Sax man of doom
Every so often, there comes a customer that you kind of just wish they'd go somewhere else. This is one of those customers.
Our story starts at the beginning of the year. I have a late-start day, and on that particular day, I walked in and my boss said, I'm going to lunch; if *this person* comes in and asks for me, tell him I died. …Oh? What the heck happened? Apparently the man was so annoying over the phone that my boss simply could not deal with him any longer. Perhaps he amended it to "tell him I quit," though since his name's on the business, that might be hard to convince the man of that.
Eventually he came in that day. The story goes that the man's son had played saxophone back in the day, and the dad found it and decided he wanted to start playing it. He had taken it elsewhere to be looked over--to a place where we know they don't have a wind instrument repair shop; they focus more on rock band equipment--and it still didn't play for him. The shop told him, it's because you don't know how to play. This could very well be true, but at the least someone should have played it for him. (From what I know about the shop--and we're friendly with this shop, don't get me wrong--they likely didn't have anyone there who *could* play it for the man.)
What the man had talked to my boss about was us checking over the sax. The man didn't want to leave it, so my boss had arranged for my tech to stop what he was doing and look it over quickly. The tech was not to talk to the man but mostly pick it up and drop it back off, that sort of thing. The verdict: While the man may have put $100 into sax repairs at the other store, his sax still had leaks and old pads and we probably recommended at least a general checkover, if not a full repad. The other thing that had been discussed was the man possibly trading in his sax for one of our used saxes, and we had a couple for him to try out. Eventually, he did end up trading in his sax; he attempted to haggle, but no. I'm no haggler. You can either take your sax back, or go with the trade-in and pricing you've been offered. Those are your choices.
It was a long afternoon, that was for sure, but since I'd been forewarned I'd brought my patience. Alas, that wasn't the only dealing we had with him. Fast-forward about six weeks. The phone rings; it's him. He's having trouble with his sax. Sir, you have a warranty on this instrument; your best bet is to bring it in. He didn't want to for whatever reason, so I then spent the majority of a 26-minute phone call attempting to troubleshoot the issues over the phone. I ended up motioning for my coworker to grab me a sax off the wall so I could see what was going on, as he was having trouble with the octave key, and I'm not that knowledgeable about saxes that I could picture everything that was going on. Basically, some notes were coming out correctly and some weren't. Okay, well, if your sax isn't here, we can't tell if it's the sax, or if it's you. He then tried to tell me that he'd been playing sax for three months, as if that somehow conveyed professional status. At one point he played something for me, over the phone, and asked how he sounded. I went, you sound like a beginner saxophone player. …Because that's what you are. He seemed insulted by that. Sir, I'm a judge for elementary and middle school solo contests. I hear a lot of players. You sound just like any kid in their first year of playing. It takes several years to gain any sort of proficiency on an instrument, even if you're practicing every day--especially given that this man is not taking any sort of lessons.
In fact, I mentioned private lessons to him. I'm pretty sure that got mentioned the first time he'd come in. And, I think he relented and gave the okay to pass along his contact information to our general woodwind teacher, who then met with him over Zoom, and then came to the store in person, to see if he could figure out what was wrong with the sax. That may have been how the sax finally appeared in the repair shop, because the teacher couldn't troubleshoot it online, and even in person said, you know, you have a warranty, just let the store take a look at it. I'm pretty sure what happened was that the guy didn't know how to handle the sax and some things got minorly bent or were otherwise out of adjustment. I think the guy then thought he had a lemon. No…honestly, it's what the other store said, he doesn't know what he's doing. But it's not like I could tell him that.
I strongly pushed my tech to get the sax done and out of the way so we could get this guy out of our hair. We did, but not fast enough; the guy called to ask if it was done. Sir, you brought it in on a Saturday, when the repair shop is closed; Sunday, the entire store is closed and nobody works; and on Monday, he's got to figure out what's going on and then take the time to fix your instrument before you can take it home. My word. But he was able to pick it up that afternoon, and he played on it, and it seemed okay to him. And, again, to my ears, he sounded like a beginner sax player.
The kicker is that, simultaneously, we had a college-age player who was looking to buy a sax, I think a tenor, and he'd come in that Saturday and then again that Monday to try out saxes. He walked in the door right when the older guy was leaving. Let me tell you, the college student's playing was leaps and bounds over the old guy. This is what probably 10 years of practicing will get you. I nearly ran after the old guy so he could listen, but I decided I was perfectly glad to get him out of my hair.
