Has anybody bought a piano recently?

[lattim83]

I purchased a piano from who I thought was a reputable dealer and the bloodly arsehole never delivered. Asked for updates for 2 weeks and he gave me excuses saying he would call back and never did. I finally gave up and called the bank to file a scam claim. Has anybody recently purchased from a reputable dealer in the UK? Also, if my bank doesn't reimburse the hefty thousand pounds, is there anything else I can do? :( Avoid Piano King, total scam!

Small claims court?

Or there’s a radio 4 consumer show - I think it might be You and Yours - which you could contact.

Best of luck. Maybe spread the word on twitter and FB too.

Small claims court. Send a draft claim form to the email address on the website and then issue the claim if you don't get a response.

Yes, we recently bought a piano from Fair Deal Music in Birmingham. We’ve also bought from Dawson’s in Chester and Forsyths in Manchester in the past.

I hope you manage to get it sorted. We’ve bought from and sold to Countrywide Pianos in Hazlemere, Bucks and been really pleased with them.

Their website isn’t legal

If it gets sorted and you are looking for a baby grand drop me a PM. Been begging people to take my Carl Hertel away, no one buys or takes them from private households anymore.

Sadly no one in my house plays any longer. It does need to be tuned, which would happen once moved anyway. I'm in the northwest.

Mine was free off gumtree, it's really good according to our tuner, 110 years old

That’s such a shame dazed. We recently bought a baby or I might have been interested.

How big is your baby Dazed and what sort of price were you thinking ?

OP I second Forsyths in Manchester in Deansgate, they are fab and have existed for decades, might be worth contacting them. We have bought instruments from them too.

Did you pay by credit card?

We bought from Birmingham Pianos about a year ago. No problems and prompt delivery.

I got a baby grand from Broughton Pianos in the midlands.

They did a great deal where I paid 10% and then they delivered. I kept the piano for 6 months to see if I liked it/it looked okay in the room etc and then I had to pay the balance.

If I had not liked it they would have taken it back and let me use the 10% deposit on an alternative piano - you do have to pay the £70 delivery though if you change your mind.

They sourced my piano for me and tracked it from Japan. Was very exciting - brilliant company!

It's a standard baby grand I'll measure it tomorrow if you want; about 120 years old. Believe the keys are ivory just FYI. Bought it from a pianist about 7 years ago.

I just want it gone! It's taking up the majority of my dining room haha!

I bought a digital piano from Normans music about a year ago. They were amazing as it was a surprise present and I needed a specific colour and it wasn't in stock at the time. Highly recommend them. www.normans.co.uk

I got one a couple of years ago from Mark Goodwin Pianos. All excellent, no problems at all.

Their website isn't secure OP.

We also got our piano from Broughton's!
They were fantastic, and we're v happy with it.

I've heard very good things about ukpianos.co.uk. I spent FAR too much time reading their comprehensive and very helpful guide to pianos (electric and 'real'). This was when I still dreamed about my 7 year old actually enjoying his lessons enough to practice and make the investment in a better piano worth it...😂

Third for Forsyth's in Manchester. Our (digital) piano came from there. My mum's a piano teacher in Manchester and she bought it for us and had it sent to us. They're happy for you to potter around and plink around on the pianos and very helpful when you're buying.

It's been a while since I was on here, dealing with a lot on my end. The bank has said they can't do anything because he emptied his account and I can't for the life of me find an address for him to file a claim in small claims court. Clearly he's a scam artist and I didn't pay attention to the signs :(

Poor you. How awful.

Thanks Ipanema :(

If anybody is planning on buying or knows someone who is planning on buying, be on the lookout for piano king (Michael Zammit). He will approach you and appears to have a legitimate company but it's a scam. Also, you all probably know this but never make the same mistake I did and use a bank transfer, if anybody asks for that it's a clear sign that its fraudulent. At the very least can learn from my mistakes I suppose.

Oh! Michael Zammit (Michael Angelo Zammit) is selling piano on Ebay again! Thanks for the post. I searched for his name and found this post! He also asked me to send money to his bank account and I became suspicious.

I entrusted Michael Zammit with my family piano to keep in 'storage'. After paying for said storage I stopped being able to get in touch with him and now I'm scared based on everyone's experience that it's gone forever. @BUTU can you please tell me his ebay user account name?

Did you ever get in touch?
He advertises on Facebook Marketplace mostly, under false aliases. Fisher Mel and Sarah Beech are two that I know of. It might help you to know that his @PennyNotSoWisedad (Harry) used to run the Music Box and his sister (Rita) runs Park Pianos in Manchester.