A word to the wise:  When dealing with Schafer Bros. Piano Moving,
*get everything in writing!*  I cannot emphasize that enough.
As with every piano mover, they're great until there's a problem.

I am in the middle of a dispute with this particular moving company
and I see no possible solution at this point.  They dropped a brand
new $36,000 Baldwin Concertmaster that was being delivered from a
dealer in Oregon to San Diego.  The Concertmaster solenoid rail was
completely demolished, the pedals on the lyre were bent 2", and the
metal pedal linkage was broken in half.  The movers also did extensive
damage to the case finish.

While they were setting up the piano in the customer's house, they
had her sign a paper that said the piano was in good condition --
(her mistake).  Then they left.  When she couldn't even play a note,
she called them.  They said that the piano was like that when they
picked it up.  We were called to give an estimate and ultimately got
an approval for the work -- verbally (our mistake).

Luckily, the customer and the dealer received the same "go-ahead" from
Schafer Bros.  We had the piano shipped to the shop and, with the help
of Baldwin (who was nice enough to include the upgrades to the system),
fixed the piano.  We were assured that the check was "in the mail".

Well, now Jim Schafer says that he did not personally approve the
work order.

I have been in business for 25 years.  It is common knowledge in our
local piano community that Schafer Bros. is bad news.  They probably
had to go to cross country piano moving because they ran out of suckers
in this area.  I'll let you know the outcome of this fiasco.

Diane De Tar & Wayne Johnston
San Diego, CA

 [ Stories abound in So. California about Vern Schafer and
 [ the various Schafer piano operations...   -- Robbie