Here’s the situation. A dealer sells a used piano. The customer asks for a warranty. The dealer says he will issue a 5 year warranty but only if his technician services, i.e. tunes and maintains, the piano. 1. Is that legal? 2. Is that ethical? David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Israel Stein Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 3:24 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Warranties >David Love wrote: > >Can a dealer issue a warranty on a piano stipulating that the warranty is only valid if their technician services >the piano? I thought that was illegal under fair trade laws or something related. >David Love Folks, An attorney with knowledge of contract law should be consulted. A warranty is a contract, and in some states such a contract may be illegal - and therefore unenforceable - and in others it might not be. Regardless of any contracts or warranties, in many jurisdictions the doctrine of "implied warranty" is recognized, which may apply even if the dealer's/rebuilder's warranty is legally void. Which means that the item being sold or item being delivered after rebuilding must be capable of functioning as intended - otherwise the client has a valid claim against the dealer or rebuilder. This is a complicated issue. I was once involved in a small claims case here in California, as the "other" technician who was called on to examine a "rebuilt" piano that did not hold pitch at all over a year after delivery. (it was a botch job - new pinblock with tuning pin torque between 20 and 50 lbs.) What I found out from questions asked and statements made by the judge from the bench is as follows (this of course applies only to California - other states may have different standards): 1. . It is, up to the buyer to prove that a condition exists which prevents the item from functioning as intended and that this condition is the fault of the dealer or rebuilder. The dealer or rebuilder cannot prevent the customer from employing others to help ascertain such a condition - implied warranty applies in all cases. 2. Under implied warranty, the dealer or rebuilder must be given an opportunity to correct the defect. If the dealer or rebuilder refuses or is unable to do so, the client may hire someone else to do the repair - and make a claim against the dealer or rebuilder. Of course, it would probably involve going to court... 3. The dealer or rebuilder must be notified of the defect in a reasonable amount of time. In my case the judge essentially punted - he dismissed the case because the problem was not brought to the "rebuilder's" attention in a reasonable amount of time. Never did find out what "reasonable time" meant in California... In other words - this is an issue for a lawyer, and the rules may differ from state to state. Israel Stein -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091001/9c1659ce/attachment.htm>
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