<!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 6.00.2713.1100" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>Wim:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The university sale for SMU is always held at the dealership.  Our legal department would not let this commercial event take place on campus for fear of losing our tax-exempt status.  I'm a little surprised that this hasn't caught some other universities.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>dave<BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********<BR><BR>On 3/5/02 at 11:04 AM Wimblees@AOL.COM wrote:</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=2>List, et al <BR><BR>The piano store that has been supplying the university (Alabama) for the last 10 years has just informed us he is pulling out at the end of the school year. We have 12 pianos in use now. I don't know what we are going to do to replace those 12, as all of them are in critical positions. We do have some options, but it will no doubt cost us some money, money that should be used in other areas.   <BR><BR>From what I have been told, the university sale last year resulted in only 11 pianos being sold. The dealer didn't even have the sale at the university. It was held in his store. That kind of sale was also being done in St. Louis, before I left. The store announced, "A sale so huge, it can only happen at our store." Meaning, it was not worth it to the store to move all those pianos to the school. <BR><BR>University/symphony sales have been going on for almost 15 years now. Although the store sponsoring these sales do sell more pianos in one or two weekends than the store usually sells in a month or two, I think it is getting to the saturation point. I also think the word has gotten out that the "deals" at these sales aren't any better than what the consumer can get at the store. It is ashamed that some of the sales tactics have been less than desirable. It has given the entire industry a bad name. As far as servicing these pianos, again, if you have a problem with the dealer, I believe that the dealers that sponsored the sales are no worse or better in providing service than what you get for a piano that was sold out of the store. <BR><BR>Although, like some of you, I was against them at first, I have come to realize that the impact these sales have on the community, in the way of getting more pianos in homes, is worth the occasional bad apple, so to speak. Therefore, as I said in my first post, as technicians I think we should support these sales. It means more business for us in the long run. If you have a complaint about a certain dealer, then report that to the "proper authorities." <BR><BR>Wim </FONT><FONT size=2 Arial></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></FONT></BODY></HTML> <PRE> _____________________________ David M. Porritt dporritt@mail.smu.edu Meadows School of the Arts Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX 75275 _____________________________</PRE>