[pianotech] Old upright

[Matthew Todd]

And the customer may still want to have the work done as well.


TODD PIANO WORKS 
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician 
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com

--- On Wed, 4/8/09, wimblees at aol.com <wimblees at aol.com> wrote:

From: wimblees at aol.com <wimblees at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Old upright
To: ed440 at mindspring.com, pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 7:18 PM


This has nothing to do with the PTG, Ed. This has to do with treating customers with respect as far as their piano is concerned. As Del said, there are some pianos that don't deserve to be restored. And, as several people have indicated, when it is explained how much the repairs will cost to restore a piano, and what the value of the piano will be after restoration, "sentiments" all of a sudden takes a back seat. 

What I have seen happen too many times is a piano 'rebuilder" tell a customer that their "heirloom" piano will be worth much more than it realistically will be, for the sole purpose of having that customer spend a lot of money on having it restored. I've had customers tell me that scenario on a number of occasions, and my response has been, (which, btw, I got from other members of the PTG,) to ask the customer to ask the technician if they will buy the piano for that. 

I am not, in any way, trying to imply that the PTG set prices, or require our members to buy pianos that have been restored. What I am saying is we should not misinform our customers the real value is of their piano. As I say in my book:

"We have to keep, as it states in our Code of Ethics, the best interest of the client in mind. In other words, we need to look at a piano for what it can do for the customer. We need to look beyond our supposed capabilities, thinking we can fix anything, and ask, "is this piano really worth fixing?" We need to be able to say to our customers, "this piano is dead", regardless of what the customer thinks of the piano. The customer might not like what you said, but it is more ethical to tell the truth, than to let her continue to believe the instrument is worth restoring." 


Wim


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Sutton <ed440 at mindspring.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 12:41 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Old upright



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PTG does not establish, maintain or recommend a price structure for rebuilding pianos, nor does it require that members be willing to buy pianos for the cost of work performed. PTG does not police the pricing policies of piano technicians.
 
The statements below are sadly ill-considered. 
 
Ed Sutton

This is a problem we run across way too often. It's people like you who give reputable piano technicians a bad name. First of all, if you can do all of what you just described for only $5000, you must be working for virtually nothing, or you work so fast that you think you're making money. And if you're working that fast, I would question the quality of your work.. 

Second, sentiments aside, what did you tell the customer the piano will be worth when you get done rebuilding it? If you told them it would be worth anything near $5000, are you ready and willing to buy it from them for that price? If not, then you're "ripping off" the customer. Without new strings and a new finish, you're not doing a complete rebuild. All you're doing is restoring the action and player system, and it will never sell for anything close to $5000 in S. Louis, or anywhere else. 

This is the kind of attitude that doesn't sit well in the PTG. Perhaps that's why you got the feeling that "we" don't respect you. 





Wim

 



 



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