snip > We sell alot of pianos this way and I am afraid that is all that >matters to the owner.I still would not reccomend buying a piano from us >there. Go to one of our stores and work with a salesperson and wait a week or >two for delivery so we have time to prep it properly. I've held my tongue thus far, but this last post really hit home. I'm manager at Grafton Piano & Organ Co and sometimes tuner when the need calls. This whole University Sale thing rubs me the wrong way. For the most part it works because: People are gullible. People are looking for a good deal. The generation that most often buys pianos is motivated with a deadline. Throw in the mix a letter from the ol alma matter, a few display adds that appear to be run by the college, call to "make and appointment," a 20 minute spiel from a salesman that is geared to close and these prices are only good for this weekend only and many people end up buying. Part of the difficulty is that the average person is not given the chance to go in, look, hear, go back, have their tech. come in-it's all done so quick-you call and set up an appointment, go in, are assigned a sharp closer and you either buy it or not. In reality as has been posted before, most of the pianos ARE NOT pianos that the college has used, let alone owns. Most are moved in, set up and delivered without service and are not usually sold at anything different than what they sell for normally. I've heard that some dealers actually get a better gross profit on the college sales. I've been told that theyoften tweak the pianos that have been used all year in practice rooms but leave new pianos untouched in order to move out the used pianos first. In my mind they border on un-ethical but work due to the nature of people looking for a deal. In one state (Illinois I believe), the state attorney general brought a suite against one dealer. Basically the reason for the suite was, the pianos were not being sold by the college, the college did not own the pianos, the prices were not what they were advertised to be. If you read most of the letters that go out from the college and the adds that run in the papers most dealer word the copy very carefully to avoid this. But to the average person looking at an add with a big college logo, it's the college selling their pianos-gee hun maybe we ought to go buy a piano this weekend. Glenn Grafton Grafton Piano & Organ Co. Souderton PA http://www.dprint.com/grafton/ gleng@fast.net 800-272-5980 The box said "Requires Windows 95, or better." So I bought a Macintosh.
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