what to do, what to do...

[Mike Spalding]

Daniel,

Explain, yes.  Discount, no.  Your cost to service, tune, and deliver 
the piano have not decreased.  The sound, playability, and durability of 
the piano have not been decreased by your discovery of the cracks.  Make 
the buyer aware that the the cracks exist (do you really know that they 
"developed" since you took the piano in, or had you perhaps not noticed 
them before?),and that they are doing no harm.  This would also be a 
good time to thoroughly inspect the piano for other structural issues, 
and to think about how to respond if other structural issues surface 
after the piano is delivered.

Mike

daniel carlton wrote:
> hello list
>  
> a customer of mine had a piano that belonged to her recently deceased 
> father and she wanted to give it to someone that could make some good 
> use of it, so i took it thinking i could tune it, shape the hammers a 
> little, do a quick regulation and sell it. it's a Bradbury #111850, ca 
> 1933.
>
> i had another customer wanting to upgrade from her current piano, so i 
> showed it to her, explaining i would clean it, service it, and tune 
> it. we decided on a price and approximate date of deliverly.
>
> my main problem now is that since i moved it into my shop, hairline 
> cracks have developed in the soundboard. you should be able to see 
> them in the photo i've attached. now i realize that's not necessarily 
> a big deal as far as the sound and playability of the piano, but the 
> problem is that the potential buyer didn't know about it when she 
> decided to purchase it, and i had no way of knowing it would do that. 
> i'm thinking i'll just explain that the cracks only developed after 
> sitting in my shop and i could take a little off the price. any 
> thoughts, suggestions, ideas?
>
> thanks
>
> daniel carlton
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>