Lease piano issues (was Piano sales)

[JStan40@AOL.COM]

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
In a message dated 3/3/02 2:01:14 PM Central Standard Time, 
owner-pianotech-digest@ptg.org writes:


> Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 13:38:37 EST
> From: Bdshull@AOL.COM
> Subject: Lease piano issues (was Symphony piano sale)
> 
> List,
> 
> As one who has, with great excitement and expectation, performed hundreds 
> of 
> tunings on lease pianos at universities, I want to ask those of you who 
> have 
> been involved with the lease programs:
> 
> From your experience:
> 
> 1.  Do these new, pitch-unstable pianos get enough tunings to be useful for 
> 
> music education?
> 
> 2.  Does the lease sale happen at a time that is disruptive to the school 
> schedule, rehearsals, jury preparation, etc., or does it happen before or 
> after an academic period?
> 
> 3.  Does the school have control of the coming and going of these pianos so 
> 
> that they do not get moved or sold out from under you at any time, further 
> complicating the attempt to have tuning-stable pianos for the year?
> 
> 4.  Have you, your school or the local dealer done anything to successfully 
> 
> resolve these problems, that you can share with us?
> 
> My experience is that the lease pianos are not really musically useful most 
> 
> of the time.  Typical new piano tuning issues involve rapid string stretch 
> as 
> well as dramatic, weather-influenced soundboard rise and fall.  Add to this 
> 
> typical heavy practicing, and these pianos are year-round tuning disasters. 
>  
> As co-chair of the CAUT committee for contract issues, I am trying to 
> address 
> these issues and incorporate solutions into our new Guidelines document 
> which 
> will be up for approval at the Institute in Chicago.  I think we on the 
> Pianotech list who do contract work for universities have a huge challenge. 
>  
> The lease program isn't going away, so I am interested in what you have 
> done 
> to successfully address the problems we encounter with lease pianos.
> 
> La Sierra University
> Co-Chair, College and University Technicians Committee, PTG
> 
> In a message dated 3/2/02 11:03:07 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
> JStan40@AOL.COM 
> writes:  <<SNIP>>
> 
Bill,

Since I'm involved in an arrangement at my institution where we have the use 
(free lease, if you will) of 8 pianos for the year, I'll comment strictly on 
our experience.

1.  The pianos are maintained by our own contracted tech.  While they are on 
the typical kind of tuning rotation as the rest of the inventory, they do get 
more frequent tunings in the first few months, at least.  And since one of 
the grands is used in a teaching studio, and the other grand is used by piano 
majors only, these are also tuned more frequently than practice room pianos.  
They are, as a result, as stable as it is possible, given the fact that they 
are new.

2.  The store came to us for this arrangement, not the other way around, and 
we hammered out an agreement on the time of year that seemed to work for all 
of us.  We have a mid-October sale, and while we've had to work with them 
very carefully concerning move-in, move-out, and we DO have to switch rooms 
for a couple of classes (mine, notably!), we've been able to manage with very 
good cooperation and not too much upset.

3.  Yes, we do, and no, they do not attempt to get pianos out from under 
us......the relationship has been a very good one in terms of cooperation.

4.  See above--we went into this situation with our eyes wide open, knowing 
some of the problems that others have had.  The store, in turn, was more than 
willing to work out arrangements that would be mutually agreeable, and both 
parties have the ability to opt out if the arrangement becomes less than 
satisfactory.....but only at the end of the "lease" period.

It CAN be done in such a way that it turns out to be beneficial, but the 
guidelines have to be spelled out, and a relationship with the dealer is 
essential (Roger will be glad to speak further to this point, I'm sure).  In 
return for the sale using our facility (WE do not advertise it, the store 
does, it is only HELD at the college--the advertising is clear on that 
point), we get the use of the following Yamaha pianos:

A C3 grand
A GH2 (I think......) grand
2 U-1 uprights (one with Diskclavier installed)
4 P22s in various finishes, used in vocal studios and classrooms.

For us it seems to work reasonably well--the store works with us, their 
movers are efficient, polite and well known to us, and we benefit in terms of 
the use of good instruments, which we maintain (warranty issues aside, of 
course).  This one is not the abject horror story that some sales have 
become........in no small part because neither party wanted that to happen.

Regards,

Stan Ryberg
Barrington IL
mailto:jstan40@aol.com

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/88/6b/a3/53/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--