AAAPIANOS.COM

Before buying a used piano from a friend, I called a couple of professional piano movers and/or piano tuners to get a "worst case" cost estimate for moving and tuning the piano. The price estimates were all similar as were the descriptions of what we could expect if the piano was badly in need of tuning. I was told by all the experts that the cost to tune it to "itself" is less than to tune it to standard pitch, A=440, because tuning it to standard pitch would take longer (1.5 to 2.5 hours per visit) and most likely take 2 tuning visits a week to a month apart. Tom Phillips with AAA Pianos seemed friendly and knowledgeable on the phone, and agreed to do the moving and the 2 tunings to get the piano to standard pitch for $450, so we chose him for the job. He was an hour late getting to the piano pick up location, but that is not the cause of my bad review. When he got the piano to our house, he said it was way out of tune and after about an hour of working on it, he told us he was doing both tunings in one sitting. That didn't make sense to me because, being a guitarist, I know that you tune something until its tuned: and besides- the whole point of doing 2 tunings is that the piano will be stretched in the first tuning and will go out of tune in a week to a month. I questioned Tom and he insisted that it was quite normal, and said he would come back in a month for just $95. Since I never had a piano before, and he was the expert with "30 years experience', " I thought "he must be really good to tune the piano twice in only an hour and a half.". Like a dummy, and because we were running late for an engagement I offered the full payment without checking the piano to a tuning device. I didn't think he would be dishonest because we planned to be regular customers. Tom Phillips asked if we could give him cash so he could pay his moving helper and we agreed but didn't have any cash on us so he went to the bank which was on his way, with my husband Will. We paid him $200 in cash and $250 by check which he deposited immediately in his account. When Will came back he played a few notes and saw that the top notes of the piano were out of tune by at least a half to a whole step. I called Tom immediately and he said he could come back next week for $95. I disputed that saying we had already paid for 2 tunings and didn't even get it tuned once. After several texts and a couple of conversations and disagreements Tom agreed to come back on Tuesday (today). I cleared my schedule to be home, texted and called him to find out what time, and have not heard a word since. My husband also called him today, but he's not taking our calls. I'm pretty sure that he only said that he was coming in order to keep placated while our check had time to clear, and I'm afraid that we have been scammed. Now we are $450 poorer with an out of tune piano. Update..In response to the "stalemate" status of our review/complaint, and the reply from AAA Pianos (below), I would like to add, that yes we are guitar players, and to answer the question posed in the piano tuner's response (below) of how many tunings does it take to tune a guitar that has been out of tune for a long time- one. You tune it until it is in tune. It may take longer than usual, and you may have to tune it again in a few days. And that is what we expected from him. He said he would tune it once and then come back and tune it again in a week to a month and that is what we paid for, and did not receive. There are much more qualified and honest piano tuners out there (we found one on Angie's list). I highly recommend that consumers pass AAA Pianos up, and find someone else more qualified.

As a present, my in-laws gave us their piano. Tom was very nice and offered to tune the piano. Apparently it was more than 20% off because he had to tune it twice in a row, which was a bit more than we expected. He worked quickly and was pleasant to work with. The piano sounds great now.