who's responsible?

[Susan Kline]

Jason, that is a very good suggestion. Thinking yesterday about what I'd
do to defuse the bad feelings in this situation, I pictured myself
coming to see the chips in the finish, arranging for a touch-up guy to come
and fix them, and while I was there, giving the owner and the
housekeeper a short lesson in how to put the music desk in.

Susan Kline

At 07:56 PM 12/15/2005 -0800, you wrote:
>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.
>|| ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| || ||| ||
>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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