who's responsible?

[Jason Kanter]

I agree with Susan: blame is not the issue; forgive her, forgive yourself,
fix it and forget it. In fact, if you have the opportunity, thank the maid
for putting it back and apologize to her for not doing it yourself as you
should have. Wipe fingerprints off the piano. Teach the maid something about
cleaning the keys or whatever. Leave everything better than it was. 
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Jason Kanter . jkanter@rollingball.com
Piano tuning, regulation, repair
Serving Seattle and the San Juans
425 830 1561
  



-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
Of pianolover 88
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:25 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: who's responsible?

Inadvertantly forgot to replace customer's music desk in her Weber grand. 
I'd been there for about 3 1/2 hours doing a major "technical" cleaning, big
pitch raise, tuning, and finally made a pattern for a custom string cover,
which I sold during the visit. The customer had to leave just after I got
started, but her housekeeper was there for the duration of my visit. Upon
completion, I closed the lid and flyleaf and played a couple pieces on the
piano, enjoying what I felt was  job well done. At just about this time I
received a call on my cell. I told the caller that I would call her back in
a few moments, then proceeded to pack my tools and move on to the next job.

As stated in the outset, I forgot to replace the music desk, (a first for
me, but hardly the end of the world, right?) which I had placed out of
eyeshot, under the tail section of the piano. While speaking on the phone
several hours later to the customer from my home, informing her when her new
string cover would be ready, I heard a loud crashing sound, which she told
me, to her shock, was the music desk falling OUT OF THE PIANO, resulting in
some case damage to the piano! She told me that the music desk appeared to
have been "sitting just inside the piano under the top lid but apparently
NOT installed properly". She said that when she tried to lifit the music
desk UP it crashed to the ground, hitting the piano in a couple areas
causing the damage.

Here is what MUST have happened: After I left, the housekeeper noticed the
music desk was still on the floor, and attempted to put it inside the piano,
but did not slide it onto the tracks! When the customer returned home that
evening, she lifted the flyleaf back, then lifted the desk upward, and
that's when the accident occured.

Yes, I left the desk out in my haste, But am I responsible for the
Houskeeper's actions? My feeling is that if they would have called me FIRST,
I would have made the short trip(less than 10 minutes) back to reinstall
it---no harm done, case closed.

Any thought? Thanks all!

Terry Peterson


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