Don't you hate seeing...

The sustain pedal adjusted so the dampers won't lift. And find out that the hammers on the bi-chords lean and strike 2 notes at once? So instead of adjusting the hammers someone disabled the sustain pedal so it wouldn't be obvious. Heck, it was about a 15 minute fix.

Others?

I've seen the same pedal adjustment when they couldn't fix the squeak in the damper system.

Aw, people use the sustain pedal too much anyways!

I hate seeing shoddily-rebuilt pianos. Last week, I tuned a freshly rebuilt Steinway M from the early 1900s: original board (ugly dark color and all), original bridge cap, hard and unvoiced Abel hammers, unregulated action, keys with large gaps, heavy touch, inconsistent torque in new pin block, low quality key tops, etc.

When I see a truly exceptional rebuild, that gives me something to strive for. This slop job, on the other hand, left me with the feeling that I could do better, despite my 5< years of experience.

Exactly! 'Ever notice how much the poor things are worn?

I hated seeing the cheap construction on the Bergman (young chang) piano I tuned today. Anyone who knows anything about pianos would never buy one of these things.

I look back at my early days and cringe to think that I may have been the cause of some of these comments or some more experienced tuner's disgust. I know that back then it was a lack of experience and knowledge.
Now, however, I see work that has been done by "experienced" technicians and wonder why they didn't take care of the simplest things whether on a "rebuild" or even just at a tuning; like you're saying about this sustain pedal; a simple 15 minute fix.
I believe it comes down to 3 things.
#1/ ignorance
#2/ laziness
#3/ wanting to get away with the minimum and grab the money and run.

personally I don't think there is an excuse for any of these.
In my early days there was no excuse for not doing the job right. I could have asked the experts or taken courses etc. etc. and believe me there is no shortage of help and opinions out there.
The way I see it we are charging a good enough fee that we should be able to spend a bit more time. What is the purpose of our visit to the piano? To make it sound and play better. Tuning the strings is just part of the battle.

David:

Many good points. I also think about repairs that I have made that I would perform very differently now. And we really should charge enough to make sure that the piano will be fully functional.

I also think about times, now, when I am pretty durn tired after a full day at my regular job, a long drive to a customer, a double pitch raise with numerous adjustments to get the notes playing and then when checking the sustain pedal adjustment just not having the "umph" to start messing with spoons to get everything to work really good. Instead I will find an adjustment that will make the piano play the best it can without major regulation. See, the spoons make me think of the cold dinner that will have to be nuked when I get home.....

Things I see all to often:
*No sustain trap lever lever up-stop adjustment so I can adjust the back action up-stop and stop that darned damper jump. Grrr
*Felt strips all the way to C8 in the non speaking sections
*Current technicians (not the old timers) writing (in ink) their names/date and how many CPS, phone number and Bio
*Loose business card shims that fall out when you remove the key-slip
*Bad rebuilds ( I agree with everyone on this)
*The wrong bench or no bench
*The last appointment on Friday is 150+ cents flat although the owner said on the phone that it was tuned about 1 year ago. Did someone mention cold dinner?

I hate it when a "tech" has regulated a grand action without paying any attention to the key hight and leveling! I am working on one now that since the hammer line was brought up with the keys smiling at me they were so bad I am having to do more work. You know where the highest and lowest keys are higher and the ones in the middle are lower. The "tech" was probobly wondering why the action was a bear to regulate and it didn't have any aftertouch on most but not all notes. I think it was a case of someone practicing their grand regulation but they were not ready for it. Lots of teflon everywhere to make up for lack of complete regulation.

In some ways this kind of thing is very frustrating but I kinda like being able to make a customer happy when someone else couldn't.

In some ways this kind of thing is very frustrating but I kinda like being able to make a customer happy when someone else couldn't.

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Good point. Me too secretly.