<HTML style="FONT-SIZE: x-small; FONT-FAMILY: MS Sans Serif"><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2722" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV> <DIV>Man, that's cold, or as Confuse Eass might have said: "Mai tai diss awgree? Yew no want Chinese Junk pi anos? Then we ship yew shiny new Chinese Junk eyboards."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>America taught the world that you could succeed making junk pianos (and cars) that the American public would buy, and we made a ton of them. It took the Japanese, mostly, to remind us that quality competes very well. Shall I turn down a new Pearl River grand to rush out and rub elbows (or replace elbows) with a Gulbransen spinet?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Such a political statement would have zero point nada dot zip effect on the national economy or political will, but would seriously threaten my family's economy.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I don't even blame the Wal-marts of this world. Americans universally DEMAND low prices, quality comes a VERY distant second in most cases, most people, most products. So we get what we pay for; and I still think that 95.743 percent of all pianos are sold with this comment from the buyer: "Oh, this one is really pretty and, oh look, Bob, it's only $xxx"</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>Alan Barnard</DIV> <DIV>Salem, Missouri</DIV> <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=joegarrett@earthlink.net href="mailto:joegarrett@earthlink.net">Joe Garrett</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To: </B><A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech</A></DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> 09/28/2005 6:56:29 PM </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Chinese Pianos</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=2> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I doubt that this will do one whit of good, but I've gotta say it anyway. I completely REFUSE to work on Chinese Pianos. The Chinese are inundating our society with all sorts of "cheap" products. The Corporate types are buying into it. Hence, OUR work force is hard pressed to compete on any level. For those clients that own Chinese Pianos, I simply refer them elsewhere. I know that a large majority of technicians refuse to work on Square Grands, why not the Chinese pianos? I consider a Square Grand ten times easier to cope with than the Chinese POS's. I refuse to be a party to undermining my own economy. If every technician would do the same, a lot of those Chinese PSO's (actually it's a compliment to call them such, IMO.), would wind up in the land fill, where they belong....or, better yet, send them back to China and let their people contend with them.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>End of Rant. Thanks for letting me.<G></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joe Garrett, R.P.T.<BR>Captain, Tool Police<BR>Squares R I</FONT></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>