[pianotech] Imagine

[Susan Kline]

Wim I agree with some of this. Sometimes the piano requires expensive 
repairs, and it is just not worth doing. The customer could buy 
something better for less than the cost of repair. I would never do such 
a repair.

Others are quite salvageable in minimal time, by thinking a little 
outside the box and not giving up too soon. The repairs must be 
effective, low-cost, and therefore to be low cost they must be fast but 
still work and still last.

If the repairs can't be effective and low cost, and the piano is so 
cheap or far gone than another better one could be bought at less than 
the cost of repairs, then the customer needs to realize that nothing can 
be done except moving on to a different piano. I've said that plenty of 
times.

Susan

On 11/11/2010 9:47 PM, tnrwim at aol.com wrote:
> This quote came from one of the articles I wrote about Appraising pianos.
> We have to keep, as it states in our Code of Ethics, the best interest 
> of the client in mind. In other words, we need to look at a piano for 
> what it can do for the customer. We need to look beyond our supposed 
> capabilities, thinking we can fix anything, and ask, "is this piano 
> really worth fixing"? We need to be able to say to our customers, 
> "this piano is dead", regardless of what the customer thinks of the 
> piano. The customer might not like what you said, but it is more 
> ethical to tell the truth, than to let her continue to believe the 
> instrument is worth restoring.
> Wim
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Nossaman <rnossaman at cox.net>
> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Sent: Thu, Nov 11, 2010 7:06 pm
> Subject: [pianotech] Imagine
>
>
> I wonder about the current thread on split bridge repair. Is it worth
> fixing or not? If so, wouldn't you make a new bridge? It's easier than
> recapping in situ, and a real fix. The other options are, at best,
> lesser approaches. I confess, I don't understand the attitude that the
> piano is absolute junk, but the owner wants it fixed, and has no money,
> so the tech should do the shabbiest repair possible to appease a
> customer who has no idea what the choices made actually mean, as long as
> the tech can make a buck doing it. Is there no line beyond which NO is
> the right answer? Can't we decline to do junk repairs on junk pianos as
> a matter of professional pride and ethics, or are these outdated
> concepts when a check is to be had? I understand that we don't always
> have the luxury of high level choice, but shouldn't we at least try to
> appear to be possessed of professional standards to some degree? Or is
> it all just the chance to generate income, regardless of how? How does
> this serve either us, or our profession in the long run? I read all
> sorts of whining that we aren't taken seriously as true professionals,
> and we don't get the pay we deserve as such, followed by suggestions for
> repairs that anyone aspiring to professional status would, or at least
> should, have nothing to do with.
>
> Baffled, long and often,
> Ron N
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101111/68bd653f/attachment.htm>