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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Voicing? I tuned a similar piano (Baldwin
console) for a French Viola major and had this same problem... She didn't
have bad hearing as her excuse though. She called me back two days after
the tuning and stated that her piano just wasn't in tune. Bare in mind
that I had performed a lot of work for half price or less (hammer shaping, screw
tightening, new bridal straps and a 20-cent pitch raise) all for $200.
Thought I was doing someone a favor, same old story... "I don't
have the money to do a lot of work on the piano. I can't stand the way it
sounds and the clicking and clacking when I play it though. Can you help
me out?" So... Two days after tuning the piano I go on a call back
to this dreaded piano. I am expecting the worse, but what I found was
quite the contrary. The piano sounded better than I had remembered
it sounding when I left. I took a few minutes to play all intervals and
the appropriate checks for them and found a thing or two to pretend to
change. She came back and stated that she thought it was better but she
thought it was still out of tune. She complained that when she played a
triad that included g 4 that the g was not in tune. Keep in mind this is a
bright peace of junk and to this point I had done no voicing (had performed to
much free work already). So, I voiced the g down, she came back and played
it and declared that it was in perfect tuning. The hole time I'm thinking,
you crazy ----- you were sitting here the hole time. You never saw me put
the hammer on the pin. Do you think my needling the hammer changed the
pitch of this note? I just don't get it some times... I voiced a few
other notes down to make her happy. Needless to say, I wasn't paid for
that work or paid anything for my time on the callback. I never received
an apology even after she understood that the tuning was not the problem.
That's what bothers me most! I always tell customers that if they have a
problem not to hesitate to call me and I'll take care of it. OH BOY!
Some of these people... Reminds me of another customer who loves to
pull her S&S B action out. She thinks the strike line is off in the
treble. To date she has broken three shanks. She calls, and I go out
and put a new shank and flange on every two months or so, charge her $100 for
the service call, shake my head and wonder what the hell is wrong with this
picture. I still love this business though!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Shawn Brock, RPT</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
href="mailto:mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com">Farrell</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, August 15, 2008 11:30
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Customer Complaint on
Tuning</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Wow. This is a first for me. This lady is nuts. I
checked the piano out this past Sunday. It had a few unisons singing a bit
(IMHO, not uncommon a week after doing a 25-cent pitch raise), but otherwise
sounded fine (well, as "fine" as most any 1970 Baldwin console sounds). And I
told her so. I checked octaves, thirds, fourths, etc., etc. and it's all in
the ballpark.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>She plays a tune and stops and says "hear that? it's
wrong"! Well, sure, anytime you play an E and an F# together it sounds pretty
bad! But she'd play other things and stop and say "that's wrong". Sounded fine
to me. I didn't know what to say really. We did talk about the
possibility that she had just gotten used to how it sounded when it was way
out of tune. She agreed to play it a bit more and see.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>So she calls me just now ranting and raving "it's all
wrong, it's all wrong". She says even her students are complaining. What
the ........</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>She tells me that some times one song will sound fine,
and then the next one sounds wrong.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Does the piano good. Of course not. It sounds like a
crappy little Baldwin console that has sat too many years on the back porch
(enclosed) of a home in Florida. But it sounds to be in as good a tune as any
little piano like it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>So I guess the next step is to simply tell her that I
don't seem to be able to satisfy her piano service needs and that she might be
more satisfied with someone else's services. But that leaves one question
remaining - in her view I have not tuned her piano - in my view I have. I
don't think I should be returning her $95 (yeah, yeah, I didn't charge her for
the pitch raise....). But then again, I'm sure she's on some sort of fixed
income, and I've really never had an unhappy customer
before......</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I don't think there is any real good resolution to this
situation. Any great ideas? Just tell her to find someone else and leave it at
that? Seems like the only thing that makes any sense to me - but I kinda hate
taking her money also.....</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The saga continues...... and builds. This one has the
potential to set the standard.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Just got a call from........ guess who?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=5><STRONG>Ms. X, I LIVE AT ...... YOU TUNED MY
PIANO. IT SOUNDS HORRIBLE. SOMETHING MUST HAVE
HAPPENED.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Maybe I should have asked her, but I wonder if she
remembers that we talked yesterday. I told her I'd be stopping by tomorrow
early afternoon and she seemed okay with that. I hope she sleeps
tonight.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Either this lady is in the wrong "home", or the plate
split in two after I left from tuning it. Either one - I can't really figure
out anything else.....</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Oh boy..... gulp.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Assuming I live through it, I'll file a report
tomorrow afternoon.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><FONT
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Oh boy. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Should have
just erased the message and not called..... </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Lady leaves message on my answering machine:
<STRONG><FONT size=5>I LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. MY PIANO NEEDS TUNING. I
LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. IT SOUNDS HORRIBLE. I LIVE AT 123 MY
STREET. I NEED IT TUNED TOMORROW. I LIVE AT 123 MY STREET. CALL
ME.</FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>After my ears stopped ringing, I call her..... and
they started ringing again. Made appointment. Pull up in her driveway
Wednesday - I could hear the TV LOUD in the driveway. 120 year old lady -
very sweet - she had the big eyes and high cheekbones - could tell
she must have been a knockout 95 years ago. I asked how long it had been
since last tuning. She didn't answer so I asked: <FONT size=5><STRONG>HOW
LONG SINCE LAST TUNING.</STRONG></FONT><FONT size=3> She said many years.
Anyway, I did a 25 cent pitch raise and tuned the so-so condition
1970-ish Baldwin console.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>FWIW, she is a "musicologist". What is that? She
also teaches piano.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>She calls me yesterday and says that some notes
still don't sound right together. I didn't have the heart to ask which
ones (like maybe C and C#?). So I told her I would call her Sunday early
afternoon and stop by to check it out. (I have a morning appointment
nearby that day.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I know what it will sound like - a crappy little old
Baldwin console that just had a pitch raise and a tuning. She's going to
plunk away at several keys, not hear a darn thing, and ask me: "see? hear
that?"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>So what's the plan? Smile, wiggle a few tuning pins,
and say: "Oh, yeah, that should sound better now...?"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>This is my second call-back on a tuning in 10 years.
The other one was a few years ago from a 115 year old lady who
couldn't hear a fire engine honking it's horn if she was standing right
next to it.......</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=5><STRONG>:-(</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell<BR>Farrell Piano</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><A
href="http://www.farrellpiano.com">www.farrellpiano.com</A><BR><A
href="mailto:terry@farrellpiano.com">terry@farrellpiano.com</A></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>