Yamaha keytops

[Jim]

Dear Jim:

The main point I was trying to make in my last response on this subject
is that if Yamaha people do not know the local technician, it is chancy
for them to relie on the local technician.  In your case, I believe
you to be an excellent technician.  If you have been to the little red
schoolhouse, then probably the Yamaha people know about you.  However, if
you have not had this kind of contact with them as Joe A. did not,
then can you see how they might wish to go with a known technician?
It would be nice if they had sent a thank you note to Joe anyway.  Joe
will still have the customer afterwards.

When I used to travel with Concert Artists for the Baldwin Co.  I know
that certain local tuners felt slighted when they lost the job of tuning
for that particular concert.  My purpose in being at each of these
locations was to insure that our concert pianos were well regulated,
voiced, and well tuned.  Once I was at a College tweaking up one of our
Concert Grands.  We always tried to have the local technician with us so
that his knowledge would be increased if necessary and that we would
know more about him.  This local technician had been servicing (excuse me,
tuning) for this college for many years.  I asked him if he would run
up the let-off in the Bass while I did all of the treble.  He asked me:
"which way do I turn them thangs?"  I know that this is a specific
example, but I imagine this is not the only case of this kind of ignorance
out in the field.

There were other occasions where I ascertained that the local technician
was a better technician than I.  Such was the case in Winnipeg with Bill
Weiss.  I let him tune for Byron Janis that night.  Again, my major point
was that if the manufacturer does not know for sure about the local tech.
he is wiser to go with a known quantity or quality.

Jim Coleman, Sr.


On Wed, 28 Aug 1996 JIMRPT@aol.com wrote:

> Dr. Jim;
> "I believe that if I were a manufacturer, and out of the goodness of my heart
> I elected to change out a keyboard for one of MY customers."
>   Not Yamahas customers-- Jim but 'my' customers and that is where the rub
> is. When you help create a desire for a new piano, convince the customer that
> Yamaha is what they really want and that a Yamaha grand is what they need,
> meet them several times at several different times, sell them a Yamaha grand
> and deliver it. Then you provide the free service, tune and service the piano
> for several years, whose customer would you call these people?  Yamaha does
> not know these people and will never deal with them again. When you have
> three Technicians in the area who are more than capable of doing this
> exchange it does not make sense to fly someone in from Tennessee to do it. I
> am not in the least upset at Yamaha for this, but I think that it is strange
> and a heck of a way to do business. At least I was never upset but perhaps I
> should be if your reasoning is Yamahas'. Changing a keyboard, as you well
> know, is not brain surgery and if Yamaha thinks that I am not qualified to do
> it than that is their perogative. I think that it is a path of least
> resistance thing where it is mostly a "we've always done it this way" deal.
>   I don't happen to think that Yamaha does things relating to keyboard
> exchange in a reasonable fashion from my point of view. However looking at it
> from Yamahas point of view I can understand if they are  comfortable with
> someone else and want to keep that person gainfully occupied. Having one
> person collect the data for the new keyboard and then sending a different
> person in to make the change does make the first person look less competent
> in the eyes of the customer and I have had occasions where this has happened
> to me. My only concern on these occasions is that 'my' customer be taken care
> of and that the person doing the exchange do no harm. Such has not always
> been the case.
>   Jim this is not a big issue to me and it is one of the very few areas where
> dealing with Yamaha can be disconcerting.  I would rather deal with Yamaha
> than almost any other manufacturer.
>
> Jim Bryant (FL)
> p.s. It is not out of the "goodness of their heart" that they make these
> exchanges! If you have ever seen an Ivorite keyboard that has the problem you
> know that their business would truly suffer were they not to do something.
>