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Ha ha ….… A week of Wurly’s out does one Whitney by a long shot Ron. Good on you for slugging it out in the trenches there…….

I’m just doing the “do I have to tune this one” grumble that’s all……. And then the explanation about low pitch and all the rest of it….tried to do this on the phone but the fellow was not getting it. Hopefully he will understand more when we are in front of the instrument…….

The things we do for customers………

Dan Silverwood
www.silverwoodpianos.com

Jeff,

I was going to PM you but saw you have them disabled.

I have a feeling that this topic might have taken a different tone had your response been something like

"Jerry, I can't say I would have handled it that way. When that has happened to me I've.."

or

"I've been in similar situations and done this..."

Saying "Thanks for explaining again what you are really like" just doesn't come off as sounding kind.

I guess whatever the case, it would be hard for any of to know for sure how we'd respond if we were in the same situation Jerry faced.

Ken

OK,

This just happened today. I did a service call in East Chicago, Indiana for a termite inspection on the sale of a house. When I got there, and after a few pleasant moments with the homeowner, I proceeded to the basement to start my inspection. Much to my suprise, tucked away in the corner, with lots of junk stored on top and around it was a upright piano. A Steinway piano. It was in poor condition.. check that... terrible condition. I asked the homeowner how long the piano had been in the basement because I am looking for a piano to practice tuning, etc. on. The answer was since Granny died... 31 years ago. OH! That hurt.

Bravo Ken. I felt Unright's post was a direct shot at Jerry and had nothing to do with pointing out abuse. It was fairly obvious and why so many people objected. Then when called on it we get the "oh I was this and that... and the rest of the arguements to try and make the claim valid after the fact....

And Unright, you should get it out of your head that anyone has tried to bully you off this forum. There is no such thing. It can't happen. Get in touch with reality. You may have been challenged as to whether or not you are considered a tuner/tech but I was too and probably so is everyone else who posts here regularly. I'm not against you. I have read some of your posts with interest because it helps with my tuning skills. I even tried to add something useful to a recent post.

Namaste

Go fetch that outta the basement. Because, I once went to Long Island to drag a Steinway upright home here to Michigan for one of my daughters, and we drove (not kidding) past a funnel cloud, and through a hurricane that was rockin' the coast...and I've GOT to believe that was a good idea, given the value of old Steinways.

...well, sorta...;-)

RPD

Thanks Ken. I hope that puts an end to it.

Wayne, you didn't manage to convince them to GIVE you the piano???

Yes Wayne I agree it warrants further investigation. I found an old Steinway vertical in a barn a few miles from where I live about 4 or 5 years ago. I took the time to haul the old piano home. It was free, and had sat out in the elements for 8 years or so. I gave restoration a good try, but all the wood was dry rotted. The action was filled with rust, needed everything. It was just too much of a stretch and I gave it up.

The things people do to old pianos!!! :t:

Maybe you can get this one, and save it from the heap.

I seriously don't think it is worth the effort to drag it out of the basement. The basement had flooded a couple of times, (water stains on the concrete foundation) and honestly, it was in reeeeaaaaallll bad repair. I did have a customer who was going to give me a Beckstein 6 something grand, and that was beautiful, but at the last minute her grand daughter decided that she wanted it. That would have been very much appreciated.

Ken:

I do not allow PMs because of the gossip. I do allow Emails from Administrators and Moderators.

Keith:

The more I get to know you the more I realize how precious, pure in heart, you are. Don’t ever change. AFA

I know a Barman who if he felt he was being abused by customers would disappear behind a screen and spit in the customers glass before filling it. If the abuse was particularly bad he would shake a few drops of urine into the customers glass.
The customer would never know because the amounts of offensive material used were insufficient to materially alter the taste but probably sufficient to make the drink taste a little bit off.
Moral of this story is dont P..S off your barman.

On this matter if a customer abuses a piano tuner he /she could always leave the piano just off enough to create doubt but not enough to create certainty.

