new piano

[Ron Nossaman]

You folks are right, the dealer normally doesn't tell them the "bad" stuff.
I continually hear "Once a year, right?" from new piano owners. Even those
who bought decent pianos from good dealers. I tell them that, however often
a new piano is tuned, it will almost certainly need a pitch raise some time
in the first year of it's life. They almost always do too, usually at the
first fall seasonal change, whether it's a dealer supplied tuning or not. I
also try to outline a realistic tuning schedule for them to follow, or not,
over the next couple of years to avoid having this talk and pitch raise
again. I usually come at least as well recommended as the dealer
(credibility), and I try to make sense at them during the process (unheard
of), weighing their realistic needs against my guaranteed income from a
hard line schedule (suicidal), right out in the open (scandalous), so I get
their attention early on and have pretty good luck with them after the
first tuning. In my experience, consumers are so unused to being treated as
thinking beings of some consideration other than as income potential that
they are so startled they remember most of the stuff, and I make their "A"
list for piano service. There have been times I felt lucky to make it out
of the house without their firstborn. Heck, I'm just trying to do good by
them, and I don't accept livestock.

My long time favorite is dealers telling customers to wait six weeks after
purchasing or moving a piano before getting it tuned. That's fine when the
piano was at pitch when it was moved, but doesn't do anyone much good when
it was a quarter semitone or more flat before the move. That one's always
good for fifteen minutes of uncompensated educational exchange with the
customer, even though it's seven weeks to six months after the move
(usually at the beginning of a seasonal change) and too late to do anyone
any good. 

Bottom line? Just tell them the truth as you know it. They'll either love
you or hate you for it, and either is survivable if you stick to what you know.

Ron N