Customer Complaint on Tuning

[Shawn Brock]

Voicing?  I tuned a similar piano (Baldwin console) for a French Viola major and had this same problem...  She didn't have bad hearing as her excuse though.  She called me back two days after the tuning and stated that her piano just wasn't in tune.  Bare in mind that I had performed a lot of work for half price or less (hammer shaping, screw tightening, new bridal straps and a 20-cent pitch raise) all for $200.    Thought I was doing someone a favor, same old story...  "I don't have the money to do a lot of work on the piano.  I can't stand the way it sounds and the clicking and clacking when I play it though.  Can you help me out?"  So...  Two days after tuning the piano I go on a call back to this dreaded piano.  I am expecting the worse, but what I found was quite  the contrary.  The piano sounded better than I had remembered it sounding when I left.  I took a few minutes to play all intervals and the appropriate checks for them and found a thing or two to pretend to change.  She came back and stated that she thought it was better but she thought it was still out of tune.  She complained that when she played a triad that included g 4 that the g was not in tune.  Keep in mind this is a bright peace of junk and to this point I had done no voicing (had performed to much free work already).  So, I voiced the g down, she came back and played it and declared that it was in perfect tuning.  The hole time I'm thinking, you crazy ----- you were sitting here the hole time.  You never saw me put the hammer on the pin.  Do you think my needling the hammer changed the pitch of this note?  I just don't get it some times...  I voiced a few other notes down to make her happy.  Needless to say, I wasn't paid for that work or paid anything for my time on the callback.  I never received an apology even after she understood that the tuning was not the problem.  That's what bothers me most!  I always tell customers that if they have a problem not to hesitate to call me and I'll take care of it.  OH BOY!  Some of these people...  Reminds me of another customer who  loves to pull her S&S B action out.  She thinks the strike line is off in the treble.  To date she has broken three shanks.  She calls, and I go out and put a new shank and flange on every two months or so, charge her $100 for the service call, shake my head and wonder what the hell is wrong with this picture.  I still love this business though!

Shawn Brock, RPT
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Farrell 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 11:30 AM
  Subject: Re: Customer Complaint on Tuning


  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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080815/4f545310/attachment-0001.html