Poor Technician Workmanship Question (kinda long)

[David Love]

It illustrates the danger of trusting someone just because they have lots of
letters following their name.  I would like to think that people who do work
like this tend to self-destruct their own businesses, but unfortunately it
is not always true.  Many customers can't tell the difference and some
things are not visible.  I like to give other techs the benefit of the doubt
generally, and don't trash anybody's reputation, but I don't go out of my
way to protect them if they do shoddy work.  I, as you did, would be
thorough to point out the problems--mostly so you don't get blamed.  I
document everything for my records so there is not doubt later about what
problems existed and what corrections I made.  I don't try to be a hero.  If
the best remedy is that the work is done over, I suggest it and charge
accordingly.  Let the customer decide how to deal with the money out the
window with the previous tech.

David Love

----- Original Message -----
From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: August 24, 2001 4:13 PM
Subject: Poor Technician Workmanship Question (kinda long)


> If you can't stand pure venting, push delete now. Venting follows:
>
> Tuned/serviced a piano that was new to me. 1890 Kimball 5' 7" grand. Lady
> made appt. and told me enthusiastically that it had recently been
COMPLETELY
> redone inside. The work was done my a local RPT, member of the guild. This
> is the third "completely redone" piano of his I have run across. It was
> consistent with the others I have seen. (One lady called me to inspect his
> work because she feared it was substandard -  concurred with her.) He
> advertises in the Yellow Pages as being an RPT and member of the PTG. I
> charged the lady $245 to tune this Kimball grand..........and fix the keys
> that were not playing.............and fix the dampers that would not quit
> playing, etc., etc.
>
> The first thing, and the thing that buggs me the most, is that this lady
had
> the clear understanding that her piano was COMPLETELY REBUILT. I
> specifically asked her whether the tech gave her a range of options for
> improving her piano, and perhaps she chose to do limited work because of
> financial constraints or just didn't want to spend a bundle on that piano.
> She said no. Her understanding was that there was nothing else to improve
on
> this piano.
>
> Bass strings were replaced with supply-house type strings. Forward and
rear
> windings ended as much as 3/4" off from its corresponding unison. Common
was
> about 3/8" off. Coils were all over the place - loose, and ranged from a
> good 1/4" off plate to jammed into plate with a tight coil. Size-larger
> tuning pins were all different heights.
>
> Hammers were replaced. Shanks sticking out back side of hammer (looked
like
> they were chewed off). No trimming, no surfacing/filing (they had the
cupped
> surface on top), to tapering, no tail shaping. He had to have done the
> boring (or maybe his 6 year-old great-grandson). Hammers were at all
angles.
> Any one hammer was off being straight on several planes (it's hard to even
> describe how crooked they were - strings were not being hit straight on by
> the hammer at all - that is the ones that were being hit). Hammers were so
> mis-aligned many strings were not being struck by respective hammer.
>
> About a dozen notes were not playing because hammer tails were dragging on
> backcheck. Many hammers were blocking against string because they never
went
> through letoff. The end of hammer travel on many notes was terminated not
by
> letoff, but because letoff was like 1/2" below string and the drop
> adjustment went almost up to the string such that the rep lever carried
the
> hammer the rest of the way.
>
> Keys were rebushed (front rail only) and recovered and new felt was on
> keyframe. The keys were about as unlevel and crooked (leaning) and poorly
> spaced as ANY old upright I have ever seen (you know the ones with
> mouse-eaten felts).
>
> About a half dozen dampers were non-functional. He replaced the felt on
them
> with the supply-house set for uprights. Felt at all angles and positions
on
> the damper heads. Wires that looked like pretzels. I have never bent a set
> of damper wires. I was kinda shy about even trying to fix them, but upon
> inspection, they looked like a forest of trees where the wind blows hard
> from one predominant direction. Some of the screws in the back action were
> missing so it appeared he took the straight wire and bent the last 3/8" or
> so a bit and then jammed the crooked wire into the little wooden block to
> hold it there (what is it called??? the little block on the back action
that
> the damper wire goes into). I started by removing the dampers and wires
and
> making them as perfectly straight as I could. I put them back in and
> waaalaa, they worked fine, just like that. One of the dampers that was
> slow - I didn't even want to touch it - appeared to be held in its block
> with chewed gum.
>
> He charged her $2,000. All of the work should be completely redone. Maybe
> the back rail cloth on the action frame would be OK. I could go on. I
think
> you get the picture. I was sooooo happy to find the lady had a wonderful
> sense of humor. At one point she asked me if I was going to shoot it.
>
> Just curious, are we supposed to report a clown like this to somebody at
> PTG? This dude is an embarrassment to all members of PTG.
>
> Terry Farrell
>
>