Zeno, My complaint is not with those who are prepping pianos along the lines of what the manufacturer intends if they are doing a good job. My problem is with dealerships who do little or nothing to prep their pianos before they go out the door, or who hire inexperienced/unskilled technicians to do the work with no accountability for the quality or accuracy of that work, merely because they are cheaper labor. If an enthusiastic beginner does the same inadequate work week after week without being shown the right way, what is that person learning? If he/she is doing good work I have no complaints. If a skilled technician is not compensated for their work adequately and therefore does only a bare minimum or an incomplete job, there is something wrong with that. If a manufacturer doesn't care how their pianos are prepared once they ship them out, there won't be any changes at the dealer's end. jeannie _____ From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Zeno Wood Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 6:40 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Jeanie's brain storm - was Boston changed to dealers... Hi all, I appreciate what you're saying about urging dealerships to only hire highly skilled technicians, but I have a different take on it. For many technicians straight out of the few schools out there, working for a dealership is a good way to get started in this business. Sometimes these folks are actually members of the PTG and sometimes they actually are RPTs (for instance the recent cohort from North Bennett Street), but they're still new and have much to learn. They can learn a lot prepping pianos for a dealership, learn things that it would take a lot longer to learn on their own. They also have a lot to offer, because after one or two years in school they are, after all, pretty solid. I don't think it makes sense to create barriers for solid techs who don't have much experience. Regards, Zeno Wood On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 8:19 PM, Jeannie Grassi <jcgrassi at earthlink.net> wrote: Hi Rex, I do believe such information has been given. Certainly Yamaha's 37 Steps is one example. I believe Kawai has a checklist also. That doesn't seem to be the problem. And there are plenty of technicians who know what to do. What I was referring to are dealers, and indirectly manufacturers, who take the cheap way out by hiring unskilled and new technicians to do such work, who have had little or no training simply because they are willing to do it. If the manufacturers aren't stepping up and saying they expect the pianos to be prepped in a certain way, the dealers aren't going to spend the money to pay a qualified technician to do it. I realize that most of what I have been saying is wishful dreaming, but wouldn't it be great if we were actually respected and appreciated for the work we do and if we were actually allowed to do it? jeannie _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091123/13e3e8e0/attachment-0001.htm>
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