rental agreement

[annie at allthingspiano.com]

This situation is actually quite similar to the first one Diane recounted
here:  the church is hosting their annual Jubilee next week and really
(really) wants to have a piano capable of playing the kind of music
required by a large gathering of Baptist ministers, their wives, and
families.  That would not be their current piano....

And since the pianist has been pining for a grand, lo these many years,
this is the perfect moment to supply her with one.  I'm not convinced that
this is the perfect piano for them, but it's the one they can afford right
now.  And I'll take it back on trade, if and when the right one comes
through my shop.  And I suspect I will have customers for life as a
result.

That's why I'm not worried.  I just want to make sure we're all covered
and protected from the possibility of loss.

Thanks, Diane.  I love these stories of the ways we intersect with our
customers' lives!

Annie G.

>
> Some of our good experiences working with churches:
>
> When we were younger--and still able to move pianos--I was called by a
> church conference center to tune a piano for a ladies' retreat group.  The
> old upright was untuneable.  We loaned them--at our cost--a nice new
> studio piano for the conference and moved it ourselves.  The ladies, who
> had a conference there annually, were so thrilled, that they raised the
> money themselves to buy the piano for the conference center.  Within a
> month we had a sale.
>
> At another church, we were contacted to rebuild their old Chickering
> grand.  Instead, we told them to not hire us, but to buy a new Kawai.  We
> loaned them our Kawai--at our expense--twice, to help raise the money.
> Theirs arrived in time for Christmas, fully paid for.  We made less money
> in the short run (although the dealer did pay us a reasonable commission
> and we sold them a Damppchaser system and a cover from Instrument Covers),
> but we had an annual service contract with them for the next 20 years
> (when we moved out of the area) on a wonderful Kawai GS-60.  The service
> contract was pre-paid annually, four tunings/full maintenance--good money,
> good work.  It was a joy to work with them!
>
> One bad experience.  Another church in town called us twice for estimates.
>  We had never tuned for them.  We didn't realize it the first time, but
> did the second.  They had received price quotes from their regular
> technician and were using us to find out if his prices were OK.  We
> declined to give them an estimate the second time, after we realized what
> was happening.
>
> Diane