Acrosonic w/ bass bridge (Ethics) question

[Dave Bunch]

After reading some of your responses, I thought I would play devil's advocate for the dealers.. Yes, there are shady, disreputable dealers out there. I have had the good fortune of working for good dealers that genuinely want their customers to be happy. There have been times when these dealers have sold bad used pianos that had problems that they really did not know about. They are salesmen, not technicians. In every case, they have made good on repairs after I have brought them to their attention. The key here is to bring the problems to the attention of the dealers, NOT the customer. I have had dealers send me 150 miles to service pianos sold at a remote sale because they live in fear of tuners that just love to point out defects on their new purchases and at the very least imply that the dealer was trying to cheat them on the deal. If you KNOW your dealer is treating customers unfairly, then all bets are off and it would be in your best interest to discontinue your association with them in order to protect your own reputation. However, if it is possible that the dealer was not aware of the severity of the piano's condition, then give them the benefit of the doubt and let THEM know of the problems first.

Dave Bunch
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: KeyKat88 at aol.com 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 1:08 PM
  Subject: Acrosonic w/ bass bridge (Ethics) question


  Greetings, 

            A Piano store that I tune for, sold a guy a dirty, scratcjhed,  Baldwin Acrosonic with 2 broken strings, its strings that are so rusty that even I broke one doing the "free" tuning. Its bass bridge is actually preforated by the bridge pins and its upper 'crust' ready to lay over splitting. A bridge pin fell out in fact.

            I informed the guy that there were 2 broken strings on the piano when he purchased it and showed him the cracking bridge. The brigde is preforated and cracking on its upper part (the part at the bridge pins) the lower part is on the apron okay and the apron is on the sound board ok. In other words no separating at the bottom of bridge or its apron. 

            The question is I feel I am put in a rough spot. This guy was sold this pioano for "alittle less than 1000.00" as he put it. and the store that I tune for sold it to him!   I am so appauled!  I would have never let this piano go out of my shop in this condition let alone ask 1000 for it! I am ready to call the store and give them my 2 cents, but they get me tunings and this creates a sticky situation.

             The guy, on the other hand is not too, too upset over it. He said he felt that they should have told him about the two broken strings, bu he was willing to over look that and that he would expect that a 50 year old piano would have some cracking wood pieces, and that he was willing to put 100 or so dollars into keeping it going, till he finds out if the piano will "stick" with the kids and lessons and all. He  thought 100 or so in repairs wasnt that bad in addition to what he paid. I see it differently. I guess my value systme is different. 

              How bad is a cracked bridge problem?  Is this bass bridge something I can dump CA glue in and keep it going, say, 5-10 more years OR do bass bridges just snap and the bass goes out/kapooey dies? Or should I advise this guy to go back to the store and get another piano from this dealer? This is a sticky situation.  

  Juli
  Reading, PA


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