Okay gotta clear up some things. I work for guitar center and I know what you speak of: the perils of doing a repair. But there's alot of confusion around how we get down so far as that goes along with warranty/Performance Guarantee service, etc...
First and foremost: if you buy the performance guarantee from GC, DO NOT bring the piece into the store. This is the most common mistake. Our PG service runs through Aon, an insurance company--they take care of finding the nearest qualified* repair station to you, that way it takes a shorter amount of time to get back in your hands. Contact them first: they will handle things from there. They also keep really good track of what's going on with your gear, so that way there's minimal hassle and you're back to rockin out.
Also, when you take the piece into the store there might be someone who isn't clear if you got a PG or not and will put the piece on repair through the store--which will go to whatever local repair shop or the manufacturer in some cases. THIS IS WHAT WILL COST YOU EXTRA $$$$!
if you buy the pg, you dont pay for any repairs: this is why you HAVE to call Aon (or visit
www.theserviceport.com)--so you bypass the scrutiny of the repair. Also, with the Performance Guarantee you're paying for first priority on your repair. This is why regular repairs take forever: they deal with PG related repair first and then all the rest of the stuff we ship. turnaround time is about 2-3 weeks with the PG, whereas when we do a repair order in the store, it's out of our hands completely and totally on whatever repair station the gear is sent to.
If your repair is going to take a long ass time to get done, most repair stations dont care and just deal with you in turn. With the PG, if we can't get it back to you in a decent amount of time, we cut you a check for what you paid for the gear. If we gotta do the same repair three times with the PG, they cut you a check for what you paid for the gear. I see these checks in the store all the time, I've even gotten a couple myself (for my headphones and midi controller, yet still my MPC is still cool 2 years in)...
it's a cool lil system, just gotta work it the right way and it'll work out well