advice today please!

FRAN TANGUAY PIANO DOCTOR ftanguay@sbcglobal.net
Thu, 7 Aug 2003 17:18:45 -0700 (PDT)


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Tvak@aol.com wrote:
List

Tomorrow I go into the den of iniquity, i.e., Biasco Piano, to examine a piano on a client's behalf.  It is a pre-owned U1, serial #725700.  Biasco is expecting me to come tomorrow to check it out and have agreed to let me see it.  Now, he has already put money down on this piano so I'm not sure if the deal can be nixed at this point, no matter what I find, but what general advice would you have for someone in this situation?  I've never been called on before to examine a piano at any dealer before, let alone at Biasco.  I'm not looking for advice on what aspects of the piano to check; I can in all modesty say that I am fully qualified to examine this piano for its integrity, quality and/or any potential problems.  

It's the ethical/business aspects that I ask advice on.  For starters, I plan on saying nothing to the folks at Biasco about what I find.  The client is paying me for advice and I will give it to him directly.  But if I find something that is truly wrong (and being Biasco...this could be possible) can I be held liable in some way if the client decides to back out of the deal?  

I've already warned him of gray market Yamahas, but he's not particularly concerned.  He already owns another Yamaha and thought he could provide the serial number to that piano if any parts were needed for this piano.  I had to admit that most of the parts would probably be interchangeable.  Not an ethical way to deal with a problem, but since the problem at this point doesn't exist, I chose not to address it. 

So, any advice will be appreciated.  I don't want to get myself into any trouble over this.  I really don't expect to find anything radically wrong with this piano.  I think it's just going to be another one hour service call, but I'm sure many of you have been here before and will have some great advice.  

If I can avoid stepping in it, I'd gladly walk around it!

Tom Sivak


Hi Tom

I am a tuner who now is in retail piano sales as a manager of a store.

When I have a customer that wants to send in a tuner to check out a piano I ask that they come in with the tuner .If the tuner has any problems with the piano we can at that point discus the problem and decide about the repair and if we the dealer would do them at the same price.

Some prices are based on the piano in it's present condition.

I have also seen were a tuner tells the customer of problems with a piano that could have been repaired in 15-20 min.but did not tell customer that they were minor causing the deal to be broken.

I could go on with this for a long time. If you would like to e-mail me I will give you a phone number you can reach me at.

Best advice tell it like it is and you wont upset anyone. 

Good luck

Fran

ftanguay@sbcglobal.net       


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