Customer Complaint on Tuning

[Farrell]

Wow. This is a first for me. This lady is nuts. I checked the piano out this past Sunday. It had a few unisons singing a bit (IMHO, not uncommon a week after doing a 25-cent pitch raise), but otherwise sounded fine (well, as "fine" as most any 1970 Baldwin console sounds). And I told her so. I checked octaves, thirds, fourths, etc., etc. and it's all in the ballpark.

She plays a tune and stops and says "hear that? it's wrong"! Well, sure, anytime you play an E and an F# together it sounds pretty bad! But she'd play other things and stop and say "that's wrong". Sounded fine to me. I didn't know what to say really. We did talk about the possibility that she had just gotten used to how it sounded when it was way out of tune. She agreed to play it a bit more and see.

So she calls me just now ranting and raving "it's all wrong, it's all wrong".  She says even her students are complaining. What the ........

She tells me that some times one song will sound fine, and then the next one sounds wrong.

Does the piano good. Of course not. It sounds like a crappy little Baldwin console that has sat too many years on the back porch (enclosed) of a home in Florida. But it sounds to be in as good a tune as any little piano like it.

So I guess the next step is to simply tell her that I don't seem to be able to satisfy her piano service needs and that she might be more satisfied with someone else's services. But that leaves one question remaining - in her view I have not tuned her piano - in my view I have. I don't think I should be returning her $95 (yeah, yeah, I didn't charge her for the pitch raise....). But then again, I'm sure she's on some sort of fixed income, and I've really never had an unhappy customer before......

I don't think there is any real good resolution to this situation. Any great ideas? Just tell her to find someone else and leave it at that? Seems like the only thing that makes any sense to me - but I kinda hate taking her money also.....

Terry Farrell

  ----- Original Message ----- 


  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 ----- 

    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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