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<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 2/10/2006 11:51:37 A.M. US Eastern Standard Time,
atodd@uh.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=
=2>Is
anyone using Yamaha for any kind of a "loaner" program?<BR>If so, how is i=
t
working for you?</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> I am a contract tuner for a college and a
University that use the Yamaha loan program from the local dealer. As far as=
the
business end of the deal, I only know bits and pieces but could find out mor=
e if
there are specific questions. From the piano maintenance end of it: the pian=
os
go out of tune more quickly than the "resident" pianos, at least for the fir=
st
semester, but that is not such a big deal. The reliability of the actio=
n is
a little better on the new ones. (Not the case when we had the Baldwin loane=
r
program, unfortunately.) </DIV>
<DIV> The idea from Yamaha's perspective is that if t=
he
university buys up to 20% of the loaners each year, in five years they will =
have
bunch of young pianos that are reliable and have the Yamaha name in front of=
teachers and students. From the dealers perspective, they get to have a
"university sale" on campus after the school year and tend to get some alumn=
i in
for piano purchases that might otherwise be putting off a big ticket item. F=
rom
the universities perspective, these new pianos are much better than the beat=
ers
that were in there before. Also, for current as well as prospective students=
, a
bunch of newish looking pianos that play well and sound good give a positive=
impression of the music school. </DIV>
<DIV> John Stroup</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>