Piano Sales Forces...

[Jay Mercier]

I feel the same way toward a local dealer here in West Central MN.
He hires salesmen who know absolutely nothing about pianos but know how 
to convince people to purchase pianos.  In fact I was in the store 
recently and the salesman tilts his head toward a Samick baby grand and 
says "Now that's a nice piano heh?"  

The dealer is in piano sales strictly for the money, and I have a 
problem with that.

He sells YC and Samick because that's what people can afford around here 
( which is fine, he's servicing the area). But he also sells trade-ins 
with cracked pinblocks, soundboards, you name it.  He also does as 
little tuning and prep work as possible.  He makes it seem that this 
procedure is "normal" and people buy into it.  

It's hard to keep my mouth shut when a client asks about that dealer, 
but I do.

Jay Mercier
Piano Tech.
Glenwood, MN


>From: btrout@desupernet.net
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: "pianotech@ptg.org" <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Subject: Piano Sales Forces...
>Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 20:15:18 -0500
>
>Hi All,
>
>I'm wondering what others might think of the garbage so prevalently
>spewed from the mouths of the piano 'sales forces' of America!  (What a
>mouthful!)
>
>Since I work for a dealer, I am often in the background, tuning away
>while one of our 'illustrious' is selling his heart out regardless if
>it's a S$S or a Chinese Chang.  It is absolutely amazing to me to 
listen
>to these guys.  To listen to them talk, they've got engineering degrees
>in acoustics and mechanics out the wazoo.  You name it, they have the
>nice tidy answer.  (Even if it is totally untrue, or something that
>belongs in "fantasyland".) There's an angle to everything, and no 
matter
>what the polished turd happens to be, it's a "good value".  Oh, my head
>hurts after listening to some of these 'pitches'.
>
>It makes me wonder whether there are just plain regular people who sell
>a good piano for a fair price without all the hype.  So many times, I
>see someone being talked into a 'train wreck' of a piano, and 
everything
>inside me says, "Warn these people about this!!!"  It's not so much the
>particular piano.  I realize there are many levels of quality, and time
>frames of usefulness, but I hear them promising the moon and stars out
>of the Betsy Ross spinet, knowing full well, we can't do half of it.  I
>hear them tout the clear resonate tone of the Steinway 1098, knowing
>full well it's loaded with false strings, and will be a nightmare to
>tune for any customer with a discriminating ear.
>
>Is it society which demands all the hype?  Are the general public so
>consumed with being "Sold" that the product doesn't really make a big
>difference? (heaven forbid)
>
>Sometimes I have trouble handling this.  But what is my rightful place?
>I work for a dealer, at least for now.  But I am of the persuasion that
>someday, I'll have to answer for those things I've done or not done,
>said or not said.
>
>Are all dealerships this way to a greater or lesser extent?  I've only
>worked for one so I have no other comparable reference.
>
>Actually, Newton, you're the one who got me thinking about this with
>your post under Re:Factory Reconditioned Yamahas?   Perhaps we're not
>the only ones!
>
>If you've had some experiences, good or bad, and you'd like to share,
>I'd be interested.
>
>Brian Trout
>Quarryville, Pa.
>

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