Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum What's the worst thing a customer can tell you?

Here's a good entry into the Worst Thing A Customer Can Tell You contest...
today, while staring into a dusty Whitney spinet with rusty strings, the customer told me that it hadn't been tuned in over 30 years.

So, what's your worst piano nightmare?

"Are we glad to see you!" at a concert tuning.

"I don't really hear a difference."

Could be for all kinds of reasons . . . none of them are good.

"I just got my grand rebuilt, could you come tune it for me?" (I had serviced their Steinway grand several times and informed them that it could greatly benefit from rebuilding. They are quite well off financially.)

I say, "I must assume you aren't aware I do rebuilding".

They say, "I didn't know that you rebuilt pianos too. I got his name from the Steinway dealer." (They originally got my name for tuning from the Steinway dealer several years prior.)

The rebuilder they used knows me. I am sure he got much enjoyment from this.

And some on PW accuse me of "excessive self-promotion".

In this case I failed at marketing myself in so many ways.

I have a grudge against that rebuilder that I will never loose. I looked at rebuilt piano and declined to service it. Work was mediocre-and I didn't want to be in the position of advocating remedies on customers behalf when they ignored me in the first place. I simply said, "the work is not to my standards and I no longer feel comfortable working on it. Good luck! Good bye! No charge."

This has just happened to me too.

Old 1920's-ish upright. Hasn't been tuned in "30 years or more."

I've used Tunelab's overpull mode, and it works decently, but the most I've used it was on a piano about 130 cents flat. And of course, I still had to fine tune in regular mode, after the initial rough pitch raise. Takes #@$%!@#$ forever!

I'll find out how flat this one is on Monday. Hope I don't break a string.

Any veterans out there...this newbie welcomes any advice you can give. Thanks in advance.

The piano nightmare that tops my list is walking into the piano room and seeing a square PSO. In one such instance the customer said that the last tuner had broken several strings and some action parts, and had recommended me because I do excellent repair work.

I told her that I couldn't help her, no service charge, and walked out.

The Stalker.

It's not so much what they said. It's what they did: Buy the same piano, then call me.

Over roughly a ten year period, the same old grand piano - literally the worst known to man - followed me from client to client not once but four times.

Sounds more like a bad dream.

"They just put a second ticket on your car out front"

Yep... I had a new customer in the winter who had a double garage to park in yet parked both cars on the driveway an extra 10 feet from the house so that the back of my car extended a bit on to the side walk out front. No parking was allowed on the street.

So I get a ticket from the cops for blocking pedestrian traffic on sidewalk even though my bumper was only about 6" into it and everybody could easily walk by, and then I get a second redundant ticket for impeding snow removal when the sidewalk clearing Bobcat showed up.

Each ticket was ~$40 and on a $120 tuning, I basically ended working for the guvment on this one. And this is why I hate working in the big city of Toronto occasionally.

"We have a piano we need tuned. Oh yeah, and there are a few keys not playing. We were very excited. It was free."

Customer: "How much to tune a piano ?"....answer is $xxx.xx...Customer "But..it was free...I'm not paying that much !! Dial tone...........

>And some on PW accuse me of "excessive self-promotion".

Ed McMorrow,

Just some feedback to you on this misguided opinion (self-promotion) from others about your participation on PW. I’m eager to read your posts on any piano related topic because it’s clear to me that your opinions are backed up by years of real and analytical experience in piano service and rebuilding. While I have seen clear, as well as veiled self-promotion by some, it never once occurred to me that this was the case with your posts. I appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge with us and for challenging opinions expressed here that have no basis in experience. You are one of the PW contributors that raise the signal to noise ratio here.

Thank you!

Michael Staples

Interesting topic! Back in the '70's, when I was young and even dumber than I am now, I has a call around supper time. "This the tuner?" said the voice on the line. "Yes," I reply. "Well, this is Frank down to the Tap. Say, we got a fella comin in with his band and he's sayin he won't play lessen we get the piano tuned. He's been here before." "When are they scheduled to play?" I ask as I consult my wall calendar. "Lessee, what time is it right now?"

Long story short, the band was arriving at 8:00, it was now about 5:00. The bar was already open, the place was loud, the lights were low, the piano was terrible (can you say "Melville Clark?") , but (and here's the key) I was in my '20's and the beer was free! It truly was a night to remember. Chuck Behm

I've experienced this too. Someone who tunes only and then refers every other thing to other technicians. I never like to hear, 'the piano's just been tuned but needs…….

I suppose you could kindly say that you only do repairs for your own clients.

I think if a tuner tunes only and nothing else, he should work out an agreement with another technician to handle the other work. Finding someone willing to do that might not be easy.

Chuck,
Free beers!! If news of that gets around Homer Simpson will take up piano tuning.

Hi Ed - It's funny how an evening that started off so bad (i.e.- Melville Clark) could end up being so much fun. You know, there's not a lot of tuning one remembers after 40 years, but that was definitely one of them for me. Chuck

P.S. Oh, and thinking back, I do remember a "worst thing" comment from a customer - when the lady of the house came running down the stairs from the second floor, running into where I was sitting in front of her piano, and gasped, " Did you hear a gunshot?" No, but I did hear the sound of the plate cracking during a pitch raise. A sound you'll never forget!

I live and work in a pretty rural area, so I have gotten a number of the "hasn't been touched in 20 years" piano jobs. You know it's bad when a middle-aged person has just gotten a piano from their parents - the one they used as a kid, which no one else has used (or tuned) since.

I've only had a couple strings ever break. Most of the time they come up to pitch surprisingly well, but the problems tend to be more in the action. I usually give a pretty big disclaimer up front that I can make the piano playable, but it is not worth much after so much neglect. Some are not even worth trying to tune.

Ideally I would tune it in two visits. One pass to just above pitch, and a few weeks later a second pass to stabilize it. I don't like using Tunelab's overpull if the piano is more than 50-100 cents flat; it does a good job calculating but I feel it's too risky to pull old, rusty strings 30-40 cents sharp when it's not necessary.

Just my $0.02.

"I just backed into your car". She could have backed straight out but chose to veer into my car which was parked well off to the side. It must have been the gravitational pull.

Funny you should say that, Jon. "I just backed into your car" has happened to me with no less than FOUR customers, and I know it will happen again. I have thought before of starting a thread to inquire how many other have experienced those 6 magic words, but I guess this is as good a time as any to ask!

I watched as a customer did this to my car, but it was the "That's the second time I've done that to somebody" comment that really got me!

"I'm sure you remember, our other piano is in the basement. Don't mind the smell down there; we're having trouble with our septic system."