<HTML>List, I've been doing a fair amount of work for dealers lately, and I've been very frustrated by the lack of prep done on new pianos in the stores.   Most of them get tuned once before delivery, then one free tuning in the home.  Few get the recommended full-on prep/regulation .  It's usually enough to get them out the door, which is what a salesperson is SUPPOSED to do. Granted, the SF Bay Area is a very competitive market.  All the major brands, and many lesser known brands are available within easy driving distance.  School sales abound, close-out sales are rampant.  I understand that dealers must keep costs down to sell things at competitive prices.  And for the most part, customers want cheap first, quality second.  Shiny PSOs. The problem lies with the dealer avoiding the maintenance issue:  frequency of tuning(3-4 times a year for the first 2-3 years according to the manuals)  Regulation is seldom, if ever, mentioned in a sales pitch.  Repairs are often left for the customer to happen upon after delivery. I don't want to bite the hand that sometimes feeds me by calling the dealers liars, but I don't want the pianos and owners to get sub-par service because the dealer said "tune it once a year, whether it needs it or not."   By saying things like this, the dealer is cutting us out of the loop, and doing the piano and its owner a great disservice. I'm sure many of you have faced or still contend with this issue.  How do we, as techs, tell the customer that the piano needs more frequent and more thorough service without heaping the blame on dealers? Looking forward to a time I'm too busy with private tunings to work for stores....:) Dave Stahl</HTML>