<HTML><HEAD> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1400" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Don't be shy, tell her the ugly truth.   I would also make sure that you have a minimum show up charge which is not much shy of your tuning fee.  Suggest that one stop shopping might be more economical for her.   When I have encountered such situations (rare) I tell them that if they want me to service the piano, including the tuning, that I will be glad to do that, but that sharing servicing duties with another technician is not in my, or her, best interest.  If the dealer is sending out a technician who can't fix a hanging damper, it should be brought to their attention.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>David Love</DIV> <DIV><A href="mailto:davidlovepianos@earthlink.net">davidlovepianos@earthlink.net</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=Piannaman@aol.com href="mailto:Piannaman@aol.com"></A></DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To: </B><A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A></DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> 4/7/2004 9:21:16 PM </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> anyone can buy a hammer and take out an ad</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=2><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2 PTSIZE="10">A little whine with dinner, <BR><BR>Yes, it's a free country.  Anyone can hang out a shingle and fish for business as a  "Toona."   <BR><BR>I got a call about a hanging damper on a relatively new RX3 Kawai from a dealer.  I said that I'd go check it out.  I got the number of the customer, and it's a good hour drive to her house.  I asked her if she'd had the piano tuned recently.  She said, "yes, but he says he doesn't do any of the mechanical stuff." A hanging damper?  C'mon... <BR><BR>She said she was happy with his tuning, but she needed the damper fixed.  Okay, I made the appointment, went out today and burnished a couple of tight guide rail bushings with teflon powder, then played the piano a bit to make sure everything was sound,which it was.   <BR><BR>Sounded pretty bad, though, considering the three-week-old tuning.  I played a particularly gnarly bass octave for the lady and asked her if it sounded in tune.  "No," she said.  I re-tuned the bass(on principal, and in hopes of getting her biz in the future), then did a Tunelab check of the temperament.  The previous guy apparently asked her if she wanted a jazz, classical, or folk type temperament.  I was a bit curious after a thirds test revealed no proximity to ET. <BR><BR>Tunelab wasn't kind to the man's work.  Not only was there no specific plan in the temperament, it was on the average about 9 cents flat.  "He said there would be some slippage, and he guarantees his work for 30 days..." said the nice lady.  I was doing a good job of refraining from negative comments, but it was a challenge.  She then said that "he doesn't really like this piano, mostly because of the plastic in the action."  And he doesn't like the modern generation of tuners who can "only tune by machine, and don't use their ears." <BR><BR>Oh well.   He's only been in biz for 25 years.   <BR><BR>Dave Stahl <BR><BR></FONT></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>