dealers

[Ron Nossaman]

> List,
> How would you feel about a dealer who told you that were not Allowed to 
> sell a used piano which you repaired etc. ? Said dealer is sending about 
> $6-7,000 yr. in direct work and referrals, only after their previous 
> tuner retired. 
> Rick Ucci/Ucci Piano


I had one tell me that a couple of years ago. I pointed out 
that he had cost me thousands in rebuild work selling nasty 
little cheap pianos to people I had rebuild estimates out to, 
and having someone else tune them after delivery, and as  he 
saw no reason to curtail his business methods to accommodate 
me, I had no intention of curtailing mine for him. End of 
discussion. I still get the occasional referral from him, but 
not much. Usually something everyone else is afraid of, or 
something that just isn't possible at all. He calls now and 
again to get a piano tuned for a special event, for which his 
favored tuner apparently isn't suitable for unknown reasons. I 
charge him full retail on anything I do for him, just like 
anyone else. I used to do $7k-8k yearly with these people, and 
they got a substantial discount on tunings, but they suddenly 
quit calling, and quit referring work to me about 5 years ago. 
I never could get an explanation for that, and still haven't, 
so they became permanently recategorized as retail customers.
Ron N