Salesman of the year award and a small rant...
From
MS/NBC comes this story of stunning salesmanship.
Stunningly poor and unethical...
Music store sells 11 organs to sick woman
Manager charged with exploiting Alzheimer’s patient
A music store manager was charged Thursday with exploiting a woman with Alzheimer’s disease who authorities say bought 11 organs from him over 18 months — including four on a single day.
Scott L. Heyder, 36, sold the 79-year-old a progressively more expensive string of the instruments beginning in 2003 — even after her family pleaded with him to stop, Pasco County sheriff’s detectives said Thursday.
Heyder was charged with felony exploitation of the elderly and was held on $10,000 bail at the Pasco County Jail.
The woman spent about $25,000 on organs and ended up with one worth only about half that, said sheriff’s spokesman Kevin Doll. He said she has not received any money back from the music store, Fletcher Music Center at Gulfview Square Mall.
"I think it’s unconscionable, especially after the family confronted this salesperson and said, 'Our mother has mental failings due to Alzheimer’s, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,'" Doll said.
A special place in hell for that one... I am of the firm opinion that the retail piano and organ stores are worse, far far worse than used car dealerships.
I play keyboards and have been in some of these places and the high-pressure salesmanship for something that is basically a nice bit of furniture with minimal electronics is amazing. They are charging several thousand dollars for junk and the person wanting a good piano or organ need only go to a Professional Musicians store and find something of a lot higher quality for thousand's less. It wouldn't have the nice cabinetry but the overall workmanship and sound quality would be much higher. If the cabinet was all that important, they could use the extra money they saved and have a professional cabinetmaker build something custom.
The Piano and Organ store organs are commonly known as Granny Organs and something that cost several thousand new has to be given away or sold (if they are lucky) for a hundred or two. They are of no value.
The mechanical pianos aren't much better -- on the cheaper units, the tuning pin blocks are not thick enough to hold a tune over time, the action is generally cheap and gets sloppy in about a year and this cannot be adjusted out, you have to replace the action for those keys.
If you want a keyboard and are OK with digital, check out a professional music store, not a piano and organ store. Most music stores will have a rental department and will credit the rental fee against future purchases if you want to try it at home.
Taking a look at
Fletcher Music Center's website, you can see that they are firmly in the Granny Organ camp.
Lowery Organs only -- no Yamaha, Kurzweil (my personal favorite), Roland -- none of the big pro-music names, just Lowery. And of course, the dead give-away, no prices listed anywhere. Compare this with
Musician's Friend.
Posted by DaveH at May 27, 2005 12:22 AM