Customer Complaint on Tuning

[Marcel Carey]

But there is one thing that hasn't been mentioned. Lots of these older persons will take everything off the piano before you get there. After you're gone, they will put back all their parapharnelia and then the zings and rings and buzzes come back. Maybe you could ask her to leave everything on the piano before you get there next time. Ask me how I know... ;-)
 
Marcel



From: mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.comTo: pianotech at ptg.orgSubject: Re: Customer Complaint on TuningDate: Sat, 9 Aug 2008 15:02:52 -0400



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 FarrellFarrell Piano
 
www.farrellpiano.comterry at farrellpiano.com
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