In a message dated 11/23/2009 9:02:18 P.M. Central Standard Time, wimblees at aol.com writes: What we're trying to do is get manufacturers to tell their dealers that if they want to sell their pianos they must have on staff at least one "factory trained" technician. What the definition of "factory trained" is, is open for discussion. But that, in itself would solve a lot of the problems we're discussing here. No, it won't. "Factory trained technicians" who must be invited to the factory, trained, boarded and fed, are generally those who have already established themselves in some way as having a competency far beyond what a dealer typically needs or wants. The color of the sky in Hawaii must be quite different from the one in Chicago (blue, with high clouds, and warm breezes there? cold, damp, gusty, threatening snow here) if you believe that dealers will not only support (or contribute to) that cost, but pay for the differential in gained competency. Only a few have done so, and they teeter on the margin, happily but teetering. Paul Paul The reason I put "factory trained" in quotations, is that they do not necessarily need to be trained at the factory. Perhaps I haven't been clear on this. but what I have been alluding all this time are 2 things. One, is that manufactures should put together some sort of training program that can be taught at PTG sponsored seminars, where, over a period of time, technicians could take the courses necessary to become "factory trained". The second thing is that manufactures offer the title of "factory trained" automatically to all RPT's. I realize that just because someone has passed the RPT exams doesn't automatically make them as qualified as perhaps someone who has attended a Yamaha or Steinway training sessions, but someone who is an RPT has to be better than a rank beginner, as described before. But these training sessions won't do a bit of good unless the manufactures strongly encourage, if not demand, their dealers to use RPT's, or "factory trained" technicians to do the prep work. The emphases here is that it is the manufacturers who are responsible to make sure their instruments are properly prepped at the dealers. Without that requirement, it will never happen. Mark asked what should they do if a dealer doesn't hire qualified techs. That question should not even need to be asked, because one of the requirements to be a Yamaha, (or Steinway, or Samick,) dealer should be to have a qualified tech on staff, or at least available, if it is a smaller store that doesn't need a full time tech. Wim -----Original Message----- From: PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com To: caut at ptg.org Sent: Mon, Nov 23, 2009 6:44 pm Subject: Re: [CAUT] Jeanie's brain storm - was Boston changed to dealers... In a message dated 11/23/2009 9:02:18 P.M. Central Standard Time, wimblees at aol.com writes: What we're trying to do is get manufacturers to tell their dealers that if they want to sell their pianos they must have on staff at least one "factory trained" technician. What the definition of "factory trained" is, is open for discussion. But that, in itself would solve a lot of the problems we're discussing here. No, it won't. "Factory trained technicians" who must be invited to the factory, trained, boarded and fed, are generally those who have already established themselves in some way as having a competency far beyond what a dealer typically needs or wants. The color of the sky in Hawaii must be quite different from the one in Chicago (blue, with high clouds, and warm breezes there? cold, damp, gusty, threatening snow here) if you believe that dealers will not only support (or contribute to) that cost, but pay for the differential in gained competency. Only a few have done so, and they teeter on the margin, happily but teetering. Paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091124/c20b4d09/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC