Summary and Conclusion

This blog describes my experience in attempting to purchase a piano from "The Piano Store" in Houston. Documentation of the sale, ill-fated delivery, and eventual refund is on the right; the beginning of the story is in these two posts. And if you only check out one other thing, please listen to Scott Covington, the store's proprietor and the son of its owner, telling me that the piano had been sitting for a week in a hotel room in Little Rock, Arkansas -- but that he didn't know the name of the hotel and could not contact the drivers he had sent to retrieve it.

Last word from Covington was that he was just about to fax me a signed copy of his verbal commitment to replace the missing piano with a new one, and that he would have an invoice or purchase order for the replacement as soon as he heard back from Bösendorfer's Vienna headquarters.

The last word from Bösendorfer (this through a US rep) was that they are involved in some kind of dispute with Covington themselves and would be unlikely to accept any new business from him at this point.

And since I tipped my hand and published these phone recordings, I assume that the charade is officially over -- the man would have to be insane to take a phone call from me now -- and so this is my last post on the subject. I will, however, publish any rebuttal or further explanation that Mr. Covington provides.

Please do scroll down and draw your own conclusions. I have tried to be fair in my characterization of events, although I have to admit that I wasn't quite as charitable here toward Mr. Covington as I was on the since-deleted PianoWorld thread.