Plastic (old) elbow dilemma

[Joseph Alkana]

Jlovekeys@AOL.COM wrote:

> Dear list,  Perhaps some of you could give some advice on my situation.
> Recently a customer called and said some of her notes were broken.  After
> asking a few questions, I realized that she had an old spinet with the
> disentegrating elbow syndrome.  I explained to her that fixing a few would
> just be a stop gap remedy and she might in fact be better off with another
> piano.  As fate would have it, its a ? family heirloom (lame) and yet she
> just wants the broken ones fixed and the piano tuned.  I plan on tuning the
> piano first and fear that I will break many more.  She does not want to
> replace them all at this point.  I feel like I might be getting into a mess
> of a situation here. Perhaps I should cancel unless she wants to spring for a
> complete replacement.  And even then the other plastic, if any, may soon
> start crumbling.  So what do you fellows do in a situation such as this?
> Thanks in advance. Jim Love /PTG Associate/Midland, Tx.

Jim,
I am doing an elbow replacement tomorrow. The customer at first just wanted the
broken ones replaced, but after showing her the benefit of doing them all at once
from a cost effective standpoint there was no problem in scheduling a complete
replacement job.  I made it quite clear that when I started to tune that if more
than three additional  elbows broke, I would end the tuning right there and would
charge for my time, condeming the piano as untunable until the elbows were
replaced. Also, since I would not be scheduling for the time necessary to do a
whole replacement, another appointment might be called for if she was still
inclined to use my services at that point!

Happy sales job, these can be quite lucrative. If you do get the job may I
suggest leaning the piano up against the wall to gain extra height for working
space. Not my idea...got it here some time ago. Also you might want to puruse the
archives as this has been around the block before.

Joseph Alkana  RPT