[pianotech] Customer complaint

[David Renaud]

Hello

      Occasionally, a complaint becomes an opportunity, for it is not what it seems.

Sometimes people begin paying attention and Looking for problems,  noticing things that were there before but they never noticed.

Perhaps some notes are actually not working well, nothing to do with tuning. It needs regulation.
She is evaluating the piano, it's condition, it's long term service, it's long term prognosis. After all
Her nice piano is getting older, strings are starting to break, she's paying attention, checking
touch of the notes, wondering about "extended service". noticing, perhaps
For the first time, the repetition is not what is use to be,  it is "getting older", suddenly searching out its condition; evaluating, and noticing.

You could get a regulation job out of it,  win over a ton of goodwill.

 Two related stories:

  An old Steinway grand desperately in need of rebuild has screaming pedal syndrome.
I return to tighten, lubricate, and change material silencing the pedals.
A phone call the next day telling me Ive done something terrible. There is no sound in
The top octave. I could rant that he is wasting my time, looking for problems that were 
Already there, or I could take the time to show him how his hammers are worn literally down
To the wood, and split at the top. They are actually striking the wrong side of
The pressure bar. The action can not be adjusted further back into the cavity. It was that way
And the pedals have nothing to do with it. 
     He was search for problems, as he emotionally negotiated coming to terms with the fact 
His piano is getting older and coming apart, and was searching out its condition, noticing stuff 
For the first time. It was an opportunity to do a real estimate and what it really needs.

     My favorite story. 
     A music teaching in a small town purchases a brand new Wurlitzer baby grand. Being far;
The dealer pre tunes it in the store, delivers it, and it is not touched once for almost 5 years.
My first appointment was special. 100 cents flat. Tricords that were harmonically wild things.
Most wicked sounding unplayable piano you can imagine. I had pity on the students more then her, and spent over 2 hours at it.  I pitch raised it twice, tuned it, checked unisons ,  raised a sagging hammer line.
     I return home to a message from the lady. "you have to come back, something is wrong, it sounds worse then it did before". Shoul I tell her the way things are on the phone?
, I had to see this for myself, drove back, entered with a smile, sat down and started playing a dolce folk melody in minor,  gentle arpeggios for support, Pianissimo, listening for 
Focus, clarity, unisons. WhatI heard was beautiful and focused. 
No, no, no, she exclaimed, those intervals are fine, THIS CAN NOT BE RIGHT; she barked
As she  crashed out a minor 9th, C Natural and C# an octave above. "that can not be correct" 
I did not laugh. I sat silent for a moment, tempted to laugh, but considering how to respond. 
I realized that the tricords were so out of focus before, two focused dissonant points set against each other sounded wrong. Everything was Of a similar quality of cluttered harmonic fuzziness before, now the minor 9th had "bite" that was Brand new to her. She had a Beethoven piece with a Minor 9th she had never truely heard before.
    I took the time to explain "perfect" intervals, and dissonant intervals. I took the time to 
De tune a couple unisons and retune them, showing the effect on an intervals clarity.
I have tuned for her faithfully for 15 years now. I say it needs regulation, no questions asked.
She trusts me implicitly to tell the truth and be honest both with her, and with her students. 
I think that is a direct result of how I handled that days stress. Putting myself aside for an hour
or two that one day resulted in 20 more tunings directly, a few dozen indirectly, and a few hundred dollars of additional service over the years. 
     Should I have complained more that infamous appointment, perhaps. I had every right to. This has nothing to do with rights, but service. We are sometimes evaluated to what measure we can be trusted by how we handled a stressful problem.
     I have witnessed people spend a fortune of time and money on promotional advertisement.
I could feel angry at a client that wastes 2 hours of my precious time. 
I prefer to look less at the $120 lost time, and more at the $3000 of work that came over the 
Following two decades. One of the better financial investment I have made.

      Remember, the piano players don't understand the piano mechanics.

      Remember, pianists often become emotional attached to their instruments.

       Remember, when something goes wrong, in the process of digesting the fact that
Their precious instrument is aging, they are tempted to evaluate and "test" the instrument, and often Find little things they use to ignore, and never noticed before. 
  
       Sometimes this is a sign they are ready to listen and learn. 
        It is often an opportunity.

        And yes, I have not always kept my cool when faced with a few such challenges.
I have occasionally regretted the result of exercising my rights. I have never regretted 
Keeping a lid on it and being gracious.

         One more thing. 
          Speaking the "truth" about neglect and ignorance requires great care. The truth is 
A two edge sword, and cuts both ways, for good and bad. One can crush another human 
 with the truth. It's all about the way it's done. Sometimes it is worth investing in someone by 
Putting our rights aside, and taking the time to help. 

          "  It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."
             "It ain't whatcha do, it's the way that ya do it"

        That's my opinion.
        Now to practice what I preach....
        .......there is the challenge.......sometimes it works.
        Back to the trenches.
        Fireproof vest on.

                                  Cheers
                                   Dave Renaud 


                                     
         



Sent from my iPad

On 2012-04-08, at 7:31 AM, richarducci at comcast.net wrote:

> List,
> During the tuning of a yamaha c-1 last week , the bass string F below middle C broke.
> Piano gets serviced once a yr. and has a DC system installed, pitch was about 10 cents or less flat.
> 
> The client took the position that "I" broke the string so"I" am responsible for replacing it at "MY" cost.
> 
> I explained to her that the string broke, I did not "break" the string.
> 
> I returned the next week and replaced the string with a Mapes duplicate and charged her $40 total.
> 
> She has made it a point in the past to tell me of other tuners that charge less, and I had made up my mind that this was going to be my last visit.
> 
> I wished her good luck with her piano in the future, and left.
> 
> Just received email from her saying that several other notes are not functioning well now and wants me to come back and address those issues.
> 
> I replied that the string was replaced correctly, and it has no bearing on other notes, and that she will need to contact another tech.
> 
> How would you guys handle this?
> Thanks.
> 
> 
> Rick Ucci
> Uccipiano.com