Plastic (old) elbow dilemma

[Clyde Hollinger]

Friends,

This is obviously the kind of thing we like to respond to, probably because
nearly everyone has had experience with these things.  I liked Keith McGavern's
response the best, but I have to have my say....

In such situations I encourage replacement of the whole set, but if the client
declines, I inform them clearly that other elbows may break while tuning, which
is obviously no fault of mine, so the total repair bill may be higher.  No client
has ever given me grief about this.  It helps to take an old and new elbow and
show them how brittle the one is compared to the other.  If you've never tried
breaking a new Vagias elbow, it's almost impossible.

When I was new at this profession I used to replace two or three broken elbows
for free.  After all, it's fast to do and costs almost nothing.  This is the
wrong way to go.  The client has no incentive to pay for replacement.  The charge
for replacing as they break should be high enough so the client can understand
the financial savings by doing the whole set at once.

In conclusion, did I tell you about this?  A lady called me and said, "I have a
problem with my piano.  I think it has broken knees."

Regards,
Clyde Hollinger

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.