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Keep in mind that the quality and professionality of the sales staff on piano row is atypical. You couldn't support that degree of professionalism in a low volume or mid-volume store.

I admit that we have a fairly unusual situation, but our showroom is split up into several rather large spaces, a total of 7 rooms in two buildings, and there are times that we have three or four people playing without disturbing each other.

Although there is always the time when two customers wish to spend time on pianos right next to each other. in this situation judicious management of our most precious resource is needed - I am referring to time, of course.

I have never had an unreasonable customer that did not understand the concept of 'taking turns' though. Most folks are very reasonable when they see that someone else also needs a little playing time. in fact, I have seen two customers compare notes and help to reassure each other about their purchases.

This becomes a nastier situation when, instead of wanting to play two pianos standing side by side, the two customers want to play the same piano.

If two customers want to play the same piano, that should be the ideal situation for them each to learn how the piano will sound to others.

Solution!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJkL_4niC4w

Please tell me "professionality" isn't a word!

Professionality is not a word. You are welcome!

(Unless, perhaps it refers to someone whose profession is being a personality.)

Phew, thanks!

It is a very strange story, KC. There is something wrong, somewhere.

I was eating in a restaurant, where a would-be customer from off the street was told, "I'm sorry, sir, you'll have to leave; you're taking people's appetites away."

Your way of writing is presentable, and if you are that way in person, I would imagine a store would be glad to show to you and sell to you. Being dismissed from one store is fairly well believable; we have had letters about such in the past. Maybe they were in a bad mood, or were snarky by nature. It's not good form, but it can happen. Being dismissed from a second store is more remarkable--- perhaps you were in a bad mood by that time.

But at last, you found civil treatment at the third store. I am relieved, for the honor of the piano stores of Portland... even though, by this time, your story is starting to sound like a remake of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."

It seems like there must be something left out of the tale.

I hope you found an acceptable piano behind Door Number Three (your story also reminds me of a television game show--- what was it called, "Let's Make a Deal?" Or, "Let's Don't Make One." Of course, the contestants had to guess what was behind the door or curtain, so you have the advantage.)

I would think, that if you were so displeased with the floor staff at the first two stores, you might get better satisfaction by calling their managers than by writing to PianoWorld... since we really can do nothing for you.

As for the title of your letter, "Are piano stores trying to go out of business?" I would have to reply, "No." Since only you know the full particulars of what occurred, maybe if you think this answer over it will come clear in your mind.

Anyway, I hope you are able to go home with both a piano and a store that you love. If it were me, I'd remember Valentina and forget the stores. Even Goldilocks could not ask for a happier ending. (What did happen to her, anyway--- didn't the bears eat her?)

On a couple of occasions, I used this to my advantage - if the other pianist was accomplished. In one case, a much better pianist was playing a piano near one I was looking at, so I asked if he would mind playing "my" piano - which he agreed to - it was much nicer than the piano he was considering for himself. But I was then able to walk around listening to the piano as an "audience of one" from different angles.

Hey Clef, Doesn't Valentina has gold locks? So Killer visits Portland to see a concert by the esteemed golden locked Valentina Lisitsa and has a Goldilocks experience of his own (in addition to the concert)! How ironic. Thank you for pointing that out.

When I have dealt with piano stores I have, in general, not called ahead, but I do try to be sensitive to their needs. On a number of occasions I've been asked to schedule a time the next day (I'm talking about you Ori), which was perfectly okay with me. I agree with the poster who suggested the problem was that he didn't approach the sales staff at store #1 and mention that he was serious and wished to start playing again. But the real test of whether all this angst was worth it would be if he purchased a piano at store #3. Of course if he didn't it might be because it wasn't "the one" but we all like happy endings so please let us know if this experience had a positive outcome. Oh and sorry that the forum didn't unanimously agree with you.

There are over 100,000 Google hits for "professionality definition". Whether or not it's in the dictionary it seems to be in common usage.

If a dealer is having an event that will prevent potential customers from trying out pianos they should indicate this on their website.

I think the idea that calling in advance entitles the caller to take over(in the sense that other customers cannot play pianos) the showroom for an extended period of time is arrogant unless the time is scheduled during non regular business hours. The fact that some dealers may operate this way doesn't make it right unless they indicate on their website that their showroom is open by appointment only.

The proper term is "professionalitiness." (Thank you, Mr. Colbert!)

