Killer Octave - Warranty Issue?

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: September 08, 2001 7:23 AM
Subject: Re: Killer Octave - Warranty Issue?


> I don't usually point out bad soundboards unless the customer has a
voicing
> complaint or the problem is DRAMATIC. There are just too many of them. In
> this case, maybe you should at least ask the customer if it bothers him.
If
> you pursue it, have the customer go through channels and contact the
> manufacturer yourself as well. The first thing you will learn is that in
> the entire history of the company, no one has ever contacted them with a
> soundboard complaint. Why on earth would you think it's the soundboard?
Who
> told you that? Are you sure you're a real tech? It must be voicing. Offer
> to voice it, regulate it, tighten plate bolts, polish bridge pins, or any
> other of the long list of things that it surely is besides the soundboard.
> Take days at it, be extremely meticulous, and charge them your full rate
> for everything you do. Report back, no fix, then stand aside while they
> truck in at least one other tech from at least 200 miles away so do the
> same thing. Since you did such a good job fixing all the things that
> weren't the cause of the problem, the other guy will not find much to do,
> but will manage to spend a day at it anyway because that's what he was
> hired to do. The imported tech(s) may or may not report the problem
solved,
> but the customer needs to report to whoever they are dealing with in the
> system after each attempt to keep the process going. Eventually, the
> manufacturers will tire of throwing money at this wholly mysterious
problem
> with this apparently unreasonable customer with the tech from Hell and
> replace the piano. This one will, you bet your great aunt Aphasia, go
> directly to some dealer's showroom floor and be sold to someone else who
> will probably never notice the killer octave. That's not a problem though,
> because three expert technicians have gone over the piano thoroughly (at
> great expense to the company, mind you, thus establishing their good
> intentions) and fixed everything that was wrong with it. The replacement
> may be fine, in which case you win. Or it may have the same problem, even
> after having been worked on by three highly paid expert technicians in
> another state.
>
> In the past, I have tried to save everyone time and money by declining to
> try to fix bad soundboards with voicing, bearing adjustments, and
> regulation. The money was spent anyway, I never got compensated for time I
> had in the process trying to help the customer, and never got any
> acknowledgement whatsoever for my efforts. My current thinking is that if
> you aren't willing to give away your time and knowledge on killer octave
> soundboard problems, you have to be part of the problem and take the money
> the manufacturers insist on spending on what you have already determined
is
> not the problem. If you live to be a thousand, you'll never win, but you
> can't live to be a thousand if you don't eat. Giving a manufacturer a
break
> doesn't educate them either, unless they are among the few that are
> interested in their product already.
>
> That's not a consensus, but it is an opinion.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------

And it sounds suspiciously like one formed based on personal experience. It
also sounds like little changes over the years--I could easily have written
the same piece 30 years ago (except I don't write as well).

Del