Cracked plate

[Bdshull@AOL.COM]

Todd,

Real quick, since I'm running out the door....Small claims court/broken plate 
in the early 80's, old upright after pitch raise.  Client/plaintiff lost.  I 
countersued in small claims court for my fee (shame on me), which a stop 
payment had been place on (break happened after I deposited the check) - I 
didn't get that.  The sympathetic thing to do would be to not charge 
anything.  

I simply presented material from the Journal, which I had copies of and 
presented to the judge, and summarized the opinions of peers of more stature 
than me in the profession, wore a suit and behaved respectfully.  At this 
point you might not benefit trying to explain any more to the client so as to 
keep your ammunition for the case.

Bill Shull, RPT  

In a message dated 12/13/01 5:16:12 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
mapes_piano@worldnet.att.net writes:

<< List,
 
 This week I experienced my first cracked plate.  It's not an experience I 
would like to have again.  The piano was a Kimball console which, according 
to the customer, had not been tuned in 18 years by the previous owner.  The 
current owners had recently acquired it for $300 and wanted it tuned up so 
the wife could play Christmas music.  I opened the piano up and found a dead 
mouse and several mouse droppings (the mouse was mostly decayed), which, in 
my opinion shows that the piano hadn't been tuned recently and probably not 
played in several years, either.  I noticed no other problems besides a few 
broken Schwander butt springs, so I got out my SAT III and checked the pitch. 
 The piano was 185-200 cents flat.  I did the first pitch raise with no 
overshoot and then checked pitch again.  The SAT III reading now was about 
35-40 cents flat, so I programmed in a 25% overshoot and began tuning the 
piano at A0.  As I crossed the bass/tenor break, I heard a LOUD "bang" which 
was much louder than any string breakage I'd ever heard, so, fearing the 
worst, I got down under the keybed and looked at the plate.  The plate had 
cracked right through the hitch pin area.  The crack was all the way through 
the plate and I called the customer over and informed her of the plate 
breakage and that it was probably not feasible to repair the plate, and even 
if it was, there could be no guarantees of success on such a repair.  She 
understood that the piano was a complete loss, I collected a minimum service 
call fee and left.
 
 Two days later, her husband calls me up demanding that I reimburse him for 
$300 or provide him with an acceptable replacement.  I informed him that I 
had no intention of doing so, because the plate cracked due to lack of 
structural integrity.  He informed me that his opinion was that the plate 
cracked due to my incompetence and/or negligence.  I then explained the pitch 
raise procedure that I performed and told him that to the best of my 
knowledge, I had exercised due professional care and was not responsible for 
the demise of his piano.  As a parting comment, the customer said he would 
just have to take me to small claims court and recover his money.  He could 
be bluffing, but then again, he seemed pretty adamant about collecting his 
$300.
 
 So, that brings me to the questions - Have you or anyone you know been sued 
because of a cracked plate?  If so, how did you defend yourself in court and 
what was the ultimate outcome?
 
 Todd L. Mapes
 Associate Member PTG
 Fort Smith, AR >>