Our story starts at the beginning of the year. I have a late-start day, and on that particular day, I walked in and my boss said, I'm going to lunch; if *this person* comes in and asks for me, tell him I died. …Oh? What the heck happened? Apparently the man was so annoying over the phone that my boss simply could not deal with him any longer. Perhaps he amended it to "tell him I quit," though since his name's on the business, that might be hard to convince the man of that.
Eventually he came in that day. The story goes that the man's son had played saxophone back in the day, and the dad found it and decided he wanted to start playing it. He had taken it elsewhere to be looked over--to a place where we know they don't have a wind instrument repair shop; they focus more on rock band equipment--and it still didn't play for him. The shop told him, it's because you don't know how to play. This could very well be true, but at the least someone should have played it for him. (From what I know about the shop--and we're friendly with this shop, don't get me wrong--they likely didn't have anyone there who *could* play it for the man.)
What the man had talked to my boss about was us checking over the sax. The man didn't want to leave it, so my boss had arranged for my tech to stop what he was doing and look it over quickly. The tech was not to talk to the man but mostly pick it up and drop it back off, that sort of thing. The verdict: While the man may have put $100 into sax repairs at the other store, his sax still had leaks and old pads and we probably recommended at least a general checkover, if not a full repad. The other thing that had been discussed was the man possibly trading in his sax for one of our used saxes, and we had a couple for him to try out. Eventually, he did end up trading in his sax; he attempted to haggle, but no. I'm no haggler. You can either take your sax back, or go with the trade-in and pricing you've been offered. Those are your choices.
It was a long afternoon, that was for sure, but since I'd been forewarned I'd brought my patience. Alas, that wasn't the only dealing we had with him. Fast-forward about six weeks. The phone rings; it's him. He's having trouble with his sax. Sir, you have a warranty on this instrument; your best bet is to bring it in. He didn't want to for whatever reason, so I then spent the majority of a 26-minute phone call attempting to troubleshoot the issues over the phone. I ended up motioning for my coworker to grab me a sax off the wall so I could see what was going on, as he was having trouble with the octave key, and I'm not that knowledgeable about saxes that I could picture everything that was going on. Basically, some notes were coming out correctly and some weren't. Okay, well, if your sax isn't here, we can't tell if it's the sax, or if it's you. He then tried to tell me that he'd been playing sax for three months, as if that somehow conveyed professional status. At one point he played something for me, over the phone, and asked how he sounded. I went, you sound like a beginner saxophone player. …Because that's what you are. He seemed insulted by that. Sir, I'm a judge for elementary and middle school solo contests. I hear a lot of players. You sound just like any kid in their first year of playing. It takes several years to gain any sort of proficiency on an instrument, even if you're practicing every day--especially given that this man is not taking any sort of lessons.
In fact, I mentioned private lessons to him. I'm pretty sure that got mentioned the first time he'd come in. And, I think he relented and gave the okay to pass along his contact information to our general woodwind teacher, who then met with him over Zoom, and then came to the store in person, to see if he could figure out what was wrong with the sax. That may have been how the sax finally appeared in the repair shop, because the teacher couldn't troubleshoot it online, and even in person said, you know, you have a warranty, just let the store take a look at it. I'm pretty sure what happened was that the guy didn't know how to handle the sax and some things got minorly bent or were otherwise out of adjustment. I think the guy then thought he had a lemon. No…honestly, it's what the other store said, he doesn't know what he's doing. But it's not like I could tell him that.
I strongly pushed my tech to get the sax done and out of the way so we could get this guy out of our hair. We did, but not fast enough; the guy called to ask if it was done. Sir, you brought it in on a Saturday, when the repair shop is closed; Sunday, the entire store is closed and nobody works; and on Monday, he's got to figure out what's going on and then take the time to fix your instrument before you can take it home. My word. But he was able to pick it up that afternoon, and he played on it, and it seemed okay to him. And, again, to my ears, he sounded like a beginner sax player.
The kicker is that, simultaneously, we had a college-age player who was looking to buy a sax, I think a tenor, and he'd come in that Saturday and then again that Monday to try out saxes. He walked in the door right when the older guy was leaving. Let me tell you, the college student's playing was leaps and bounds over the old guy. This is what probably 10 years of practicing will get you. I nearly ran after the old guy so he could listen, but I decided I was perfectly glad to get him out of my hair.