Someone wrote; << I for one take exception to being linked with what you descibe as your local "con artist". >> I, of course, must apologise! My writing ability is so poor that I must constantly clarify what I meant! I only meant to proffer an opinion that the self-serving statements I quoted just don't help the customer a great deal. I do have a lot of financially poor customers, perhaps I was thinking of them. I certainly did not mean to imply that anyone on this list is a con artist! I only mentioned the fellow here in Phoenix that left the piano disassembled because it was, in essence, an elbow replacement job, professionally done, and fresh on my mind. If I needed better understanding of his work method I should have put it in a different post. Sorry. I now occurs to me that I also did him a disservice by calling him a con artist. Thank God I didn't mention his name. He DOES know what he is doing, he did go to school for the trade somewhere, he does a good job, and gets paid like a professional. What is wrong with that! So what if he has a different style and business practice! He was taking a piano that couldn't be tuned due to some broken elbows and fixing it. It so happens that he does not like plastic elbows, but only wood elbows, a professional's choice. To replace the intact Vagias elbows was a professional's choice. He did an absolutely beautiful job with the wood replacements, it just took hours and hours and he happens to charge a very reasonable $30.00 an hour. It adds up! The fellow was there for about two hours a visit for over ten visits, being paid each visit for his time, all work being properly done entirely on the premises, and the lady paid some money into the "parts fund". He is not a con artist, but a true professional piano technician. The fact that the lady had no idea that the job was going to cost so much can be dissmissed as mis-communication and mis-understanding. Thank God he is a native Spanish speaker or it might have been worse! The piano was in pieces when she suddenly balked at paying any more money, and WHY should he put it back together if he isn't going to be paid for his valuable time? It is going to take quite a few hours to reassemble the piano. I couldn't do it in under 10 hours. ( the whippens are numbered - but in a box, the hammers are numbered - but in a box, dampers are numbered - but in a box, even the wood dowel LM adjusters at the top of the spinet wires are in a jar, but oddly - not numbered) I have to get it into my mind that, in our politically correct environment, no one is ever right or wrong, we just have different opinions and do things differently. If people don't like that, they can just pay for our service call and move on to the next professional! I hope that clears everything up! Respectfully, Bill Simon Phoenix
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC