[CAUT] Yamaha Exchange program; pros, cons

[Aaron Bousel]

I can agree with much of what has already been said. The reliability 
and integrity of the dealer is very important. We had a program for 
many years in which the department received 14 pianos each fall. 
Eleven verticals (mostly P22, a few U1, and more recently some 
T118/120) and three small grands. The department was required to buy 
one piano at the end of the academic year and the dealer got to hold 
a sale at the Fine Arts Center. The program was ended at the end of 
the 2009-2010 academic year. The person who dealt with the dealership 
found them unreliable (pianos never showed up when they were supposed 
to) and sometimes less than honest. (I've never heard the dealer's 
side of things, however.) The department chair effectively lobbied 
the dean and they were able to get enough money in hand to buy new 
pianos to replace the loaners. Many were bought through the same 
dealer so the dealer really couldn't complain. The one thing I really 
liked about the program was that the department was forced to buy one 
new piano (it was always a P22) each year which meant I could get rid 
of one old piano and was able to go some distance in getting rid of 
some of the worst instruments. Having a forced rotation of stock was 
a very good thing. With all the recently purchased pianos the 
department doesn't have to get rid of anything immediately, but that 
day will come and will be subject to the budgetary process in a way 
that it wasn't before.

One thought, to avoid getting into a situation where you're 
completely dependent on the program, an institution could purchase 
more than the required piano each year so that after a certain number 
of years the instrument stock becomes improved enough so that the 
program isn't needed.

One nice thing about being done with the program is that I no longer 
have 14 pianos in their first year of life to contend with.

Aaron

At 12:16 PM 6/7/2012, you wrote:
>On 6/7/2012 10:42 AM, James Schmitt wrote:
>
>>The thing that I find so hard about
>>the piano exchange programs to start out with is that they tend to
>>leave the school dependent  on the program without a way out.
>
>This is the intent. Yamaha set this program up to sell pianos, not 
>to support schools or dealers.
>Ron N


------------------------------------------
Aaron Bousel
Registered Piano Technician, Piano Technicians Guild
abousel at comcast.net
(413) 253-3846 (voice & fax) 
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