I'm becoming aware more and more of how some suppliers have no idea about the tuners that they either recommend or send out to tune their newly supplied pianos. Surely every firm should want their customers to get the best possible service, thereby enhancing their reputation. All too often now I get calls from customers, who having bought a new piano, and having had their free tuning, phone me, very upset at how bad their newly tuned piano sounds.
Only this morning, I've had yet another phone call ..... It turns out that the free tuning was done by someone in this area who while being a very nice guy .... is a dreadful tuner. His reputation is all too well known, as someone who leaves a trail of distraught customers, and yet continues to be sent out to tune on the suppliers behalf.
I fail to see the merit in any supplier (not having their own good tuning staff), merely dipping into their collection of tuner's business cards without bothering to check if he or she can actually tune. It can't be purely the money .... I know for a fact that some of these dreadful tuners charge more than the good ones. Perhaps it all boils down to the fact that the tuning is free (to the customer), and that the customer is more likely to accept any "free" services without complaint, except in the case where a customer really knows the difference between a good or bad tuning.
I can't understand why this happens so frequently, but on the other hand, find it so rewarding to then re-tune the customers piano and see the utter relief on their faces when they realise that there was nothing wrong with the piano ... but everythning wrong with the crap tuner that the supplier sent.
The moral of this post being on the open part of the forum then, is ....
1. Suppliers ..... send only good tuners to undertake your "Free tunings" if you care about reputations.
2. Buyers .... beware that "Free tunings" often are a complete waste of time .... if you have already have a good tuner, insist that they are the ones to do the "Free tunings"
