FRUSTRATION,FRUSTRATION,FRUSTRATION

[Rob & Helen Goodale]

This type of work is inexcusable and the dealer needs to be held accountable or it will most certainly happen again.  The "teknishunz" who said it was okay are equally to blame and you can bet the dealer will hide behind them.  In my opinion if the piano was sold as "rebuilt" and the customer was led to believe they were getting a piano that was ready to roll, they are entitled to full reimbursement for the required services.  My suggestion is to have two other local respected technicians, (not affiliated with the dealer), inspect the piano and provide written evaluations.  Take a series of pictures of the misaligned parts, etc.  The customer can then go after the dealer for compensation to get the piano right, including the cost of the evaluations.

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV

  I got a call from a very nice lady to tune her early 1900's Steinway "O" that she purchased from a local piano dealer about a year ago. It needed "a little more" than tuning. The soundboard, pin block, and re-stringing were all very satisfactory, but thanks to the neglect and sloppiness of the dealer that rebuilt the piano, all of the front and balance rail punchings were the ORIGINALS, the hammers were new but most of them were hitting only 2 out of 3 strings with many of the shanks twisted in the wrong direction, the sustaining pedal was noisy and binding and never worked right --  even though the store sent their technicians a couple of times (the last "technician" told her that it was her imagination!), a bass damper sat about 1/2 inch off its strings, some dampers hardly moved when the note was played and many had to be regulated into the right position, there was a broken jack, a stripped out rep. rail hole,  the drop and letoff were way off in many notes, and the string height was very uneven for many unisons causing some bad buzzing and voicing problems. How could any dealer in his right mind even THINK of selling a classic, fabulous Steinway grand with the action needing hours of work? Are people so money hungry that they throw all sense of accomplishment, artistry, and perfection out the window? Where is the pride in turning a classic Steinway into a dream of an instrument? What this dealer did was like restoring a beautiful Rolls Royce to mint condition, but leaving a huge dent in the fender. It makes no sense. I wonder how many other technicians have had similar experiences. I've seen a lot of wonderful work out there over the years, work that would satisfy the most demanding concert pianists, but I've seen THIS sort of thing time and time again and it always gets me angry frustrated. Can anyone out there relate to this?

  Jesse Gitnik
  Since 1980
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