Customer Complaint on Tuning (Farrell)

[Arlie Rauch]

I've experienced that maybe two or three times in thirty years.  I  
respect the customer's complaint because they hear what they hear  
(sometimes I can also hear what they hear).  So I check out the notes  
in question, etc.  If they are in fact right on, as has been the case  
in these situations, I just tell the customer that is the best I can  
do; my tests indicate that the piano is sounding as it should.  And  
then I leave.  If the customer wants someone else to work on it next  
time, that's just fine.

It does seem like it is usually a piano that was far off, so maybe  
they learned to hear a certain interval ring a certain way, and that  
sound is no longer there.  It seems like it is just one note or one  
chord in one song that they think is off.  Maybe we could suggest  
they learn a new song?  (just kidding)

Arlie Rauch

> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:30:10 -0400
> From: "Farrell" <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: Customer Complaint on Tuning
> To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Message-ID: <024201c8feeb$ce92b570$0701a8c0 at DESKTOP>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> 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
>