Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Has anyone been waiting more than six months on their piano?

Hi all

I ordered a kawai ca99 on Jan 14th, with a promised delivery of May, this was delayed to June 14th and today my dealer said I'm now looking at late July - early August

This will mean I've waited potentially 8 months on my purchase.

Is anyone else in the same boat?

I've been pretty vocal about my grievances with the music shop but the one to blame here is Kawai.

When my dealer asked Kawai for clarification as to why I'll now be waiting 5-7 weeks longer on it they responded with a vague excuse saying "when we give an estimated delivery date it is not confirmed" essentially they have no idea why I have to wait 5-7 weeks more.

Not even got the piano yet and already I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth with this company, maybe I'll need to change my username?

Unfortunately that is a problem with a number of things we wish to purchase these days.

It is not a problem with just Kawai.

Pianos everywhere are in short supply. There are endless complaints about the many-months delay.

I have little patience, so I simply refuse to buy a piano. Time will heal this shortage. Until then I'm taking up other activities. The new piano will likely wait until 2022.

Several of us who ordered Kawai dp's (perhaps the ES920 specifically?) in late 2020 have just now received them. And as pointed out by others, it's kind of an across-the-board problem - and patience is, ultimately, rewarded!

I am aware all pianos are delayed right now, however Kawai doesn't have the decency to come clean about why it is being delayed for a third time.

Supposedly the piano is already built so it can't be a microchip shortage issue.

It was meant to land in England yesterday and now for whatever reason it isn't

I got my ES920 last week after waiting for 3 months. The Raleigh NC dealer had 3 come in. They got 3 ES520 about 2 weeks before.

How do you know these things are true? ...If a salesman told you those things ... hmmmmm ...

Yes unfortunately I only have his word to go on considering Kawai do not contact me directly.
He said he's taken delivery of backlogs of pianos every week, so no reason mine should not be there soon enough.
He showed me correspondence with a Kawai representative where they are basically telling him delay can be because of issues at the port or delays in production.

This is a very general copy/paste statement and doesn't pertain to my purchase specifically.

I would have appreciated something tangible such as "sorry the piano is held up in customs and won't be released for two weeks".

Kawai should know the exact problem!!!!

In short ... we have become spoiled by the likes of Amazon and other speedy online retailers.Amazon has nearly everything in stock. Available for quick shipment. Delivery in a day or two. Constant status updates on your phone.

Most retailers cannot match that. There's nothing to be done about it.

Don't be shocked to be told "it looks like late Sept-early Oct" when July gets here. I don't think Kawai has a good grip on forecasting its supply chain.

It might not be supply chain. It could be distribution logistics.

Wow, I didn't know there was such a shortage. I did a quick check on the Thomann, only one of the Kawai digitals is available, all the other have long delivery times. For Yamaha it's even worse, basicalle the whole Arius and Clavinova line has "delivery date unknown".

When I bought mine 2,5 years ago my local piano store had every digital they had on display (basically the the whole lineup by Kawai & Yamaha) in stock and could deliver them within the same week.

I bought mine on Saturday and on Monday it was delivered. I knew there was a chip shortage, but that's really extreme.

The dealer said that he's taken delivery of a lot of backorder pianos ordered before mine each week.

Hello,

I just saw the lunchtime BBC News and even bike shops in the UK are struggling to get bicycles delivered from manufacturers to meet the customer demand...

We'll probably have to accept some recovery time after (that is, *if* we can already speak of 'after') the pandemic to have supply chains relax more and have our high-strung (a pun might be intended here) expectations met.

On another note, maybe we could count our blessings a bit more. For one thing, I'm rather happy to (probably) not be a part of the humongous Covid-19 death toll, nor is anybody of my family and friends (knock on wood).

Great luck wished to everyone waiting for their pianos to arrive, and joy for the moment they do.

Cheers and happy anticipation,

HZ

2020 and 2021 saw an unprecedented surge in demand.

And manufacturing, shipping, and distribution have all been clogged.

And not just digital pianos. And I have had similarly vague delivery promises on some items, even directly from the company sales rep.

In february in Montreal the delay for Yamaha and Rolland was 6 to 8 months

Lucky for me as it left Kawai and I got a beautiful CA79

Went back 2 weeks later and the store where I got the Kawai was out of stock. The new stock come in in May.

So its across he board. its Covid and its everything that has a production line.

I just purchased an ES520 and know I'm now on a back-order list. Does anyone feel it is getting better or worse with wait times on deliveries? Anyone have a positive outlook story?

thanks

Unfortunately, nothing positive to add just more of the same. My Kawai VPC1 was ordered in March, and now the timeline was pushed to August. I've called some other vendors and mostly same boat, so I'm going to stick this out.

Like HZpiano said, I actually ran into a new bike purchase problem for my daughter in the spring. Bike shops had no bikes and orders for new bikes was forecasted 2-3 months out.

For me, there is nothing inherently wrong with my current controller, Sl880 Pro. Just that it's pushing 20 years old on me, and the amount of playing I did during the pandemic, really made me take stock of how much I enjoy playing and wanting better action.

Patience for us all I suppose.

So, after about half a year of waiting, the time has come. The NV5S will be delivered today. I am very curious to see how this story will continue. Technical issues, or even problems? Or maybe I'll just be lucky and everything will be fine and stay that way. We will see....

Maybe it's time to ask for some financial compensation in return for the excessive delay... maybe £50 off for every month overdue...? Or else you'll cancel the order and shop elsewhere.
Or maybe they can arrange an alternative loaner piano for the meanwhile until yours turns up, if you're literally waiting without any instrument to play for 8 months! That's harsh.

In UK, Bonners have got the Kawai CA99 in stock in white, but not black - which is doubtless the more popular choice.

https://www.bonnersmusic.co.uk/coll...3JhULRGk2zn7eXs4Cx3QIBUtiIBoCGEsQAvD_BwE