<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.5296.0" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I think you should have turned down the evaluation
job.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>A definite conflict of
interest.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV>John M. Ross<BR>Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.<BR><A
href="mailto:jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca">jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca</A></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=pryan2@the-beach.net href="mailto:pryan2@the-beach.net">PJR</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=ilvey@sbcglobal.net
href="mailto:ilvey@sbcglobal.net">ilvey@sbcglobal.net</A> ; <A
title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 03, 2006 9:34
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Ethics question</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>I was asked to evaluate the condition of a used piano for a
customer (buyer) for a nominal fee. It was a private sale.
When I went to see the piano, it was one that I had been wanting for some
time. <B>I</B> wanted to buy it from the seller. Question: How,
when and/or what must I do, ethically, to buy it from the seller seeing
that now I had a fiduciary relationship with the customer who paid my
fee?<BR><BR>What actually happened:<BR><BR>I wrote a positive report of the
piano and recommended the buyer offer several hundred dollars below the asking
price. She did so, but, the seller rejected her offer. The
buyer left the deal and bought another piano elsewhere. When I
heard she bought another piano, without telling her, I offered the
original seller his price and bought the piano. Did I do wrong?
Should I have asked her permission? Should I tell her now, especially
since she plans to hire me to tune her new piano? I have a queasy
feeling about the deal. Should I? It could be a future, awkward
situation.<BR><BR>Phil Ryan<BR>Miami
Beach<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>