Richard and all, I'm not sold on this Steinway leasing program. They tried that one with us five years ago. The sales pitch is "Steinway pianos are going up in price at an average of 10% annually, therefore you are better off buying now at a lower interest rate and have your pianos all at once." Your University purchasing department can easily put out a bid for financing and receive a better interest rate than Steinway offers. The real problem with the Steinway program is that you are locked into only Steinway products and you have committed your funding for years to come. Your pianos will need major work long before they are paid for, which puts you into another financial crisis. I'm not sure what the big deal is about being an "all Steinway School." We certainly don't want to be one. Even with all its problems, Steinway still makes the preferred instrument for most concert and keyboard performance situations - you just have to be willing to spend a lot of time and some money to get them there (but that's another story). But they don't have all the products that a school of music can use, ie. Yamaha Disclavier. IMHO, neither Steinway nor it's line of "Steinway products" (Boston, Essex) can compete with some of the other manufacturers in uprights (Yamaha, Schimmel, or even some Petrofs). And there are other choices for some of your other grand piano needs that go much further on a cost/value basis. Not to mention, some of your people might even prefer playing the other products. So why lock yourself into a high cost, low selection situation that probably won't fulfill all your needs, now or in the future? Just my 2 cents worth. Rick on 12/5/01 7:36 AM, Richard Adkins at RADKINS@coe.edu wrote: > Wm, > I'm sure you are aware of the Steinway leasing program. Working > with the local dealer, you can have your inventory of pianos > analyzed free. NYC Steinway has a person dedicated to this > program and they have several ways to assist you and dept. > chair to "sell" it. You can get all the new Steinways you need > right away and perhaps keep the best of the existing inventory. > You would also probably then qualify to be an "All Steinway" > school...or maybe atleast a "Steinway Grand School"....whatever > that means...since Boston pianos will also qualify you for that.... > The lease to own has a very low interest rate. > > Good luck > Richard > > _____________ Rick Florence Piano Technician Arizona State University, School of Music
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