Car Salesmen?

[Gooday]

Had a bad experience with a salesman on Saturday. I was in a well known and well respected piano shop in central London. I'd just spent 2 hours and £20 murdering some grade 6 pieces on a grand piano in their practice room and dared wander out after my session to have a look at the pianos for sale. I'd just read "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank" T.E. Carhart and it had me questioning whether I should really be ruling out all of those 2nd hand pianos (I'd just assumed they were pushed by piano dealers anxious to obtain the biggest margin.) So I ambled around playing a few scales and some chords on some bosendorfers, kawais and a yamaha or two. When I got to the Steinway model 'O', I just managed to press a few keys when a salesman appeared with a grim faced and accusatory 'can I help?'. Slighly thrown by this less than friendly approach I did explain that I was looking for a reference point and had been considering the Rx3/C3. Did I obtain any outstaning insight in the relative merits of the new verses old? No, I was told grudgingly that it might be okay to continue and that 'we're closing in 5 minutes'. I'm guessing if I'd ventured upstairs and started on a Fazioli an alarm would have gone off and I'd have been dragged out of the shop backwards.

So what are the salesmen for? Are they ex car salesman with absolutely no passion for the piano? Do they just wait, grim faced, playing solitaire on their computer for a Bentley to role up with the next buyer more intent on buying a nice bit of furniture to hold a vase or two? Maybe the salesmen just assume anyone renting a practice room is a student and therefore won't be buying? I'm still fuming and I can tell you exactly where I'm not going to buy my grand piano.

Anyway, I could have spent many hours on the older pianos forming a better opinion. I've worked out the thing I don't like on those I've tried so far is the uneven touch (compared to a yamaha c3 say) but there may be an old piano out there I'd go for as I was just begining to find some of the tones interesting. If I'm allowed to play them that is.

No wonder people are buying pianos on the internet...

[vernon]

Sorry about your bad experience.
I always tell my customers that I don't sell pianos at all. They buy them. If they come here, they can serenade themselves all day if it fits in with others. If they don't like what I have on offer they can leave on good terms and I wonder what more I can do and try and do better next time.
Try and find a long established dealer who has the knowledge and time to help you. The salesman obviously wasn't the man who pays the bills.

[PianoGuy]

No wonder people are buying pianos on the internet...

Hmm... Possibly.
I think it's another kind of ignorance that drives that.

Anyway. All your points agreed with so far, but for goodness sake don't be too influenced by that book. The writer gets thoroughly shafted by the "Craftsman" dealer (of which I've met a fair few in this trade, I can tell you!) and palmed off with an ugly brute of a piano, a Stingl-Original, all of which sound like a box of spanners. Never mind, he writes a romantic and slightly half-baked novel about the experience and makes a ton of cash.

Fair play.

I hope the dealer's slapping himself with his own stale baguette, and that Carhart can now afford the Faz that he obviously wants.

[Gooday]

I hope the dealer's slapping himself with his own stale baguette, and that Carhart can now afford the Faz that he obviously wants.

Haha - Not sure he sold enough copies.

[Gill the Piano]

If that bloke had been underfoot in my workshop every damn day, I would have sold him any old tat to get rid of him too...
Uneven touch can be cured in any piano with the right tech who can regulate it!

[Gooday]

Ha ha - I remember this! Just been reading my old posts. To be fair on this particular dealership, their practice rooms really are excellent. Nethertheless, having finally bought a new Rx-2, 3 guesses for where I didn't buy it from!

[Barrie Heaton]

Ha ha - I remember this! Just been reading my old posts. To be fair on this particular dealership, their practice rooms really are excellent. Nethertheless, having finally bought a new Rx-2, 3 guesses for where I didn't buy it from!

So long as you got the piano of your dreams that the most important Their loss

Barrie