Picky about piccolos
This story starts last year and involves an acquaintance of mine. I've known her for years but not all that well, and frankly my opinion of her goes down the longer I know her, for various reasons.
She had a relative who brought us a brass instrument for repair. The relative spoke highly of the work my tech did, so now the acquaintance wanted to bring in her instrument, a piccolo, for a full repad. Here's the thing: My tech is a brass person who, due to circumstances, was forced into learning woodwinds. He does a fine job overall but he is unable to complete long repairs in a timely fashion. He needs more help in his repair shop to help him manage the load (that's a whole other issue entirely). Since our main focus is school-age children, this means that when school starts in the fall, he is extraordinarily busy. If you are an adult whose needs are not pressing, I will tell you to wait until October or, better, November, to bring in your instrument when we are out of rental season and things have calmed down.
This was told to the acquaintance. Your piccolo repair is not pressing; please wait to bring it in. She did not and insisted on bringing it in a month earlier than suggested. Guess what: It sat there. And sat, and sat. My tech also has no sense of timing and, when she would occasionally call to get updates, would tell her, oh, another couple weeks, another month, and then that timeframe would pass and she would call for another update. Come on, just get it done and out of here. Finally, probably in late February, he finished it, I play-tested it, and we called it done. The acquaintance was contacted to come pick it up.
Except, it wasn't to her standards. A few weeks had gone by before she brought it back to say she was having trouble with some notes. I took it back to the shop and played it, and yes, some of the lower stack keys were leaking with certain combinations. My tech did notice some bent rods which would not have gone out that way, which would affect the keys in question. He made some tweaks and we gave it back to her; this was done while she waited. However, metal has a memory, and the tweaks he made didn't hold. She brought it back again a few days later saying it was worse than before and requested it back in a month.
He got it done about a week and a half ago. I played it down three times. This is one thing to know about the acquaintance and me; we are in the same group and see each other weekly. She knows I play piccolo for this group. She knows how well I play. She should know that I would not let it go this last time unless I deemed it worthy. The first time I played it, I did scales upon scales and tested the note combination that seemed to be giving us the most trouble. I then let it sit for a few hours and tested it again. Still seemed fine. I let it sit overnight and then played it the next day--for an hour. I pulled out a solo book and read them down. If I came across a possible issue, I had a flute next to me to make sure it was me and my embouchure and not the instrument. Jumping from C down to F was the big issue, that and going from Db to Eb. Running through that on flute, then transferring it to piccolo, showed me that the problem was me and not the instrument. It's a matter of adjusting the embouchure to the peccadillos of the piccolo. When I called the acquaintance to let her know her piccolo was ready, I encouraged her to play-test it before leaving so we knew it was to her standards. When she'd brought it back, she told us she wanted it fixed or she wanted her money back. Well, it's fixed.
I'd called her on a Friday. She picked it up that Saturday. I was not there and she was helped by someone who doesn't know her, but he saw my note about playing the piccolo and asked her about it. According to a coworker, to whom this was relayed, she told the Saturday person that she had no faith that the repair tech could fix the problem and no, she was not going to be playing the instrument. She then left.
We found this out on Monday when I noticed the piccolo was gone. The coworker who relayed the story hadn't helped out the acquaintance but is well aware she is...persnickety. She was in and out before he really realized she was there, and it was only after she left that the Saturday helper told him what happened. My boss was really upset to hear about this. I'm not entirely surprised, truthfully, but at the same time it's really insulting that she doesn't trust my judgment on an instrument I play regularly that she plays once a year for a parade. In fact, we had rehearsal that evening and I sit behind her, and I happen to be playing a lot of piccolo at the moment. There is no way she can miss what I'm doing. I would be happy to play her instrument in rehearsal since one of my piccolos is the same model. My boss is in the same group; the acquaintance said nothing to either of us last week. It's no great loss to me, but I'm really hoping she no longer wishes to do business with us. I don't think we're able to fit her needs and she should find somewhere else. Here's the problem: I know people who work at other nearby music stores and I'm not sure I want them to have to deal with her, either.
