[pianotech] crazy customer

[Ron Nossaman]

On 5/10/2012 6:10 AM, David Boyce wrote:

> But it's certainly good to try and understand the customer's emotional
> state. I remember blithely teeling a lady, more than 20 years ago, that
> her keytops weren't ivory. She wasn't pleased! They weren't ivory, and
> the subject had come up. But I could have done it more tactfully.

Having something "tactfully" explained to me usually requires repeated 
attempts on my part to try to pry the actual information loose until I 
(sometimes, finally) get a straightforward, unambiguous and blunt 
answer. More typically, it leaves me with no clear answer and still 
asking the question. I'd rather have the information than the ceremony, 
but that seems to be a minority attitude. The ivory keytop thing came up 
just this week, talking to someone with a pump organ. No ma'am, they 
aren't ivory. They're celluloid. Ivory cost too much to put on an $11 
foot powered harmonica, and would have limited their market. They were 
built more for for economic practicality, to make them affordable to 
more people. If it's possible to convey the information without 
offending them in some unforeseeable way, that's ideal, but the first 
priority for me has always been the information.

Bowing out gracefully and firmly on the tuning under the circumstances 
was the way to go.
Ron N