<!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 6.00.2900.2769" 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=rol= e_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV> <DIV>Terry,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Whether responsible or not, in the customer's eyes, you are.  It's= better to offer to pay for damages and maintain a decent relationship with t= he customer than to battle her and risk any kind of negative feelings that drea= ded by-product, bad word-of-mouth.  Bad press in a business that relies alm= ost entirely on referrals is not a good thing.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Don't feel too badly...we all do this sort of thing from time to time.  I dropped my tuning hammer on the fallboard of a brand new Mason= and Hamlin 50 inch upright a few weeks back.  Put a nice gouge right on the= most visible part of the piano.  The job I did might pay for the finish= work, but I doubt it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm just happy she's one of my most understanding customers! </DIV= > <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When one feels hurried, bad things happen.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Good Luck,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Dave Stahl</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 12/15/2005 5:44:22 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, gnewell@ameritech.net writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><= FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size= =2>My thoughts are, Yes, you are responsible. Too bad it worked out this way <BR= >but that's what insurance is for.<BR><BR>Greg Newell<BR><BR><BR>At 12:25 AM 12/15/2005, you wrote:<BR>>Inadvertantly forgot to replace customer's m= usic desk in her Weber grand. <BR>>I'd been there for about 3 1/2 hours doin= g a major "technical" cleaning, <BR>>big pitch raise, tuning, and finally m= ade a pattern for a custom string <BR>>cover, which I sold during the visit= . The customer had to leave just after <BR>>I got started, but her housekeeper was there for the duration of my visit. <BR>>Upon completio= n, I closed the lid and flyleaf and played a couple pieces <BR>>on the piano= , enjoying what I felt was  job well done. At just about this <BR>>t= ime I received a call on my cell. I told the caller that I would call her <BR>>back in a few moments, then proceeded to pack my tools and move on= to the <BR>>next job.<BR>><BR>>As stated in the outset, I forgot to replace the music desk, (a first for <BR>>me, but hardly the end of the= world, right?) which I had placed out of <BR>>eyeshot, under the tail section of the piano. While speaking on the phone <BR>>several hours la= ter to the customer from my home, informing her when her <BR>>new string co= ver would be ready, I heard a loud crashing sound, which she <BR>>told me, = to her shock, was the music desk falling OUT OF THE PIANO, <BR>>resulting = in some case damage to the piano! She told me that the music <BR>>desk appeared to have been "sitting just inside the piano under the top <BR>&gt= ;lid but apparently NOT installed properly". She said that when she tried <BR>>to lifit the music desk UP it crashed to the ground, hitting the p= iano in <BR>>a couple areas causing the damage.<BR>><BR>>Here is what = MUST have happened: After I left, the housekeeper noticed the <BR>>music des= k was still on the floor, and attempted to put it inside the <BR>>piano, = but did not slide it onto the tracks! When the customer returned <BR>>home = that evening, she lifted the flyleaf back, then lifted the desk <BR>>upward,= and that's when the accident occured.<BR>><BR>>Yes, I left the desk out = in my haste, But am I responsible for the <BR>>Houskeeper's actions? My feeling is that if they would have called me <BR>>FIRST, I would have m= ade the short trip(less than 10 minutes) back to <BR>>reinstall it---no har= m done, case closed.<BR>><BR>>Any thought? Thanks all!<BR>><BR>>Terry Peterson<BR>><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"= >Dave Stahl<BR><BR>Dave Stahl Piano Service<BR>650-224-3560<U><BR><A href="http://www.dstahlpiano.net/">http://www.dstahlpiano.net/</A></U></FO= NT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>