MMDer suffers "destroyed" Duo-Art for Christmas

Dear MMDers:  Please help me gain some perspective on a recent tragedy.
(Okay, tragedy is a little strong, but let me explain.)  Today's story
has several components, which should provide for some good discussion.

I contracted in May to obtain, from a reputable piano tech, a restored
1934 Steck Duo-Art 6 foot grand.  I am located in Atlanta, the piano
and piano tech are some 6 hours away.  The piano tech owned the piano
in an unrestored condition, and agreed to restore it completely for a
certain price.  Half of the money was paid down, the other half to be
paid upon delivery.

The piano was initially to be delivered "sometime in November".  We
then arrived at a firm date of November 21.  A few days before Nov. 21,
he called to tell me that he couldn't deliver, because he said the
valves weren't operating correctly, and because the piano action was
likewise not working to his satisfaction.

A week or so passed, and I was informed that the valve issue had been
resolved (there has been a misplacement of a paper gasket?  on top
instead of underneath?), but that the whippens would need to be rebuilt
on the piano action to make things run properly (rebuilding the
whippens was something he had not originally contracted to do -- but he
agreed to the extra work to "keep the customer happy").

Another week passed -- I was told everything was coming along fine, but
that the whippens were taking longer than he had hoped to rebuild.  He
was re-felting and re-leathering these.

Another week passed -- I was told delivery would occur today,
12/21/1998.

This morning I received a phone call from the piano tech, and he seemed
to be genuinely in tears (or on the verge thereof) -- he stated that
the piano had fallen off the ramp as they were trying to load it onto
the truck, breaking the leg of one of his employees, and, basically,
destroying the player action of the piano (he said it landed in such a
way as to damage the bottom -- he was too shaken up to provide details,
except to say that "pneumatics were everywhere").

He said that the case was _not_ very damaged.  He stated that he has
_only_ dropped pianos two other times in his career (one MMDer who
consoled me a bit today pointed out that most techs he knows who dropped
a piano learned a valuable lesson the first time, and never repeated!).

He has offered to refund my money OR find another, better piano, and
restore that for the same price.  He are my questions:

(1)  Should I take the money and get out immediately?  Are there enough
scary/suspicious aspects of this story to throw up red flags?  I mean,
what kind of person drops a priceless antique?  I understand accidents
happen, but I sure wouldn't want it to happen to something I'd been
working on for 6 months!  Am I a rube, or just the victim of bad luck?
 *Can I trust a guy who would drop a reproducing grand off a truck?*

I hate to be too suspicious, and the fellow has never given me one
single reason to believe he's dishonest, but in my more irrational
moments I worry that he never did ANY of the work, and is making all
this up, or that he did the work so well that someone walked into his
shop and offered to buy it for more than I was going to pay (N.B. --
this is not likely -- I was to pay market price for the fully restored
piano.  Stated another way, I'd be lucky to be able to flip it for what
I paid, given the moribund state of the reproducing player piano
market).

On the other hand, and although truthfulness is hardly a national trait
these days, I find it inconceivable that this guy would call me in
tears, tell me a detailed story about his employee's leg getting
broken, etc.  Up to today, I really had no suspicions about his honesty
at all.

(2)  Suppose I take him up on his offer to find a better piano (in
fact, he mentioned "Steinway") -- I know the Steck is not the top of
the Aeolian line, but I DID like that it was a late-model Duo-Art,
which would have a crash pneumatic for the highest intensity.  When I
told him that I liked the idea of the better-engineered late-model
Duo-Art, he stated that Steinways were typically put in Duo-Arts only
subsequent to 1925.

The questions for part (2):

(a)  How important should it be to me to get the later model Duo-Art
mechanism (and, more specifically, what are the relative advantages of
the later model mechanisms vs. earlier Duo-Art mechanisms); and

(b)  Is it true that Duo-Arts were only placed in Steinways subsequent
to 1925?

(c)  If the answer to (b) is "yes", does post-1925 get us into the
"late" Duo-Art mode such that it has the advantages?

I know this is piano is not so late that it has the controls all in the
spool box.

(3)  He has said that the player mechanism appears "unrepairable".
This also makes me suspicious, because it's composed of wood,
rubberized cloth and other equally available materials.  I understand
that parts fabrication is not for everyone, but I assume _someone_ could
put Humpty back together, yes?  (I'm disturbed about the idea of
another historical instrument being lost to the world.)

(4)  Let's assume that the stack, including pneumatics, is fairly
trashed, but that other aspects are in okay shape.  Could an earlier
model Duo-Art pneumatic stack be placed in it?  What would be lost in
capabilities vis a vis a later model mechanism?

Sorry to drone on, but this is somewhat cathartic.  Any input on ANY of
the numerous facts and issues raised above would be appreciated.

Mourning in Atlanta,

Tim Baxter

P.S. Happy Holidays to Robbie, Jody and all subscribers!