Valentina was awesome and she gave 4 encores - the recital was 3 hours long! She was signing autographs and chatting afterward but it looked like half the people watching the concert were waiting in line and I had to drive back. There is no other classical pianist that cares as much for their audience!

I really want to buy a piano at store #3, which has a satellite store where I live. Unfortunately they have more high and low end pianos than mid end, and I wasn't interested in any of their particular used/rebuilt instruments at the time. Their satellite store here doesn't sell used/rebuilt pianos except flawlessly restored Steinways. The salesmen in the satellite store are also very friendly and reasonable.

Store #3 was by far the busiest and I had to stop several times for other customers. That did not bother me. They were very reasonable about how they dealt with this.

I think the thing that bothered me the most was that the little girl wasn't that interested in pianos and wasn't even playing 80% of the time. I was at the opposite end of a huge showroom behind lots of pianos so she couldn't see me.

I just didn't understand why store #2 didn't have a separate room for recitals like most stores I go to. If they want to be 1/2 piano store and 1/2 recital room, fine, but they've lost me as a customer.

For every terrible store there is an awesome one so it evens out in the end. It's not like buying a car in a big city though. I went to one car dealership and didn't like them, so I went across town and bought the exact same model from another dealership. You don't have that luxury with pianos. If you really like a certain model you have to put up with it.

This sounds like a recipe for disappointment. You're buying a piano which you'll play for 20, 30, maybe 50 years.

You need to buy THE PIANO you like playing, and will want to play endlessly when you get it home.

In 3 years time, you'll have forgotten all about the store - but you'll still have the piano, and if it's the wrong one, having bought it from the right store isn't going to help one little bit.

What do you mean with 'dress appropriately'? Isn't a short semi-revealing short dress appropriate enough? It seemed enough for a certain young pianist with immense talent and musicality you know! I bet that if she came in my (hypothetical and non existant) piano store, I'd not only let her play her heart out, but after checking with her, I'd call friends, etc and probably as for an autograph while I'm at it!

Let me ask you this: What if I use my cell phone and call right outside the store? Will that get me better service?

I'm getting silly but you'll see where I'm going with this.

I wouldn't say over dramatic. You see it all depends on experience and situations. Frankly 20,000$ NOW in Greece can be a whole years salary for the middle man (not the low man, the middle man), so it's A LOT of money. I understand perfectly well the meaning of such amount and under no circumstances it's trivial.

The point is that the OP was treated poorly, exactly because the store manager (??) decided to favour someone who'd called first. I call this unreasonable to a large degree.

Where I come from we have a general quote that goes like "The customer is always right". This, of course is hardly true in a lot of ways, but one needs to show respect to a customer, no?

This, however, is very very correct!

who cares about bad customer service (except if they are the people who will be servicing and tuning your piano in the next 50 years in which case...). It's the piano you're interested in KC, not the store manager (?)

EDIT x 2: What I generally mean is that there shouldn't be a hard rule that one needs to call in order to be treated "ok" (whatever this 'ok' means)...

Having regularly visited piano stores since I was six years old or so, I find nothing unusual or even unprofessional about the OPs experience, unless there's something that's been left out. IMO, this thread is just whining.... you are welcome to disagree.

Of course I'm welcome to disagree, there's no doubt about that!

But as a (more than one) business owner, I'm seeing something that I wouldn't be doing to a customer myself. That's all. I don't have any piano stores, so perhaps experience lacking means a lot in this case, but still... :-/

I'm with pianoloverus on this one. How arrogant is it to waltz into a piano store and take over? While I enjoy visiting my local piano store and playing the pianos there, I always stop when a current, serious customer needs to try out an instrument. Perhaps the OP did not look like a serious customer. Oh wait, he hasn't bought a piano yet. . . . Moreover, I would never assume that other customers are happy just to listen to me play (which I am not good at anyway), nor would I need hours of nonstop playing to evaluate a piano, if that is my goal in going to the store. If I know that that is what I need to evaluate a piano, an appointment would be necessary. . . .In other words, I feel that one can piano-shop without an appointment, but if one knows that one will need an extended evaluation time of intense solo playing, one should also know that an appointment is necessary.

Also, I am delighted when a piano store uses its facilities to promote interest in pianos by holding recitals. Holding recitals is a GOOD thing, and demonstrates a real commitment to music and pianos on the part of the store, another GOOD thing, not something that causes me to abandon the operation.

In short, as my mother would have said, who does the OP think he is? I have been trying to figure out why the OP bothers me so much, and I appreciate the subsequent posts that have allowed me to work this out.