She had a relative who brought us a brass instrument for repair. The relative spoke highly of the work my tech did, so now the acquaintance wanted to bring in her instrument, a piccolo, for a full repad. Here's the thing: My tech is a brass person who, due to circumstances, was forced into learning woodwinds. He does a fine job overall but he is unable to complete long repairs in a timely fashion. He needs more help in his repair shop to help him manage the load (that's a whole other issue entirely). Since our main focus is school-age children, this means that when school starts in the fall, he is extraordinarily busy. If you are an adult whose needs are not pressing, I will tell you to wait until October or, better, November, to bring in your instrument when we are out of rental season and things have calmed down.
This was told to the acquaintance. Your piccolo repair is not pressing; please wait to bring it in. She did not and insisted on bringing it in a month earlier than suggested. Guess what: It sat there. And sat, and sat. My tech also has no sense of timing and, when she would occasionally call to get updates, would tell her, oh, another couple weeks, another month, and then that timeframe would pass and she would call for another update. Come on, just get it done and out of here. Finally, probably in late February, he finished it, I play-tested it, and we called it done. The acquaintance was contacted to come pick it up.
Except, it wasn't to her standards. A few weeks had gone by before she brought it back to say she was having trouble with some notes. I took it back to the shop and played it, and yes, some of the lower stack keys were leaking with certain combinations. My tech did notice some bent rods which would not have gone out that way, which would affect the keys in question. He made some tweaks and we gave it back to her; this was done while she waited. However, metal has a memory, and the tweaks he made didn't hold. She brought it back again a few days later saying it was worse than before and requested it back in a month.
He got it done about a week and a half ago. I played it down three times. This is one thing to know about the acquaintance and me; we are in the same group and see each other weekly. She knows I play piccolo for this group. She knows how well I play. She should know that I would not let it go this last time unless I deemed it worthy. The first time I played it, I did scales upon scales and tested the note combination that seemed to be giving us the most trouble. I then let it sit for a few hours and tested it again. Still seemed fine. I let it sit overnight and then played it the next day--for an hour. I pulled out a solo book and read them down. If I came across a possible issue, I had a flute next to me to make sure it was me and my embouchure and not the instrument. Jumping from C down to F was the big issue, that and going from Db to Eb. Running through that on flute, then transferring it to piccolo, showed me that the problem was me and not the instrument. It's a matter of adjusting the embouchure to the peccadillos of the piccolo. When I called the acquaintance to let her know her piccolo was ready, I encouraged her to play-test it before leaving so we knew it was to her standards. When she'd brought it back, she told us she wanted it fixed or she wanted her money back. Well, it's fixed.
I'd called her on a Friday. She picked it up that Saturday. I was not there and she was helped by someone who doesn't know her, but he saw my note about playing the piccolo and asked her about it. According to a coworker, to whom this was relayed, she told the Saturday person that she had no faith that the repair tech could fix the problem and no, she was not going to be playing the instrument. She then left.
We found this out on Monday when I noticed the piccolo was gone. The coworker who relayed the story hadn't helped out the acquaintance but is well aware she is...persnickety. She was in and out before he really realized she was there, and it was only after she left that the Saturday helper told him what happened. My boss was really upset to hear about this. I'm not entirely surprised, truthfully, but at the same time it's really insulting that she doesn't trust my judgment on an instrument I play regularly that she plays once a year for a parade. In fact, we had rehearsal that evening and I sit behind her, and I happen to be playing a lot of piccolo at the moment. There is no way she can miss what I'm doing. I would be happy to play her instrument in rehearsal since one of my piccolos is the same model. My boss is in the same group; the acquaintance said nothing to either of us last week. It's no great loss to me, but I'm really hoping she no longer wishes to do business with us. I don't think we're able to fit her needs and she should find somewhere else. Here's the problem: I know people who work at other nearby music stores and I'm not sure I want them to have to deal with her, either.