<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Jan 10, 2007, at 8:50 AM, Paul T Williams wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><FONT size="2" face="sans-serif"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; "> It suprised me, too, that with as much profit these stores make off the pianos, they still refuse to have any of them properly prepped. "just tune it and ship it!", was their motto.<BR></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Even more holds true for the Steinway dealer who isn't doing it either. That's the result of the Yamafication and Kawaization of the piano sales industry, because I've always heard that up until the Asian myths came along, every dealer had techs prepping pianos. The Chinese pianos I dealt with recently weren't even tuned. I was told they were supposed to have been but they couldn't possibly have been. And they were headed for public school music classrooms which used them for 7 weeks in that condition before I was called to go tune them.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><FONT size="2" face="sans-serif"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; "> Even more suprising was the frequency of customers requesting the piano be unboxed at their homes! (making sure they are not getting the "used" floor model, I guess).<BR></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Somebody isn't doing their job of educating the customer there. Why else would university loan program sales work?</DIV></DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>