World's largest music company hits sour note instead of replacing pricey piano

Friday, February 18, 2022
MONROE TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (WABC) -- Piano problems had a father-son musical duo crying the blues.

More than a year after their pricey piano suffered a defect, the world's largest musical instrument manufacturer still hadn't resolved the problem.
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It was up to Nina Pineda and 7 On Your Side to up the tempo to solve the musical mess.

When Mark Rodriguez plays his Yamaha, it normally sounds sweet. But if he hits a specific combination of keys, it turns sour.

It's been a melodic mess for more than a year -- up and down the keyboard as the keys continuously stick.

Years ago, his dad, also a piano man, paid more than $6,000 for the tricked out Yamaha keyboard.



After hearing the defect, techs came out but couldn't solve the piano's problem. Luckily, the warranty kicked in.
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They said they were told they would get a new piano to help.

So more than a year ago, a replacement was on rush order. A Yamaha representative even left a voicemail saying it would probably take a week or more.



But weeks turned into months, so Andy Rodriguez composed a complaint to the BBB. Yamaha's response was a replacement would be shipped "by June 1st."

By January, the piano still had not arrived.



That meant Andy and his son, who writes songs for his alt-rock band, couldn't compose during the pandemic.
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"I couldn't use this great instrument because of its technological glitches," Mark Rodriguez said.

7 On Your Side called Yamaha who apologized for failing "to communicate as we should have and normally do," promising a new piano was on a container ship, "2 to 3 weeks away."

So we used the company's dealer directory and in just 15 minutes found a piano in Philly.

And just days later, the dealer delivered and set up the brand-new Yamaha.

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