[pianotech] Simple repair - so why not done?

[Gerald Groot]

I run into the idiot tooners here like that all the time. Weekly for sure.
Here's a no brainer for you.  Ran into a customer that had two "tooners"
cheaper end tuners of course that couldn't cure the problem on two sticking
keys.  Know what it was?  A piece of pencil lead that had gotten stuck
between two keys.  Like, duh!  It was stuck toward the back of the keys.
Guess they never thought of simply removing them and letting it drop down
beneath. Or, maybe, they couldn't figure out how to take them out.  Who
knows....  Then, just that fast, we become almost a savior or something
because we could fix it.  

Ever notice those kinds of pianos are almost always crappy ones too?  

Jer

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Boyce
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 7:14 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Simple repair - so why not done?

  I know just the kind of customer you mean, Wim!

Happily, I don't get many of them, and this certainly wasn't one.  In 
fact her husband phoned from his work to arrange the tuning (it so 
happened I could do it the same afternoon), and price was the last thing 
he asked about.

I was struck by the lady's patient acceptance that, as several tuners 
had apparently told her, nothing could be done about her squeaky/creaky 
pedal.

She was also very interested when I showed her the very grooved hammers, 
and asked if that was contributing to the fuzzy and uneven tone, and is 
eager to have them refaced next time.  When I showed her the hammers, 
she felt one with her finger, and understood the problem straight away.

But yes, I guess we all know about cheapskate customers!

Best regards,

David Boyce.






> David
> When this customer called you to set up her appointment, was her first 
> question, "how much do you charge?"
> Most people think the only thing that ever needs to be done to a piano 
> is "tuned". So they don't understand why the least expensive tuner 
> doesn't always have the knowledge to take care of problems, whether 
> they are run of the mill or unusual ones.
> If she always got the "cheapest" tuners, they probably didn't know how 
> to solve the minor problem.
> Wim