Alan: As Scott said the benches do get pretty beat up and that makes the piano sale more difficult at the end of the term. Our Yamaha dealer spent $300 - $400 refinishing the bench tops. In our contract we are willing to pay up to $200 for wear and tear, so that left the dealer with $200 to pay out of his own pocket. To accomodate the dealer who has treated us fairly well over the years, we decided that we would take the pianos without benches next year. Although we don't have a lot of benches here, we'll be okay. If there's nothing formal written down about your problem, you may be stuck. It might be a good opportunity to go to the administration and put in a request for a bunch of new benches. It sounds like you could use them anyway. Good luck. The economy may be flourishing, but it seems like the institutions of higher learning aren't benefitting. Richard West
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