Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Kawai K8 fell over during delivery

My part of Texas is not exactly flat. There are times when delivery conditions are not ideal. Steep ramps up to the house, maybe the house has a wall just past the door that I have to work the piano around. Maybe it has to go upstairs.

I like to go look where I am going to deliver a piano before hand if there is any indication of problems so I can make sure I have plenty of help.

If it isn't possible to go first, I like to see if the owner can give me better insight as to what problems are there to overcome. And I ask lots of questions.

I guess you could say I'm in the North Central Texas area. It's somewhat hilly around my area. One fairly steep grade on I-20 about 9 miles from me.

Your mover should have been better prepared and had plenty of help if he needed. (And it sounds like he did)

It was an out-of-state purchase.

What a nightmare. A new piano is in order. Sorry to hear this bad news Chris. The K8 is a heavy piano to lift, I remember watching the guys deliver mine giving me a few nerves at certain points but they delivered safely.

I hope the claim goes smooth.

New pianos need a little extra attention. Best if provided by a tech who is experienced with new out of the box pianos.

Aren't there any piano dealers in your area? Where these actual 'piano movers' who dropped your piano? Should you have been helping them? I would expect experienced piano movers to politely tell you to get out of the way so they can safely do their job?

I would not be forgiving as you under the circumstance.

I belive a new piano would be in order....but hands off for you on the next delivery.

Was the moving company "The Three Little Stooges"? That might explain something.....hope not because if so forget the claim, they likely filed bankruptcy and fled town already.

First, like everyone else, I'm really feeling sorry for you!

It makes me realize how lucky I was when I foolishly hired cheap movers (who scrounged for people off the street to help them at the final point of delivery) when moving a U3 (similar size but less weight) up a steep narrow flight of low-ceiling stairs. In the end there were literally footprints on the ceiling!!!!!!!!!!! I was foolish. I got lucky.

This also calls to mind the extreme professionalism of Classic Pianos in Portland, OR. (I'm just a customer and in no way affiliated with them.) When they recently had my new 5'8" grand (Yammy C2) moved up a difficult tight U-shaped stair case, out of their own pockets (the move was thrown into the deal) they hired FIVE guys to do the move (normally there would have been 3, I think) to insure that the tight corners and low ceiling did not cause a mishap. With 5 pros there was little chance of a mishap and indeed there was none. (They also sent 2 guys out to evaluate the move a week before it happened.) Good dealers are a gift. Inevitably their prices are not rock bottom from my experience. 'Kind of makes sense, particularly in regard to greater time spent on regulation before the move begins.

You can be sure that you, not they, paid for the move.

Hi Rafterman, I am so depress right now about this situation, but the piano company said that it will have to be inspected by an RPT and then will go from there. I have also scheduled for an RPT on my own to come and look at the piano from top to bottom, but not to do any repair on it i.e. just make a list of concerns. He did say that worse case scenario they will send me a new one, but will have to go through this process first. I might even get two different RPT's on my own to look at it, and then compare notes with the one that they will send. You all are correct, next time I will just stand aside and watch. Expensive lesson learned

Don’t be overly depressed… I know that is easy for me to say. All is not lost, and it is not the end of the world (by a long-shot).

Unfortunately, the dealer is playing hardball with you. He already has your money in his pocket and he’s buying time and hoping that you will soon forget about watching your piano fall over on its side in the crate. They may well be following protocol in a situation like this, but you are the customer and not a satisfied customer at this point. This is not a warranty issue that requires an RPT inspection; it is a "damaged in shipping/moving" issue.

Most people do not like controversy, or confrontation/conflict, myself included. If you can muster up the courage, contact the dealer again and tell them you do not want to follow the “let’s wait and see what the PRT says” approach. Tell them you insist on having another piano delivered to your home and to pick that one up and take it back. Then, the dealer can have it inspected and decide if he wants to resell it as new to an unsuspecting buyer.

I’m not sure if you have any financial leverage at this point, but if you paid for the piano with a credit card, you may have some leverage there…

Just remember, things could be a lot worse.

