Another Goofy Customer Story

Alan Barnard tune4u@earthlink.net
Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:04:54 -0500


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According to some sources, the two most serious problems in the world are ignorance and apathy. 

Well, I don't know about that and frankly don't really care ... (pause here for brief chuckle) ...

... but the stories help. It's really frustrating when you know you are in the right but there is nothing you can say or do that enlightens the customer or saves the situation. I've even sent carefully crafted letters in a couple of cases, but the end result is the same: you never hear from them. One consoling factor is that, usually, these people are p****ed off at the world anyway and you were just a target of convenience for the daily venom ration--sad but true.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Richard Day 
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Sent: 10/25/2005 1:28:59 PM 
Subject: Another Goofy Customer Story


Tuned a neglected spinet for a lady who although was nice struck me from the beginning as "being a couple tacos short of a combination plate."  She wanted me to tune the piano to match her electric organ which according to my trusty accutuner was 9 cents flat.  After I finished the piano she sat down and played a couple of hymns with the damper pedal (or as she called it the loud pedal) depressed for the entire song.  Then told me how wonderful the piano sounded.  Then she asked I could help her tune her auto harp.  She had a chromatic guitar tuner and I showed how how to tune the auto harp until the dial indicated the correct pitch.  She did a couple of notes correctly and after I attemped to explain (she didn't understand) why the bottom notes on the autoharp were not sequential, I took my check and left.  About an hour after I got home the phone rang and she said the piano was way off.  I asked why she thought that and she said it was because the guitar tuner showed the piano was out of tune.  I attempted to explain about stretch tuning and why you couldn't use a guitar tuner except maybe on one note and how the piano was tuned slightly flat anyway to match her organ.  None of it got thru.  After attempting to explain the same thing several times, she finally said thank you (in a disgusted tone) and hung up.  Under ordinary circustances I might have gone back out.  But I know there was nothing wrong with the piano and sometimes you just have to cut you losses.  Needless to say there is a mark next to her name in my customer data base  

Anyway thought some of you might enjoy the story under the heading of "been there," "done that," "got the T-Shirt."
Have a good day all!
Dick Day
Marshall MI
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