Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Missing pins in new piano

Lkdas, please post the results of the tech's visit.

So, to all of those responders who are techs (which I admit I am not...just a consumer) and feel that repair is OK in this situation, I must ask: If you bought a new Fazioli, Bechstein, Sauter, Grotrian, etc. and it had exactly the same problem as Lkdas' piano, you would be OK with a repair and not a replacement? You would be OK with a technician turning your new piano on its side, manipulating it, and then checking for other damage or imperfections, when you just paid for a new piano and can't play it at all?? I respect all the technicians' opinions on this forum and have learned a lot just by following the threads, but it seems to me that this is a business issue first and foremost, for Lkdas.

Yes. I'd be 100% OK with a repair.
What's the difference between a repair done in your home and one done at the factory? The piano doesn't know where it is. . .

Ideally this would have been caught in the factory but this one escaped. If I did the repair, there is no magic radiation present in the factory that is going to make the repair one bit better than in the customer's home.

A whole list of assumptions here. . .

The hitch pins are available from Schaff -- or your friendly local hardware.
Why wouldn't be there a guarantee that tilting is easy? It is more unlikely that the space is so postage stamp small that you couldn't do a tilt. Even then, you could tip it on its side.

Neither Del nor myself regard this as a daunting project. I think most technicians that are set up to do more than just tuning would regard this as pretty straightforward.

Room for the hitch to be driven through? Well, that could be found out before the visit, as well.

Room to use a hammer? Not a problem if you take the floor of the piano off (and perhaps the pedal rail). Also, I have a pneumatic pin driver that requires no swing and runs well from a portable compressor.

All in all, many options for the knowledgeable and resourceful technician.

Best for the customer? Moving a piano in and out also has its own attendant issues, as well. And what if that model of piano was the last one in stock and the dealer has to get a new one from China? Maybe the customer would rather have the issue done and over with and move on.

The concerns you raise are questions to be answered, not an automatic veto of doing the work on location.

Oh, I doubt it left the factory like this. If it had it would have been repaired at the factory. This happened between the factory and here--wherever here is.

ddf

LFL, upright pianos spend many hours on their side in order to be manufactured. It's normal. It's also normal for a variety of repairs. Whether it can be done in the home or not, it will go on its side to be repaired.

If you purchased a new car and the seatbelt was broken, didn't latch or had a snag in weave that might tear, that would be serious enough to not drive it even though it mostly works. Would you expect a new car or a repair?

The purchaser did not know enough to avoid purchasing an unprepared piano, still in crate. I wouldn't play into an owners' unreasonable fears...which is a lot different than reasonable ones.

The decision to repair or replace depends on info we do not have because it could go either way. By itself, it's a decision based on the reasonable inconvenience of a warranty claim and process.

Well, how do you think uprights are built? They're built with their strings facing the ceiling. Some technicians have upright tilters that allow this to be accomplished safely by one person. The only real questions here, as others have said, is what's most practical and expedient for the customer.

Thanks everyone for all of your replies - I really appreciate it. I will surely post an update after the technician visit. I am glad I posted my question here. We knew next to nothing about a piano and now i feel I am a little more educated.
Thanks !
- Jeya

I do not think that this is the equivalent of something being wrong with a seatbelt. That does not compromise the basic function of a car. This is more like a wheel wobbling on its axle because a part broke.

Keep in mind that I have no objection to this piano being repaired and resold without going back to the factory, but there are so many things that need to be done, and so many factors involved, that I would not be comfortable with the repair being done in someone's house. Once you have to move the piano, even an internal move to tilt it, it is much better just to switch out the piano, particularly since Jeya did not pick out this one specifically.

This is far less serious than the piano I have in my shop we use for laughs, which was drop shipped factory direct crated to a church. Ours has a washing machine door complete with the porthole ( no glass) and working light, with wires fused between the rear framing and soundboard. We have wired it up to a battery so we can turn the light in the door on and off. I am not sure if that is a factory option or not but without glass that washer might have had a leak.

J C
Nashville Piano Rescue
Since 1918
www.NashvillePianoRescue.com
Lascassas TN.

Wow, these pins are made to pull a lot of force and don't break off just like that.

The other strings, more to the left, are not going straight either??! Is there tension at all on these strings? Makes me wonder about the area in between. Something else seems to have moved as well.

Therfore I have the impression something bad happened and not just with those 2 pins, and I would prefer a replacement over repair.

This is definitely a warranty situation, as there are obvious problems with the materials and/or workmanship. The company usually has the right to decide whether to replace or repair.

As a consumer, I would also probably ask for a replacement piano. Just be aware that the replacement piano will have hitch pins made of the the same (questionable?) alloy, driven in and bent back by the same person in the factory, subject to the same string tensions - i.e. just as prone to breakage.

The "defective" piano would then go to the dealer, where in an hour or two the pins would be replaced and the piano would be sold as new to the next client....

Considering what it costs for a corp like Yamaha to build one of these I would think a replacement instrument would be fastest and cheapest for all parties to this issue.

This part here;



I don’t know of any dealers who uncrate a piano, prep the piano and put it back into the original packing crate and deliver it to the customer. That makes little in the way of sense to me.

Maybe I am missing something. What would be the point of that.

Sorry to all....I somehow missed that this is an upright....I need to read more carefully! Regardless, I agree wih BDB's assessment.

Did you request this yourself by chance believing only this way you could get a " brand new" piano?

If this is the case, you're not alone.
However, this is a false assumption.

Some dealers unfortunately re-inforce this insane assumption.

In plain English it's called "cost-saving"....

Norbert

You've no doubt experienced this, but some customers outright demand their piano to be delivered fresh out of the box, despite the dealer's objections.

I would not have any problem having the dealer repair the piano and warranty the work if it were me.

I would, however, object to the major procedures described here being done in my house. If they want to tip it over, hammer on it, etc. I would expect that they would take it to their shop, repair it there, show it to me when they're finished, deliver it and set it up. That's what would be done if a car had a serious problem on delivery. I would not expect the mechanic to bring tools and repair it in my garage.

If they weren't willing to do that, the alternative would be a replacement piano.

Here is the update -
I couldn't wait for the technician/dealer to call me back and I was so mad that I called Yamaha directly . I spoke to their customer service team and the person asked me to send a picture and after I did , I got a callback right away saying that it will be replaced and added that he has never seen one like that before in his career !!
Unfortunately the dealer doesn't have another one in stock and we will have to wait for a week or 2 for the dealer to pick it up from Yamaha . I believe there is some paper work that dealer needs from Yamaha and because of the NAMM show, he won't get it until Monday.
After all this one thing that I regret was - not buying it directly from Yamha in the Costco roadshow. We had decided on the cable-nelson and the only reason we went with the Yamaha Authorized dealer was hoping that if anything went wrong the dealer would help. If I had not made the call to Yamaha customer service, I am sure there wouldn't have been any progress. Even after sending multiple emails to the sales person/dealer, he did not call us back or reply to the email. I have been the one calling and following -up.We didn't save any money by getting it from the dealer, in fact we would have saved atleast $100-$150 had we bought it from Costco( along with costco's return policy) .

I am really thankful to all of you who have contributed to this thread and I wouldn't have known the magnitude of the problem without all of your valuable comments /suggestions.I'll keep my fingers crossed hoping and praying that the next piano we get will be a good one !!

- jeya

Congratulationa Jeya,

That is the best outcome. I figured that Yamaha would respond immediately and replace the piano. They don't want to be left with egg on their face.