Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Don't you hate it when....

...you do a really good tuning, repin a jack (upright), leave, then get a call 20 miles and an hour later saying, "{whichever note you just fixed} isn't working," and you realized you forgot to check that the jack spring was back in position... Oh well, I didn't need that 40 minutes anyway.

I thought this might be a fun way to have a good laugh at ourselves. Have a good weekend all.

Or...

In the middle of a fully booked day, realizing you left your temperment strip at the previous appointment 45 minutes away.

I'm sure we'll hear more of these today.

That's why I try to work my schedule geographically so it's easy to go back when anything is forgotten.

JUNMER

Oh, that is funny! I can hear EXACTLY the conversation you had with yourself all the way back to and from too Dave!!! I hope nobody can read lips!

Or, walk away leaving your tuning fork laying on the harp of the grand? Or, a small screwdriver behind the action of a grand after you've pulled it in and out a half dozen times?

I've pull some nice tools out of pianos left by the previous guy. Of course, I've left my share too.

I hate it when you pull in the drive 50 miles from home ready for the 1st piano of 6 or 7, jump out and reach for your tool case which should be in the back but which is actually sitting in your shop 50 miles away while the lady is peering out the window at you staring blankly into the void mumbling obscenities.

I hate it when the "lawn guys" seem to be on the same schedule...

... the mosquitos at a summer camp give up trying to chase down frenetic campers, and turn their attention to the sitting-duck piano tuner?

David

Or, dropping a tool case while walking down the steps in a school to another floor. The tool case opens up, tools, screws, screw drivers and what youever else you can imagine, spreading all over 3 floors worth of steps. All the while my cousin, can hardly stand up he's laughing at them trinkling, actually, clanging all the way down the steps while I stand there losing a little bit of religion.

I lost my favorite screwdriver two years ago this coming April. Yep, it had been with me since I bought my first tools when I became a piano technology student at the local community college.
Over the years I developed a strong abiding emotional attachment to that plain simple screwdriver. I called my customer to see if I could get it back, but I suppose they developed an attachment to it also; they denied that it was there. I keep trying to lose the wife, but she keeps findin' her way back home. Sure wish I could say the same for that screwdriver!!!

I have a lot of tools that I have used for decades, but for the most part, I have duplicates. If something gets lost, I need a replacement immediately. Also, I like to use different tools in the shop so I do not leave something out of the kit. Fortunately, most piano tools are still inexpensive.

I left my good Deagan tuning fork on a nightclub piano last spring. I was in a panic until I could get back there, a couple of days later, but it was there. Nobody makes forks as well as Deagan did.

It seems nuts to develop such powerful attachments to inanimate objects like tools but I have my share of "best friends" in the box. I have a homemade grand damper bushing reamer made in 1971 from an umbrella fetched from a trash can on Washbash and Michigan in Chicago. An old blind tuner said it was the perfect size and he was right. I lost it briefly and recovered it later in a piano. It felt like my favorite dog ran away. No, much worse.

When we lose our tools and don't remember where they are, we hope they're at a regular client's home rather than a one-time tunee...

I once had a no-show, right around twilight. I waited for her with my toolkit on her porch until the sun was gone. After half an hour, I left. Unfortunately, my toolkit didn't leave with me. I realized it the next morning, at which point I broke many speed limits on my way back to find that it was still on her porch!

Different profession, but same scenerio...I use to be a mechanic for AMC engineering, built a development vehicle for the Chelsea Proving Grounds(a CJ7, 4x4). I noticed I was missing my favorite 9/16 extend length combination wrench. Waited for a couple of months before replacing it. About 3 months go by, I get a work order to replace a transferr case on a CJ7, low and behold, my 9/16 wrench was laying in the belly pan (crossmember) the whole time.

How many times has your customer bothered to call you and tell you that you left the tool there??? Half the time, it's in plain sight too! For me, 9 out of 10 will NOT call me. I think they think, it's "finders keepers."

It obvious that they have never purchased tools and then misplaced them. I've found tools with markings on them and went the extra mile to return them to their owner... would like to think someone would do that for me sometime..wishful thinking!!

This is a little off topic but, not really I guess, talking about honesty now. About 2 or 3 years ago, I went into a local gas station here and filled up. I almost always had figured in my head the amount of my change before entering the door. This time I hadn't I was in a rush with a lot on my mind. I gave her two $20's. 40 bucks. The amount of gas had actually to something like $33. She gave me change back with $20 MORE than what I had originally given her. In other words, I walked away with $60. I didn't bother counting as I was in a rush but when I got home, I went to put it back into my wallet again and discovered her large mistake. I immediately went back to that station and gave her the exact amount they had coming. $33. She was floored! First, she didn't know what to do. Then, she didn't know what to say. Finally said, gee, I didn't think there were any honest people left in the world. I smiled and said well, there are a lot more of them than you think, and walked away.

Yes, that's happened to me a couple of times. I remember once I was given back 5 or 6 dollars to much in change. Luckily I didnt have to drive back because I found the discrepancy in the parking lot. I walked back in and the clerk's reaction was much the same; floored, that someone was honest enough to bring the money back. But that money would have probably come out of that person's paycheck, if I had just forgotten about it and stuck it in my pocket. Honesty is always the best policy.

By the same token, seems like I'm always finding money, usually a few cents, but sometimes a dollar bill; once I found a $20 bill in a piano. And I remember two old English coins (1920's or 1930's) in an old birdcage action piano. I give everything found in a piano to the owners. It's their piano, therefore, their property. If I dont earn it, I dont want it.

A couple of guys in our golf league do flooring for a living...you know carpet and such. They were doing one of the casinos in Detroit. One of their employees noticed some tokens on the floor near or under were some machines had been, picked them up and pocketed them...the casino saw in on the cameras, guards were sent and they retreaved the tokens, and escorted the employee out of the building. He lost his job...those loose tokens are claimed property of the casino, no if's, bands or buts about it. They had been told at the onset of the job, that if any tokens were found, to hand them to an employee or security officer of the casino ... not to pocket them...

Gee, you guys remind me of so many stories but, here's another cute one. A friend of my dads was a carpenter. While working at a customers home, he over heard them discussing the fact that they wanted to leave but didn't know if they could trust him or not? After some more conversation, he heard the husband say, I know, I'll drop a $5 on the floor near him as we leave but, we'll come back in just a little while and see if he pocketed it or not? She said, oh, that's a good idea! When they came back, they found the carpenter was gone for the day but, on their steps with about 30 tacks around it was his $5 bill.

I always give the coins back too. Finding coins in a church is worse. I'll put those in the collection plate! Sheesh, God is watching me now! I ain't takin it uh uhh uhhhhhh!!!!

Or, drop a mute and forget to retrive it? Or, drop it and you can't find it? Or, on a grand, one slips between the harp and strings into the action and you didn't have to pull the action out until NOW! Or, drop one between the harp and strings and the only way to get it is to slowly shove it all the down to the bass section without scratching the sounding board with something? Or, knock your ETD on the floor like I did mine once and smash it?

Here's kinda of a cute site.
http://www.onlinetuningfork.com/