On Thu, 11 Sep 1997 15:54:59 -0400, jpiesik@arinc.com wrote: > A particular piano dealer in my area has a reputation for not properly > preparing pianos for sale or rental. <big snip> > How do I come out of these situations without mud all over me? Should > I just refuse to service pianos sold or rented by this dealer? Should > I just go ahead and say, "what a marvelous piano you have" and move > on? How can one be honest without getting smeared in this situation? > > Maybe I already know the answer, "what a marvel... > > Moving on, > > John Piesik, RPT > John, I greatly sympathize with you on your dilemma. I recently wrote to this list of a similar situation. I would liek to expound on that now and ask the lists advice for me as well. About a month ago I went on a call to a newer customer of mine with a new Korean (is that non specific enough) piano. He was experiencing some minor clicking in the action and a general poor level of control. After examining some action centers and a host of other things, I determined that the hammer flanges should be repinned because the pins were quite loose on one side and quite tight on the other. This was exacerbated by a rather uneven regulation throughout. I would like to digress for a moment to explain that this is the type of player who timidly plays when noone else is around for fear that someone else might hear him. He traded in an organ for this piano and has mentioned the difficulty in playing this instrument from the start. Here's where the trouble begins. I contacted the dealer (I do all his service work and that is how I got this customer) and the dealer points me to the manufacturer. The manuf. claims that the instrument was not properly prepped before the sale. This is true! If noone pays for it , I'm not workin' for free!!! Anyway the Manuf. says the dealer should pay, the dealer says the manuf. should pay. I discuss this with the dealer and ask how I can keep the owner happy. He first mentions that he cannot make any money doing the prep work to the extent that the manuf. feels is his responsibility. I can partially agree. A complete regulation should not be needed on a new piano. I'm sure touch up and tweaking are needed on every one that goes out but I feel that there should at least be a good stable base from which to work. Furthur, I feel that repinning definitely comes under the heading of warrantee. At this point the dealer is feed up with the manuf. and has stopped carrying these pianoes anyway as he's just completed a long going out of business sale and has closed the doors. He's since been opening under a new name etc., etc. but anyway not in a position to help. He offers that I should tell the customer to call the manuf. and get help directly and is necessary start yelling about State Attourney's general. This I do and now it gets fun. The manuf. now sends out a local tech representing the firm now carrying their line and he does some things to the piano like, rub on some microfine teflon on the knuckles adn adjust the letoff throughtout. My customer and I both came to the conclusion (seperately) that this was incomplete. My customer still has the same trouble with the piano. Nothing has been solved. He called the manuf. and relayed his disatisfaction with the result and was told that " they were fine when they left Korea" "we don't know what happens to them one the big boat" and "we don't know what happens to the in the warehouse or on the trucks" . These statements were relayed to me by the customer. If this is true then; Why don't they know what happens to them? and Even if they can't control what these pianos go through, don't they still have the responsibility to stand behind them? The customer is very unhappy about the whole deal (no kidding). He is now looking for a buyer so that he can go get a real piano. My questions are; Is there a better way that I could have handled this? Where does one parties duty end and another begin? To what extent should a piano be prepped? And who does what aspect of the prepping? Is it any different for higher quality instruments or is right, right no matter what? What should be done for this owner now? Any other advice? Greg Newell Greg and Mary Ellen Newell Greg's Piano Forte` Lakewood, Ohio 44107 gnewell@en.com
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