Quality pianos

[MITCH KIEL]

>>"They COULD have bought a better (piano)"!  BUT, I'm sure they weren't
>>crying that they couldn't spend MORE money! I've worked with this
>>type of customer in the past, and have seen consumer reluctance to
>>spend their hard-earned money on ANYTHING! Unless of course it sits in
>>their driveway, and they can drive around in it to flaunt their affluence!
>>They believe these sales pitches because they WANT to, and they want to
>>because they DON'T want to spend one more cent than they have to.

>I hear dealers talk about this type of customer - it seems to be their
>justification for their deceptive and heavy handed tactics.  The reasoning
>goes " these losers don't want to pay for quality and if I don't sell them,
>someone else will."  I guess these customers get what they deserve.  The
>problem is that these dealers get a mindset that paints their customers with
>too broad a brush and they use this reasoning on every customer that walks
>in the door.

        I disagree with my good friend Mark Story, author of the above second
post (Hey, man, how ya been? See you in BC next month?) I *do* agree with Mark
Stivers' recent post: a low-quality piano is better than no piano at all.
        Furthermore, I also agree with other sentiments expressed that it's
elitist and anti-free market to "come down" on a store or manufacturer (or
piano owner!) for not putting an expensive high-quality grand in everyone's
home. (And of course I'd never suggest that academia allows - or fosters -
that viewpoint :)
        Consumers bear responsibility for spending their own money. Piano
buyers are not powerless in that quest. There's lots of good advice available
- believe your own ears, shop around and don't swallow everything you hear,
hire an objective piano technician, and - most useful - read Larry Fine's "The
Piano Book" (third edition now available).
        A piano buyer may very well make a choice they later regret, but
anyone who purchases big-ticket items learns for themselves (eventually) how
price level factors into those long-term decisions.
        And if a person *is* a "penny-pincher," their priorities on which
piano best suits their needs very well may be different - not better, not
worse - from a concert artist's, or from yours or mine.
        Viva la difference.

        The author of the original msg that started this thread has since
suggested that we refine our discussion to a criticism of "underhanded"
salesmen who "over-zealously" describe the capabilities of bottom-end pianos.
While some salesmen may stretch the "Truth" (be honest - they're in the
minority and they rarely last long), I defend their right to do so in a free
market. (Free market does *not* mean unregulated - there are laws against
fraud, etc.)
        Secondly, to say that we piano techs should "put pressure" on stores
that sell "bad" pianos ignores an essential fact - the piano marketplace is
shrinking alarmingly, and all of us who earn a living from pianos need to
support each other, including sales people who are just trying to do their
(difficult) job. "Bashing" low-ball retailers or low-end manufacturers is an
undignified indulgence we can ill afford, now more than ever. To quote a PTG
sage, "The high road is the best road."
        I've been poor and I've been a cheapskate and I've owned a $50 PSO.
Now I'm a (rich and profligate) piano technician, but I still maintain lots of
those "clunkers" and I always will. My personal politics and small-town
location prevents me from being a "fine grand or forget it" technician. I
strive to give a cheap spinet as much effort as I give a 9 foot. I often find
it's appreciated much more.

Mitch (once a hippie but never a Newtster) Kiel