<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html>   kam544@flash.net wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>>...In reality these cases are extreme exceptions, The examples I cited are far from extreme.  They are more common than one might like to accept or believe, certainly in the area I have serviced for many years.</blockquote> They are the exception, not the rule.. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>>the rule is rather I don't buy into the unsupportable cliché 'the rule is rather'.</blockquote> Nothing usupportable about it, and nothing cliche-ish about it either. There has been study done on the matter and it does support this position. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>> that the young student becomes frustrated >and quits, due in no small part to the poor >function of the piano itself... >Richard Brekne... This is the *fundamental* concept of why piano service individuals exist. To help poor funtioning pianos function better, until circumstances clearly present themselves that this can no longer be done.</blockquote> Agreed. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>I gave up being concerned for what someone else chooses to own, whether it be a piano, or a car, or a house, or whatever other piece of property. When I am called to tune and/or repair a piano, that is the mission to which I have been entrusted, not to make judgement calls regarding the material conditions of the customer's current life situation by suggesting they replace what they own, just because it doesn't measure up to any standards I might have established</blockquote> This is in itself a judgement, you "judge" it none of your buisness in taking a position "regarding, and you bear the same responsibility for that judgement as you would for any other. You can not escape this responsibility, and indeed you yourself cite this in your previous paragraph. Your answer to the situation is to not apply your own standards,,, which in effect means you apply others standards... in this case the customers. I do not share this view at all. I try to moderate my own standards and fit "reality" into what I would like, and like I say it is difficult to be in aggreement on such as so much is in the grey. So we are bound to disaggree to some point. That being said, I believe firmly that where I do draw the line, I should stand for what I believe in. Accept the responsibilty for my judgements, and try and contribute as best I can towards the best for the customer. I am Human however, and subject to making bad calls as anyone else is. Yet I try my best. If, on the other hand, I am unable to satisfy the customers needs for <blockquote TYPE=CITE>whatever reasons, and if the door opens of a 'what to do' from the customer, then I am at liberty to discuss alternatives.</blockquote> We are in aggreement on this point as well. <blockquote TYPE=CITE>Keith McGavern Registered Piano Technician Oklahoma Chapter 731 Piano Technicians Guild USA</blockquote> -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway  </html>