Charged ... Charged Again

[Frank Cahill]

Z! Reinhardt wrote:
> 
> Hello Everyone!
> 
> Here's another Customer Relations story complete with what started off as
> what many of us may perceive as a dirty deal at a dealership.
> 
> Real quick.
> 1] Customer goes to dealer, is pressured to buy well-used console before
> she felt she had explored all options, including what she can "live with"
> for piano's shortcomings and faults.
> 2] Shortly after delivery, action starts to feel weird, some keys hardly
> playing anymore.
> 3] Dealer's terms -- As Is, No Exchanges Or Refunds (Clearance Sale).
> 
> The piano was full of plastic parts from the 40s and 50s, the kind that are
> crumbling now.  By fluke alone, none of the flanges had started breaking,
> but the backchecks were rapidly disintegrating.
> 
> Now really ... wouldn't you think that a dealer would be interested in
> making sure anything they sold had some promise of longevity or at least
> some semblence of integrity?  Apparently this console was taken in trade
> and simply turned around and sold without having their house technician do
> so much as give it a sideways glance.
> 
> My temper, being what it is, absolutely flew at the dealer.  I wrote a fax
> in which I laid out why I thought the piano was unsaleable.  The owner of
> the dealership responded in a cool [read: slick] way saying that he would
> call the customer and offer to take back the console in a trade-up to a
> better instrument.  Of course he had to be held to his promise.
> 
> The trade-up was granted, but for a price.  The customer has to pay
> delivery charges all over again.  "We have to pay the movers every time a
> piano is moved." was their explanation.  Yes, I understand the concept of
> paying the movers, but I also feel that this dealer should be willing to
> eat certain expenses for a piano that was essentially D-O-A.
> 
> Opinions, anyone?  Thank you all in advance.
> 
> ZR!  RPT
> Ann Arbor  MI
> diskladame@provide.net


Here, a dealer claimed that the paino was only a few years old.  When my
client asked him to look up the serial number in Pierce's atlas, he said
it wasn't old enough to be in the atlas.  She copied the number and
asked someone else (another dealer I suppose) to look up the number...it
was more than a few years old!

Unfortunately, I don't know it the dealer or his salesman used this
tactic.  But if anyone were to ask my opinion of this shop, I could not
recommend it.

The women is still looking for a piano!

What astounds me is that the dealer would take a chance like this.  One
never knows when things will bite you back.

Frank Cahill
Assoc Mem
N. VA.