<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Julie,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dealer/customer/technician relationships *can* be extremely frustrating.  My suggestion would be to take a good look at the dealer's inventory.  Are a lot of the (I'll call them introductory rate) pianos in similarly poor condition?  Are even the simplest things such as trapwork adjustment, hammer shaping, etc., routinely overlooked?  If this is the case you should ask yourself if you want your name associated with this dealer.  When you go out to do work for the dealer such as initial tuning, it is the dealer you are working for and not the customer.  If you cannot back up the dealer, his product, or his workmanship, find another dealer.  It's a no win situation otherwise.  If you honestly inform the customer of the piano's problems the dealer hears "bad mouthing" - not good for your rep.  If you gloss over or ignore the piano's problems and the customer finds out later, your workmanship and rep become the same as the dealers - not good.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Watched this kind of thing happen a lot and have even been the "follow-up" tech to the store tech when then dealer became desperate enough to pay to *fix whatever* to save the sale.  That's the best place!  Customer sees you as piano savior, dealer sees you as sale savior!  I just love making everyone happy <g>.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Debbie</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>