Baldwin Parts

[John Baird]

Patrick,

Thomas Malone is a nice enough person, but you are probably in for some
frustration.

I needed two items from Baldwin in October: a damper trap lever for a
warranty replacement, and three pedals for a Hamilton I had not seen in a
long time. I placed the order with Thomas two weeks before my out-of-town
appointment.  When nothing had arrived two days before my appointment, and
unable to reach Tom (he was out of the office for a week and his voice
mailbox was full), I visited a nearby school that has a Baldwin Hamilton
piano, took measurements of the pedals, and sent an overnight rush order to
Schaff based on those measurements, paying an expensive $21.25 overnight
shipping charge. I also left a voice message for Tom at the main Baldwin
number (they also were not answering) asking him to cancel the order for the
pedals, but to please send the damper trap lever. Nothing ever came, even
after six weeks.

When I finally got to the piano, I found that the pedals from Schaff were
wrong. But now I was at the piano and could measure. So now I ordered the
correct pedals from Schaff, and incurred a UPS charge and a Schaff
restocking fee to return the incorrect pedals. Oh boy!

 Weeks passed, and still no damper trap lever arrived. So I placed a call to
Baldwin and actually reached Tom by phone this time. I mentioned about the
pedals, that I didn't need them anymore, but asked if he could still send
the damper trap lever. He said fine. A few days later a tube was delivered
to my house with the damper trap lever, AND ALSO WITH THREE PEDALS, and now
I see that my credit card is charged $43 for the pedals I asked him not to
send. Now I search my soul for reasons for this miscommunication. I know I
did not go to extremes to be explicit, and I did not repeat myself enough. I
also failed to ask him to repeat back to me what he thought I had said.

I emailed Tom about this error and asked that it be resolved. He answered
this email saying he would be out of the office for a week, and then he
would work on it. He added optimistically that maybe "Sunny", who he copied
his email to, might be able to assist me before he got back. It's been
almost two weeks, and no word from Sunny or Tom.

Otherwise, things are going well, and life is good.

Best regards,

John Baird

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul McCloud" <pmc033@earthlink.net>
To: "'Pianotech'" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 11:01 PM
Subject: RE: Baldwin Parts


> Email Thomas Malone at: Thomas.malone@gibson.com .  He's the service
> manager.  By phone it is nearly impossible to get him.
> Paul McCloud
> San Diego
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
> Behalf Of Patrick C.Poulson
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 6:52 PM
> To: Pianotech
> Subject: Baldwin Parts
>
> Hello All: I have been trying to contact Baldwin parts department for
> over a
> week and keep getting a voice recording that says that the parts person,
> Sandy, is out of the office. Anyone know of a better way to order parts
> -
> from a live person? Thanks, Patrick Poulson
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>
>
>