I speak from my own experience, as well as of others that I know.
Many, if not most, piano tuners, when they come across a player piano,
have a decision to make.  That decision is based on this.

If a string needs replacing or the action needs regulating or any
other repair is needed where it would become necessary to disturb
any part of the player action, am I in a position to take on this
added responsibility?  In more than one instance, a tuner has found
him/herself in small claims court because of what was probably a
misunderstanding about the work to be done, as well as what the true
condition of the instrument was before the tuner did anything to it.

Most of the player pianos that tuners come across in this area are
not in the best condition.  If they play at all, will disturbing the
player action to get to the piano action cause it to not play as
excellently as the owners memory thinks it did?

If the tuner is not a qualified player piano action technician, it's
very possible that he/she might inadvertently do something that could
adversely affect the way the player works afterwards.

Before I became a piano technician myself in 1967-8, thanks to Mr.
William Braid White and his excellent course, I would work with piano
tuners in the area and whenever they came across a player piano, they
would call me to go with them for the sole purpose of removing and
replacing any portion of the player action that needed to be disturbed
in order for them to complete their work.  Yes, I got paid for doing
that, and they added it into their charges to the customer.

Essentially, working on a player piano is not a responsibility that
many tuner/technicians wish to take on.  There are some piano
technicians who are capable of dealing with player pianos.  It would
do well to shop around for a tuner who has that sort of experience.

I, myself was involved in a lawsuit when a doctor whose grand
reproducer accused me of causing the shellac finish of his grand
piano to become crazed.  That typically happens to older pianos over
a period of many years but he claimed that I made it do that in the
approximately three months that his piano was in my shop.  Of course,
it was that way when it was brought in but his memory told him that the
finish was perfect even though it was about thirty-five years old at
the time.

Hal Davis