<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16414" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM><FONT size=3>  </FONT><FONT size=2>Ed </FONT></EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Again a beautiful post especially the underlined.  After 35 years of hearing marketing hype & other B.S. this kind of ignorance/dishonesty is just sheer comedy.  I mean do people really believe this stuff?</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Come on.</EM></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><EM>  Dale:</EM></STRONG></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000>The "eye of the market" depends on a lot of customer ignorance, and it <BR>seems that the marketing department likes it like that.  <STRONG><EM><U>My local dealer is fond <BR>of telling new Steinway customers that I am not qualified to work on a <BR></U>Steinway, because I haven't been to the school.</EM></STRONG>  <STRONG><U>He doesn't realize I have been to <BR>the school, as well as graduating from the North Bennett School, as well as <BR>maintaining a school full of my Steinway restorations,(which are increasingly <BR>bringing me business from other schools in the state when they play them), as <BR>well as maintaining the home Steinways of three Steinway Artists in town for the <BR>last 28 years. </U></STRONG><STRONG><U> I am not going to say anything to him about this, preferring <BR>to let him cut his own throat.   <BR></U></STRONG>    What I think he is trying to avoid is having a new piano examined by <BR>someone that is not under the thumb of the factory.  No need to tell customers <BR>about all those nicked front pins, now, is there?  There is a long list of normal <BR>defects that would have to be addressed if customers had objective <BR>evaluations of their new Steinway.  Is this tradition? <BR>Regards,<BR><BR><BR>    <BR><BR>Ed Foote RPT <BR>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html<BR>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at <A title="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339" href="http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339" target="_blank"><B>AOL.com</B></A>. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>