This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment I have a somewhat lengthy somewhat off-topic question; I only ask it to this group because everybody here is some way or other in the music business. I am an Associate Member who doesn't do much piano work anymore (got a full time gig teaching college), but I know that the Guild expects a certain level of professionalism from its members. I've just run into a situation with another sort of musical instrument repair professional, and I'd like to know if I'm in the wrong. I'll try to convey the facts as objectively as I can. After a layoff of over 30 years, I took up the bassoon again last year, playing in an amateur orchestra. When our season was over I decided to have my bassoon overhauled by a professional - it had been in a closet for decades; it seemed to play okay, but I felt it was due for some TLC. I scouted around on the internet, got a few quotes, and made a decision based on nothing much more than instinct. The gentleman I chose for the job submitted in fact the highest quote I got - maybe I was thinking that that meant quality; I don't know. After some phone tag we finally made contact. I asked him how long of a waiting list he had, and he assured me he could get to it right away. No problem. A week or so later I shipped him my bassoon. Three weeks or so went by and I heard nothing from him. I sent him a couple of emails, which went unanswered, and left a couple of phone messages. I don't recall the exact sequence of events - maybe he answered one of my emails and told he was just getting to it, or something like that. At the time I wasn't worried, just missing all that practice. In any case, we finally spoke, and he was very pleasant, said he was working on it, that it was "just fine, just fine" and that he'd have it in transit to me within about a week. After about ten days I tried again to contact him. He didn't return my phone calls. Finally I got an email from him in which he asked for my address; he said he'd lost it. I was by this time (nearly two months had gone by) getting a bit anxious, but I was glad to hear that the instrument was going to be on its way back to me soon. About a week later I came home from work and found a FedEx notice on my door. I was so excited about getting my bassoon back that I blew off a rather important meeting that night and went instead to the local FedEx depot, where I picked up the package. When I got it home and opened it up it turned out to be the wrong bassoon. He had sent me somebody else's. I contacted him right away by phone and email, and the next day got back an email saying he'd probably put the wrong shipping label on the wrong package and that I should deduct the cost of shipping it back from my bill. The next day I shipped it back to him. Remember that by this time, roughly two months had gone by since I originally shipped him my bassoon. When I didn't hear anything further from him, I sent him an email (and I think a phone message, too), advising him that for the summer, I would be in and out of town sporadically, so it was imperative that he let me know when the package (with my bassoon, this time) be shipped so I can be sure to be in town to receive it. About a week or so later I came home to find anther FedEx notice. Again, I drove out to the FedEx depot and picked up the package. When I took it home and opened it, it was in fact my horn. The first thing I noticed was that the luggage tag I'd put on the case with my name and address was still there. Then I noticed that the four or five business cards I'd strewn around inside the case were still there. I couldn't figure out how he could have misplaced my address. Then I tried to assemble the instrument. He had replaced the corks on the tenons, so I had to use a good bit of cork grease, but even then it was so hard to assemble I was afraid I was going to break a key. I finally got it put together. When I played it, I found that it was okay - nothing extraordinary, but maybe it wasn't in such bad shape to begin with, so maybe the changes wouldn't be so startling- except that I couldn't get the low b flat, the lowest note on the instrument, to speak. I tried whittling my reeds, dropping my embouchure, the few tricks I knew, and I could get it to speak sometimes. I could play a chromatic scale down to low b, but when I hit the b flat lever, it would just seize up. When I tried to disassemble the instrument, I found in nearly impossible. This time I was really sure I was going to break something. Finally I got it apart (at one point I thought I would have to use a strap wrench, but brute strength got me through). Because of time commitments it was another day or so before I could try it again. I put on more cork grease, had nearly the same trouble, and, using several different reeds, still could not get the low b flat to speak with any kind of reliability. Did I mention that before sending it to him the note worked fine? So I emailed him. I told him about the problem note. I figured I would have to cope with the tight fit myself; maybe, I thought, the cork needed to be worked in or something. His response was that when I hit the low b flat key, the low b key probably eased up just enough to leak slightly. His advice was to glue a tiny sliver of cork onto the key's spatula. I wrote him back telling him that I found that unacceptable. I compared it to getting your car back from a mechanic, finding that it stalled at every red light, and being told to just take a screwdriver and turn a screw on the fuel injectors half a turn to the right. In the same email I told him of my problems assembling and disassembling the instrument, and I said I had to question whether or not he'd actually tested the thing after doing the work. I also told him, as politely as I could, that his quote was the highest I had received but that I'd gone with him anyway, more or less on faith, and that I felt that we needed to work something out. Please understand, I was firm in my email, but I wasn't trying to insult him. I pointed out the problems and asked for a resolution of some kind. I expected that he would respond with anything from further advice on how to fix the problems, a statement to just give it time and it would work itself out, maybe an offer to discount the bill at least somewhat, maybe something that implied it was my fault - anything but what I got. What I got was an email stating the he "disagreed with everything!" I said, and if I felt that way I should just keep my money. His wording was stronger, though not obscene. He was clearly furious - with me. About an hour later he sent another email saying that on second thought he wanted the cost of one part that he had installed at my request ($36). Again, his anger - at me - came through quite clearly. I thought about it over the weekend and decided that I should at least pay him a reasonable fee for parts and labor. A full set of pads and corks for a bassoon costs about $50 retail, and I know that a skilled craftsperson can do a complete repad job in a couple of hours, and I also knew that he had done some other work, so I sent him a check for $300 - half what he was going to charge me originally. I figured he'd either take it and that would be the end of the story, or he would get back to me, say that he'd written in haste and reconsidered and wanted the whole amount, or he would counter-offer in some way. Just to protect myself, I wrote on the bill (not on the check) that this was payment in full: full price less shipping of wrong bassoon and estimated bill to fix low b flat and adjust tenon corks. I suppose that work wouldn't really cost $300, but again, I figured that if he wanted, he could respond in some way that would leave room to work things out. Instead, a week later, I got an envelope in the mail. It contained my check, torn to shreds, and a piece of his stationary with the words "F**k you!" scrawled across it. Did I deserve that? Am I in the wrong? Would there have been a better way for me to handle the situation? The more I think about it, the more I've convinced myself that I did nothing wrong, and nothing to deserve that kind of response. I've been in business; I know that customers frequently have complaints, some reasonable, some not, but that as a business person I have to deal with them and try to come to a win-win solution. Again I ask: am I wrong? Should I just chalk it up to one guy's lack of anger management? Would the stand-up thing be to send him a check for the full amount of his bill? (I mean, he did do work on the instrument.) I feel pretty bad about the whole affair, and at this point it's like a sort of bad karma that takes a whole lot of fun out of playing has invaded my instrument. Sorry for the length of this, but I've tried to give all pertinent details. You are all professionals I respect. I'd sure appreciate some thoughts from this group. Mickey Kessler ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/55/84/d2/92/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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