Good luck, and keep us informed.

Rick

Unfortunately I paid with a check because they did not want to take a credit card for such a big payment and especially when they gave me a really nice price i.e. almost $3K less than the local guy. If the whole thing were on a credit card then yes I would have put a stop to it.

"Most people do not like controversy, or confrontation/conflict, myself included. If you can muster up the courage, contact the dealer again and tell them you do not want to follow the “let’s wait and see what the PRT says” approach. Tell them you insist on having another piano delivered to your home and to pick that one up and take it back. Then, the dealer can have it inspected and decide if he wants to resell it as new to an unsuspecting buyer."

I will tell him this. Thanks Rick.

i would hire a lawyer maybe,, and insist the piano be taken back.. i believe you paid for a working piano.. right?

REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT.

Let us not leap to conclusions. There may be no seriously damage to the piano. Pianos are pretty tough, and they do not fall as fast as you might think. (I know by experience, and when it happened, I broke its fall by letting it fall on top of me. I just ended up embarrassed, because I could not get it off me by myself.)

Pedal rods can come undone in a normal move. They can be replaced fairly easily. That is all that we know is wrong with the piano.

Smiles,

My $0.02, based on personal experience: send it back - do not delay.

A very similar situation happened to me about 6 months ago, upon delivery of my new grand. Swivel wheel dolly slipped as they were setting it up and the piano dropped 10"-12" to the floor. A 6' grand can leave a nice dent in a solid oak floor, let me tell you.

Fortunately, my dealer, who also owned the delivery company, handled it with utmost integrity. They took all the initiative in making it right, before I even asked. Here's what they did.

First, the delivery crew immediately loaded the piano on the truck and took it back. Their tech (actually a respected contract RPT, but "theirs" nonetheless) checked it out very carefully during the next two weeks. He found one minor problem, unrelated to the fall.

In the meantime, a new piano of the same make/model/finish had arrived at their store. They then set up both pianos side by side in the showroom, asked me to play them both and select the one I preferred. The second delivery went off without a hitch.

They also reimbursed me for the floor repair, within 2 days of faxing over the floor guy's invoice.

So...send it back. Yes, it's a pain, but sometimes bad things happen to good pianos. A good dealer will take care of you.

Of course, Texas is flat. For example:

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/7297019598/in/photostream[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/6984660838/in/photostream[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/7130714481/in/photostream[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/6842468436/in/photostream[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/6988584179/in/photostream[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/6988578763/in/photostream[/img]

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tx-dennis/6988571993/in/photostream[/img]

I shot all these photos in Texas in the last couple of months.

EDIT: guess I can't embed photos from flickr . . . . They are clickable, though.

Looks like the yards of the houses across the street.

How 'bout this?



Texas Hill Country

Here's another'n:

Actually it may not be quite what you think. Of course they factored "a move" into the equation before agreeing to a price. However, the assessment that led to upping the number of movers to 5 came after the dollar figure was agreed to. So arguably a piece of the additional cost came from what was to have been their profit.

While it is true that pianos are tough, it still bothered the heck out of me that it felled over. The dealer kept saying "oh piano get move/ship all the time so they are okay" I kept having to say "moving/shipping is different from falling over". They gave me a name of a local RPT, who was referred by the Kawai US main technical guy, to come and check it out. It turned out she used to work with him. She came tonight and spent almost 3 hours taking it apart inspecting the entire piano. She was very impressed with the build and quality of the piano, of course Anyway, her conclusion was that this piano is in great shape/condition, the bridges, soundboard, rails, rods, pedals are all okay. She said all the inside seems undamaged. She did some minor tuning; however, she wanted to do a full tune up within two weeks to make sure all is right with the piano and another tuning in 3 months. From talking to her, I realize that she rarely see a K8 in this area; she is mainly a Steinway and Yamaha person. I have scheduled with another RPT on my own and will have him give it a once over tomorrow to see what he has to say.

I did my post-grad in San Antonio. Texas hill country is beautiful. I always love driving around the area. Thanks for sharing the pic.