Wow. That is something I would never do. Morals come into the picture here. But, a lady such as the one I described obviously had something else going on in her life. In my case, I simply chose to leave for the sake of leaving rather than taking any more chances on something else going wrong and being sued later for something or another that I never did. Not to mention the abuse factor.

In most cases, I always do the best job possible. There are those times where you simply cannot hear because it is to noisy that you can't hear anything so, you just tune it and hope for the best. Otherwise, I always do my best job regardless of who the client is.

Somehow this post has taken a 180 degree turn from my original concept. Anyways, it made for some interesting reading and some "scary" revelations. I thank most of your for your interesting service stories and some of your for your interesting comments. If nothing else, I will admit that this forum is interesting and sometimes unpredictable.

Seriously, thanks for posting. It was entertaining.

About twenty years ago a lady called me in the wintertime to tune her upright piano. She informed me as I came in the door that I was the seventh tuner she'd had tune the piano in the last few years and none of the tunings were any good. . .they hadn't held.

The piano was on an outside wall of her little single-wide 50's trailer that had about 2 inch thick walls. It was -20 degrees outside and there was about a quarter-inch of ice on the INSIDE of the window behind the piano.

I tuned it and told her she needed to put it on an inside wall.

Two weeks later she called me and asked, "You DO guarantee your work, don't you?" I went back out.

Now the piano WAS on an inside wall. The room was hot, and on the other side of THAT wall. . .a pellet stove going full bore! The wall was so hot you couldn't put your hand on it!

I told her that any extreme temperature will cause the piano to go out of tune, touched up the tuning, and went home.

The next week one of my dealers called me, asking about this situation. I explained, and they advised me they had "solved the situation". . .They had taken her piano in trade on an electronic keyboard!!!!

Today, I tuned a Steinway M in a church of mine. A little more than about half way through the fine tuning, the choral director comes in asking if it would be okay if they placed the piano from the stage onto the floor? I said, that shouldn't be a problem, it's only one step. "I'll be right back!" He said.

Immediately, I thought, YOU MEAN NOW??? I kept tuning. A few minutes went by and in he walks with 1 old man and another fellow. I thought, oh brother....

It was on a tripod so, that was good. He said, you'll help won't you?? I hemmed and hawed saying gee, that's how I wrecked my back in the first place, moving pianos years ago but, alright...

I went to the side where I had the most control with the least bending, walking backwards down the step rather than bending down it from the front.

I easily picked up the backside and set it down one step and told them to keep it coming... The old man, turns his side of the piano as it was going down and so the piano literally BANGED onto the floor flopping off from the tripod. To heavy for him to lift. Now, I'm thinking ohhh great.. More lifting..

The other gentleman was much stronger and was able to keep his side from doing likewise.

So, he and I picked up two ends that fell from the tripod while the other two men placed the two legs back into the tripod again. Or, moved the tripod to the legs rather...

No extra charge but, a lot of heavy breathing!!!

I finished my tuning which hadn't changed and took off.

Did my good deed for the day!

Wow, Jerry! That's quite a story. How's the back after that ordeal? PM if you wish...

The nightclub where I work used to have one of the spider trucks, but the stage is several levels, so I swapped it for the three-wheel dollies. If there are different levels, you need something that goes with the piano.

I arranged for the truck to be donated to the university.

Backs okay. A little stiff but, I remembered to use my legs and not my back.

Actually, there you have WAY more patience than I have man!! I don't let myself get hauled into a piano moving gig without big strong football players, at least four...but, on the bright side, you've now hit on a brand new technique for stabalizing a grand tuning...pick the piano up and let it fall a few inches after tuning and the notes that hold are stable!

RPD

Good story Jerry. Same thing happened to me last fall at a local high school. I was tuning for a performance that evening and about half way through, they told me they needed to move the piano up onto the stage from down on the floor. The choral teacher rounded up 4 large size football players and the five of us moved it up to the stage.

I dont mind helping either, if enough hands are on the piano.