Re:BUILDING
Notice Of a Common Scam in the Violin and String Teaching Industry
July 10, 2004
Published by Martin Hackl, Oak Park,
Illinois
Parents of young violin and music students beware! I know this is still a very common practice, as it has been throughout my own teaching career, and musical music life for over 40 years. I still experience it regularly, and am pissed off!
I'm talking about violin dealer kickbacks to string teachers.
Not only is there an entire industry set up and in place to rip you off, very many string teachers are involved. No matter what community you live in, many string teachers and instrument dealers accept the kickback system as acceptable practice, and have never even considered the ethics of it, having themselves grown up surrounded by the system.
Here is an article regarding this practice:
http://www.fritz-reuter.com/commentary/strings_frame1.htm
Another scam is this: Teachers who sell student-size instruments to their own students directly. Many of the larger "studios" or music "academies" acquire students at young ages by offering, first "Suzuki", and then other gradually advancing programs, designed to keep students within the studios throughout their childhood.
Then as the students grow up and advance, they buy progressively larger instruments through the "studio" Then when the student outgrows an instrument, they sell back the instrument to the "studio" at a very depreciated price. The "studio" then resells the same instrument back to yet another up-coming student at the full original price, thereby recycling the same instruments over and over, and making substantial profits. Although "recycling" is good, ripping of parents is not!
In this way, many studios can make more money in their unofficial business of selling instruments (or getting kickbacks), than in teaching lessons.
I know this message will reach many of my musical colleagues who are involved in this practice. My message to you is this:
Parents are paying you money and putting you in an enormous position of trust with their young children. There is nothing more valued than a child, and you are taking on an enormous responsibility when you accept a student.
By deceiving parents and students in this way you are violating that trust and are committing unethical behavior.
I regularly audition students who come to me for advanced violin lessons, who are poorly taught and prepared by incompetent instructors, who have clung to these students for several years - not to instruct them, but to profit from them.
I recently auditioned a young student whose parents were talked into buying their "exceptionally gifted" 16 year old child a $15,000 violin from a major Chicago area dealer. The violin was really worth only about $1000. And, the student may have indeed been gifted, but we'll never know because she was never given the opportunity by her incompetent teacher to nurture those gifts. She gave up the violin in frustration, and now her parents have a nearly worthless "master-made" instrument that they cannot sell.
These upper-income, wealthier parents were "mined" by their teacher. The teacher may have gotten as much as a 10% kickback - that is, $1500. More than the violin was worth, and probably more than he/she made teaching the student for an entire year!
This practice is disgusting, and completely unethical.
- If you are a string teacher who practices this deception, and are not aware that it is wrong, I hope you open your eyes.
- If you are are a string teacher who does not participate in this scam, but have been, or are now aware that this practice goes on, please speak out against it, and educate your students and their parents.
- If you are the parent of a young string student, and wanting to buy a violin, viola, cello or bass, educate yourself and be aware that this practice goes on, and that is is WRONG, UNETHICAL, and in the view of some, ILLEGAL.
- If you are a teacher who knowingly participates in this scam, shame on you!
- It IS the responsibility of a string teacher to assist students' in acquiring instruments. However the goal is to do it in the students' best interest and not that of the teacher.
- It IS ethical for a teacher to recommend certain string instrument dealers to their students, and help them choose a suitable instrument, based on the teachers experience, to get the best value for the STUDENT.
- It IS ethical for a teacher to charge a student for time spent helping them search for a suitable instrument, provided that charge is aboveboard and the student/parents are aware they are paying a fee for your service.
- It IS ethical to charge whatever fees for whatever services you perform for a student, as long as it is legal, and the student/parents know they are being charged.
As far as I can tell, even the American String Teachers Association does not publish a "code of ethics", let alone weigh in on this particular issue. That's too bad.
Here is a weblog on the subject: http://www.stringsmagazine.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000009.html
Other Violin selling scams:
http://www.provide.net/~violins/integrity.htm
I will log any e-mail comments or feedback on this page.
| 7/15/04 | Violin maker and restorer, Fritz Reuter says this in his response: "Dear Marty...Your only mistake is the amount you give as the percentage of the kickback. Commercially mass-produced instruments, which have a recognized brand name, like Roth, Knilling, etc. are good for at least a 10% kick-back. Older or otherwise lesser known instruments ran the gamut of up to 50% of the NET profit, since most buyers cannot distinguish one violin from the other, nor does the teacher." |
Copyright © 2004 Martin Hackl