FORD PIANO

Ford Piano Company rip off. In 2018, I had my piano rebuilt by the Ford Piano Co. in Peekskill NY. I unfortunately entrusted my 1901 Steinway Model O Grand piano to them. Work that was supposed to take three months took six months, from mid April 2018 - mid October 2018. The owner John Ford seemed nice and pretended to be so knowledgeable. He bragged that his family was three generations rebuilding pianos and could restore my Steinway exactly the way I wanted it done, which was with very light & easy action of the keys. Ford installed new strings & pinblocks, glued the soundboard where it was cracked in several places, but didn't use clamps and three months later it's already beginning to reopen. After he "fixed" the pedals, they made a loud noise when pressed down. He also gave me new Abel hammers, and did some other minor work but didn't change any other parts. My main complaint is that he did not repair the heavy action of the keys. For the action part of the rebuild, I paid him $6500. I asked him many times before giving him the job if he could make the action very easy. I told him it was a priority for me and he should do whatever needed to be done to accomplish that. I'm a classical pianist, not a technician so I relied on his judgement. He said he was very experienced at doing this and would make the keys very light and easy to play. Just leave it to him. Six months later, when they brought my piano back, I immediately played it and the action was still heavy. I called him many times to complain and he said he would send his son to pick it up and do the repairs, but he never did. I even offered to pay a mover to take the action parts to him, but he insisted that he only wanted his son to do this & I had to wait until his son visited a friend in NYC {where I live}. I called him one final time in December 2018, and he wasn't so nice anymore. In February 2019, after much searching, a former Steinway piano technician was recommended to me. He told me that the Abel hammers were incorrect for my piano, and that Ford had only sprayed WD-40 oil on the top of the shanks. I saw this. The oil dried up and the action kept getting worse. $6500. for Abel hammers & WD-40 oil! The former Steinway action specialist has now installed new NY Steinway hammers, new Renner shanks & wipens, touch weighted the keys, and done much more regulation, tuning & voicing. He also recommended a former Steinway damper specialist who repaired the damper mechanism, installed new sockets, rebushed the damper guide rail, replaced damper felts, released tension on the damper springs, installed adjustable pedal rods, modernized the dowel system, and fixed all three pedals - things that Ford should have known to do. Did Ford rip me off or is he incompetent? His work and manner speak for themselves. I paid John Ford $13,700. dollars in total, and his way to fix the action on a 118 year old piano was to change the hammers and spray WD-40 oil on the top of the shanks! Re-rebuilding my piano after Ford's bad non-work has cost me thousands of dollars more and both technicians couldn't understand why Ford didn't change the old parts since he was paid so much. These two very skilled former Steinway technicians did the job that should have been done by in the first place.

Mr. Ford does beautiful work. The piano sounded wonderful when he finished.

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I spoke with John Ford many times and he was always patient and explained things to my satisfaction. Ford Piano was selected for this restoration work because of proximity to where the piano had to be picked up from (Dutchess county) and his ability to deliver it to Brooklyn. I felt that the job was performed in a professional and caring manner.

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Very professional, very easy. I am very happy.

I called up, asked about the price, and set up an appointment. About ten minutes before he was supposed to arrive. He told me that he was delayed. He called up a second time and gave me a firm arrival time. He arrived at that time (about an hour after the original appointment). He got right to work and did a careful, thorough job.

They were great. They are a little on the expensive side, but they were very good. They came on time and did a great job.

They did a great job. I was happy with their work.

Their technician was excellent and did a fine job with a tough piano to tune. I plan to give call them them to do my own home piano as well in the future. Also, I had first called them over a month ago to tune an older (100 years) baby grand piano that had been manufactured in Germany and moved to the US. This was also done very well for a lady who attends our church and the feedback I received from her was very good. She was quite pleased with their work even though her piano was in far worse shape than the church.

He was able to schedule an appointment for the same day, which was great. Brent came on time, tuned the instrument very well, performed a variety of minor repairs without charging extra, and was extremely knowledgeable about the Steinway. Very satisfactory.

Sounds good. Punctual appointment.

unknown

We have always found this company to show up when expected and do a great job. They are expert at what they do!

MY PIANO SOUNDED AS GOOD AS NEW AND PLAYED BETTER THAN IT EVER DID. NOW IT SOUNDS LIKE I HAVE A PROFESSIONAL PIANO PLAYER AT MY HOUSE. EVERYONE LOVES IT.