Customer Complaint on Tuning

[Farrell]

The saga continues...... and builds. This one has the potential to set the standard.

Just got a call from........ guess who?

Ms. X, I LIVE AT ...... YOU TUNED MY PIANO. IT SOUNDS HORRIBLE. SOMETHING MUST HAVE HAPPENED.

Maybe I should have asked her, but I wonder if she remembers that we talked yesterday. I told her I'd be stopping by tomorrow early afternoon and she seemed okay with that. I hope she sleeps tonight.

Either this lady is in the wrong "home", or the plate split in two after I left from tuning it. Either one - I can't really figure out anything else.....

Oh boy..... gulp.

Assuming I live through it, I'll file a report tomorrow afternoon.

Terry Farrell
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Farrell 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 2:24 PM
  Subject: Customer Complaint on Tuning


  Oh boy. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Should have just erased the message and not called..... 

  Lady leaves message on my answering machine: I LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. MY PIANO NEEDS TUNING. I LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. IT SOUNDS HORRIBLE. I LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. I NEED IT TUNED TOMORROW. I LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. CALL ME.

  After my ears stopped ringing, I call her..... and they started ringing again. Made appointment. Pull up in her driveway Wednesday - I could hear the TV LOUD in the driveway. 120 year old lady - very sweet - she had the big eyes and high cheekbones - could tell she must have been a knockout 95 years ago. I asked how long it had been since last tuning. She didn't answer so I asked: HOW LONG SINCE LAST TUNING. She said many years. Anyway, I did a 25 cent pitch raise and tuned the so-so condition 1970-ish Baldwin console.

  FWIW, she is a "musicologist". What is that? She also teaches piano.

  She calls me yesterday and says that some notes still don't sound right together. I didn't have the heart to ask which ones (like maybe C and C#?). So I told her I would call her Sunday early afternoon and stop by to check it out. (I have a morning appointment nearby that day.)

  I know what it will sound like - a crappy little old Baldwin console that just had a pitch raise and a tuning. She's going to plunk away at several keys, not hear a darn thing, and ask me: "see? hear that?"

  So what's the plan? Smile, wiggle a few tuning pins, and say: "Oh, yeah, that should sound better now...?"

  This is my second call-back on a tuning in 10 years. The other one was a few years ago from a 115 year old lady who couldn't hear a fire engine honking it's horn if she was standing right next to it.......

  :-(

  Terry Farrell
  Farrell Piano

  www.farrellpiano.com
  terry at farrellpiano.com
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