In a message dated 9/9/01 9:16:54 PM Central Daylight Time, baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca writes: << Just my view, perhaps I strive to treat customers, in a manner I would like to be treated. Roger >> I am not sure why we have a tendency to make everything so complicated. The sentence above says everything! Do not alarm the customer, use diplomacy, talk to the dealer first. The whole idea here is to solve the problem. Roger may be the exception to the rule as dealers go but I don't really believe it. I think that most dealers want happy customers. If the dealer does not respond then go to the customer, simple huh? Okay, there is a list of things that chafe my (you know). I have been in the piano business for 30+ years and I can't understand why any piano person who upon seeing a situation where a family is giving their children lessons on an obviously inferior piano in rough shape but cannot afford anything else says, "The piano is not worth working on." A playing piano in the house is a good possibility of a better piano in the future. Eliminating the piano in the house is surely the elimination of a player and a piano in their future. By the way, that is the elimination of our services in that house in the future. Not all pianos are concert quality and that's OK! OK, I am on a roll here and that may come in handy if I need a flame suit later. Commissions and referrals next, Powells Pianos has been doing business in Texas for 30+ years. We do 75% wholesale and the rest retail. We do not care what our contractors charge, the market is what decides that! Retail customers get retail prices and wholesale customers- well you understand. We do give a suggested retail price list out and most of our wholesale customers use it (because it is easier). As far as problems go, in 30+ years there has been 2 or 3, literally and 0 law suits. Even if you do everything by the book and you are right, it does not stop somebody from suing you. The bottom line is that the more complicated it is the more chance you have of being sued. Referrals are handled on a one on one basis, duh huh! If the referral fee is worth it we say OK, if not we say NO! Next, the value of pianos!!! There was a thread a while back, while I do not remember the exact circumstances I do remember it was about a lady who wanted to sell her piano at an obviously way below market price. I remember many people who were responding as a buyer said it was their responsibility to educate the seller on the "real" value of her piano. Ridiculous, the value of my personal possessions cannot be measured by you. When I go and give an estimate for a restoration of a no name upright I say "You will not be able to sell this piano for what your spend to restore it." If you are doing this to make money, you won't. People call us every day to sell there pianos (no not Steinways, dang it) and ask what it might bring retail, I tell them the truth no holds barred. But I also tell them the cost of selling retail, newspaper adds, strangers at there house (I am a bit of a salesman). There seems to be a trait of a lot of us "piano people" to make things so complicated when in truth they are not. Allright, now about politics of the PTG --------- just kidding!!!! David Koelzer DFW
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