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Once or twice I made the mistake of letting a customer talk me into doing
<br>work on an instrument I just knew would be trouble. Both times when
I was
<br>done, the customer found fault with it. After agreeing that we would
do as well
<br>as we could, without investing too much time, he now wanted it to be
much better
<br>than was possible, without a complete rebuild.
Also, tried to make me feel guilty
<br>for charging . . .
Another time, I was called to do a tuning
<br>to a piano borrowed from friends. All they had to do was get it tuned
and use it till they
<br>were able to buy one, if they felt their child showed enough insentive
and desire to study.
<br>Well this gem looked like it had been in somebodys garage, thru rainy,
snowy, you name
<br>it kind of weather. I don't know if it was even a decent candidate
for rebuild. I had no
<br>intension of getting caught, and had told them, on the
phone, that there would be a service
<br>charge, if we decided tuning wasn't a possibilty. I can't remember
why I told them this, because
<br>I usually don't, so they must have said something suspicious during
the phone conversation.
<br>It cost them moving money, and more to send it back,( if their friends
agreed to accept it.) plus my charge.
<br>This particular time, I did feel a little guilty for charging, but
when I remembered how much I had paid for a
<br>gas fillup earlier in the day, I got over it.
<p>Carl / Winnipeg.
<p>David Ilvedson wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style>
Rob, You were able to walk away
from it. Remember the time when you would have actually tried to
work on it...? David I. <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>-----
Original message ----------------------------------------></font></font>
<br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>From: Rob Goodale <<a href="mailto:rrg@unlv.nevada.edu">rrg@unlv.nevada.edu</a>></font></font>
<br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>To: Pianotech <<a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a>></font></font>
<br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Received: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 10:54:40
-0500</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Subject: Piano from Hell</font></font>
<br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>I had one of my worst experiences
as a piano technician this morning. I got a call from a guy who told
me his piano needed tuning and repair. I agreed to take the job.
Upon arriving I about fell over.</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>It
turned out to be a 90 year old "Metropolitan" full upright. It was
the biggest pile of crap I have ever seen outside of a land fill.
I immediately started in how old the piano was and probably not worth fixing
but he quickly cut me off and in a heavy British accent told me to "please
fix it". The "thing" had been painted white. He was now in
the process of painting it gold which he proudly proclaimed was "restoring
the finish". Chunks of wood were missing out of the case. I
opened it to find that the action was not even screwed in place, just laying
in the piano. There was one broken treble string and the bass strings
were black with corrosion.</font></font><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>There
was a crack running under the bass bridge and the apron was loose.
There were broken bridal straps, broken hammers, and several others that
had been previously broken and reglued with string. most of the hammer
return springs were out of place and some were missing. One sharp
was missing, the key bushings were worn out, someone did a poor job at
recovering the keys, and the pivot pin on the sustain pedal had been sheared
off completely and the bushing block was shattered.</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>He
continued on about what a "great piano" it was as I looked at the sad heap.
I calmly explained that there was simply nothing left to fix, the piano
was dead and what he needed was a new piano. He came back with "You
Yanks, your all alike. You throw anything away. In England
we would never throw out a fine instrument like this!" Then he bragged
about how he KNEW what he was talking about because HE was a pianist!
(Oh golly silly me, I should have worshipped his feet on the spot!)
Then he proudly announced that he bought it from an auction so it MUST
be a good piano! (Now there's reasoning for you).</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>I
continued to explain that I was trying to save him money, that it would
cost him far more to repair than to replace it. He demanded to know
how much. I explained that it would cost hundreds just to make it
produce sound again and even then it would be nothing but trouble.
"Oh no I don't want to do all that, I just want it REPAIRED, you know,
so that it works"! (Excuse me didn't I just say that? Do we
need subtitles for this conversation?" I then explained that what
the piano really needed was a complete restoration and that would cost
at least $10,000.00. "I'm trying to save you money, this piano is
NOT worth it, you really should consider buying another piano". He
again reminded me that he was a pianist and that he knew this piano was
worth it and that it really didn't need that much work. Finally I
just told him flat out that I couldn't help him and that I really didn't
have the time to spend three days working on it. His disposition
continued to get worse as I made a hasty exit.</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Shame
on me... after all this guy was a "pianist" and got it from an auction
so he MUST know what he's talking about!</font></font> <font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Rob
Goodale, RPT</font></font><font face="Arial"><font size=-1>Las Vegas, NV</font></font> </blockquote>
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