30 credit back on my card, and I found the case New on eBay for $99 and free shipping (which was a lot better the $169 I kept running into from other sellers). Now I have an Alvarez Flexicase worth $109 new as a "discount" for the used/new guitar issue. Hmmm . . . 

Guess this worked out okay, except for the fact I would never buy a guitar online from Guitar Center again. Again, I just wish Sweetwater carried Alvarez because I would have definitely bought it from them instead.