I think it just depends on which Guitar Center you go to. People are just plain.. mean. Sorry about your bad experience, the one here in Boston is always kind towards fellow music enthusiasts.

14 days and 15% restocking on open box items.

http://gc.guitarcenter.com/financing/30_30.cfm

You can always call corporate and complain.  Maybe they give you a coupon.

The Guitar Center I went to in Glendale, AZ was ok I guess. The sales dude kept trying to force me to buy the Shure 840 when I was obviously looking at ~$100 phones. I just left. They are overpriced.

Wow! I'm really sorry about that. I had the opposite experience with them. They were very friendly and patient. They let me try whatever I wanted even though they had to repackage all the items and I took a while. The guy I spoke with even told me I should try a pair of 840s as well and pulled down the box. No problems for me whatsoever. I'd definitely send a letter to corporate or talk to the manager at that Guitar Center.

the power of the pen, my friend.

Uhm.......

BURN GUITAR CENTER TO THE GROUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

(and Best Buy too.)

There's obviously some variability in the in-store trials amongst different Guitar Center stores.  My local Guitar Center has let me try headphones.  They've got lots of things open and available to play with.  They're very hands-on in-store trial friendly with most of their gear.

The guy I talked to at Guitar Center was really nice, showed me a nice quiet room and opened both the Shure SRH840 and AT M50 for me to trial. Then he saw my altoids cmoy and he was like "oh, you have a headphone amp too... cool!" then he left me alone until I came back, thanked him for his time and asked him for his card in case I wanted to buy later.

At the local Guitar Center, and where I used to live, they tell me they don't want to let customers try headphones because of health policy.  =\

Never had problems with Guitar Center people, they're always very nice to me so far at least.

You went to the wrong guitar center....

The storeI went to was good. It was in Pasadena, CA. I went in to compare the M50 and the SRH840 and the guy opened up some brand new boxes off their shelf as they did not have any demo models. He then let me take them out and play around with them to my heart's desire and even offered to hook it up to some music - to which I declined as I didn't wish to listen to headphones that weren't burnt in.

When I finally decided on the SRH840s, even before I could ask, he went online on his computer and started googling the lowest prices to price match. I already had done my research and knew what they were being sold for on Amazon so he found a website with comparable prices and said, "Would you take it today for this price?"

After we agreed, his manager had to authorize it, but the manager tried charging sales tax on top of that price. I told him ( the manager), "No way, I'm not buying it unless I got the initial price as the FINAL price." The manager then tried to protest with something about tax and shipping, but I already knew that most websites outside of California charged neither, and that I'd have no problem going home and buying from Amazon. He finally relented and I got my price match. To his credit, the manager wasn't too pushy or anything. He was just probably trying to get away with the higher price, but was probably more eager to sell something rather than nothing that day.

But yeah, OP, people are just people. I probably lucked out in meeting both a nice salesperson and a manager, and they were probably having a really slow day that time and wanted to just sell something. Maybe if you spoke to different salespeople, you might have a different experience or at least have concrete names you can cite in your complaint to their corporate office.

As far as return policy, from what I read on the back of the receipt, you should be able to return headphones. Just not earphones, IEMs or microphones. It might be different in your state, so definitely read up on it.

In sales, companies offer what they call "spins or spiffs" to the sales people to lead customers to the brand. It is a financial incentive they get if they sell x amount of certain models. Could be you were subjected to this or they were just snooty, At any rate I would fire off an email to corprate and see if anything comes of it.

I do not endorse physicality against them, but do have stories which guarantee I approach GC with caution.

Best Buy music (if your Best Buy has been upgraded), I highly recommend.

AC