Charging for Pitch Raises

[J Patrick Draine]

On Thursday, April 18, 2002, at 08:38 AM, Clark A Sprague wrote:

> Terry, List,
>         I did a Kimball upright last Saturday, on which I did 2 pitch
> raises, and a third pass on the upper treble.  It was 103 cents flat in
> the middle, and 200 in the high treble.  Everything was fine when I left

>         However, in the Kimball case,  the customer called back on
> Monday, stating that there were 3 notes that were not playing, one of
> which sounds like a snare drum.  Is it possible that such an extreme
> pitch raise has broken the plate?

Possible, but not likely enough to sweat about it until you've actually 
inspected the piano

> I told her that I would in no way
> accept responsibility for broken strings or if the plate broke.

Best not to *suggest* to her that the plate's broken at this point. 
Sounds like *one* string broke, or maybe a hitch pin gave out. Perhaps 
the broken string is snaring some action parts. Relax!
If so, do the repair, do that "in 2 weeks" tuning a few days early, 
smile, and give her the bill.
If there is a plate problem, consult the PTJ issue a of a couple years 
back on that problem, and take it one step at a time (explanations, 
repairs, etc.).

Patrick Draine