No- shows..... again

[Nick Gravagne]

Amazing no-show (kind of):

 

Many years ago when I lived in Albuquerque a brand new customer and I agreed
that if she wasn't home she would leave the door unlocked and that I could
just go in and tune her grand piano. Since I tuned for her Church and other
friends she trusted me to take care of business in the event of her absence.
Well, I arrived and knocked at the door - no answer. Rand the doorbell, more
nothing. I tentatively tried the doorknob - not locked. It's hard not to
feel creepy in these situations, but I gingerly entered the house and found
a mahogany grand piano. Still, I lamely called out something like, "Hello,
anybody home - I'm the piano tuner." The sound of silence was deafening. 

 

So, I tuned the piano completely undisturbed; left my card and bill and
moved on with the day.

 

That evening and a phone call from my customer. She wants to know what
happened; she was there for our appointment and I never showed up. I assured
her that I had, and that no one was home and that I tuned her mahogany piano
in the living room. Trouble is, her piano is ebony and it lives in the
studio, not the living room. A mystery now. We made another appointment for
the following day and I had dinner that night, sitting wide eyed, sure I had
entered into the Twilight Zone.

 

Later that evening and the phone rings. A man identified himself, but all I
really heard was "I don't know who asked you to tune my piano, but it sounds
great and thanks. I will get a check in the mail tomorrow."  Of course he
wanted to know more, who put me up to it and so on. I asked the man for his
address and I wrote it down, and when we hung up, I checked it against my
appointment book, and as they say in the South, "I like to fell down." I had
the correct house number but was on the wrong street! And the street names
were similar; they had a theme, such as Cedar, Spruce, and Cider. Well,
somewhere along the way, when I was looking for Cedar I ended up on Cider
two blocks away, and with no appointment walked into the house of a perfect
stranger, tuned a mahogany grand, and managed to get paid!

 

What are the odds?!! Later that night I imagined all sorts of weird and wild
scenarios that might have happened, but thankfully did not. I'll leave it to
the rest of you to think about. I also wondered how I could possibly justify
such an unbelievable tale to my new customer with the ebony grand, who I
"stood up". It turns out she believed me, and sort of knew the other party.
We laughed.

 

Who could forget such an odd story? Still, I learned to never walk into a
strange house unless I was absolutely and completely sure of the address; or
better yet, if I had never been there before to simply not go in, or even
try the doorknob for fear that on the other side of that door might stand,
cigarette in hand, Rod Serling.

 

 

 

Nick Gravagne, RPT

Piano Technicians Guild

Member Society Manufacturing Engineers

Voice Mail 928-476-4143

 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of pianolady50 at peoplepc.com
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 1:02 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: No- shows..... again

 

Best No Show (for me)

 

The job involved removing the 'drawer' in a Recordo grand to bring in to the
shop for rebuild.  The customer lived an hour and a half away (one way) in a
gated community south of Tampa, FL.  She had told me that she would be
meeting her husband at the airport, but that she would leave my name with
the guard at the gate, and the house key would be under the front mat.

 

Seeing as I knew extra hands would be useful in the drawer removal, my dad
accompanied me on the trip.  

 

(Can you anticipate what happened?)

 

After battling our way through Tampa and hauling down the east side of Tampa
Bay to Symphony Isles (no kidding), we arrived at the guard shack.  Pleasant
older man emerged and I announced my name, my customer's name, and my
purpose for being there.  He hadn't a clue.  The customer had forgotten to
tell him.  How frustrating to be sitting there, knowing that just several
streets away was that house key waiting for me.

 

We drove the hour and a half back home and I immediately called the customer
getting her answering machine.  I left a pleasant, chiding message.  She
called back that evening to apologize and I could hear her husband, in the
background, kiddingly giving her grief.  We made a new appointment and she
assured me that the guard would be told.  I asked for the phone number at
the guard shack!   I called him before I headed out to her house, and every
time in the future. 

 

Debbie L.

 

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