[CAUT] boston comments - guilt

[Porritt, David]

Jeannie:

I'm sorry you're having trouble with the dealer with this job.  I guess it would depend on what terms you were given in the assignment.  The "full in-home concert prep to the customer's satisfaction" statement implies that you should be there not for 4 hours, but until the customer is satisfied.  The dealer left the time option to the customer.  They can pay you for that or admit that what they wrote on the sales contract was just "salesman rhetoric".

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Jeannie Grassi
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:55 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] boston comments - guilt

David, and everyone else,
I find this thread extremely timely since I just completed "full in-home
concert prep to the customer's satisfaction" on a Boston 193. (The words in
quotes were what was written on the sales agreement.)  The piano had just
been uncrated with only a quick pitch put on it the day it arrived in the
store.  It was sent to the client within a couple of days after that.  This
was a discerning musician with specific tastes and requests and to make the
sale, the dealer promised her the world.  

So I gave her all that she was promised, or at least what I understood she
was promised. (Therein laid my mistake.) And my client was thrilled when I
was done.  However, I found the action needed a great deal of work and spent
an easy 12 hours on it, pitch correction and fine tuning included.  It is a
nice piano, but not all of them come out of the box needing only a little
tweaking. 

The unfortunate part is that the dealer only wants to pay me for 4 hours of
labor justifying it by saying "most technicians don't need to spend more
than that."  Interestingly, David Kirkland told me, depending on the
variables, one might expect to anywhere from 6 to 18 hours.  This is way
more in keeping with my past experiences. 

So, while I also could have spent a minimum amount of time there is the
occasion when more is just enough.

Jeannie Grassi, RPT
Bainbridge Island, WA

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David
Skolnik
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:30 AM
To: Jeff Tanner; caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] boston comments - guilt

Jeff
Embrace the guilt.  Own the guilt.  Or work through the math to 
figure out the appropriate rate of each component of a tuning service 
call: overhead, scheduling, travel, personal interaction, labor 
(time).  If you could fit it in on your way to another appointment 
and you felt motivated to make such an adjustment, you could assuage 
your guilt without costing yourself.  Otherwise, you should feel 
guilty for pandering to your feelings of guilt.  Now you got a real problem.

David Skolnik
Hastings on Hudson, NY


At 01:06 PM 11/17/2009, you wrote:
>  I did install a D/C dehumidifier system 3 years ago, but it didn't 
> move much before that either. I've always felt a little guilty 
> charging him full price for tuning his piano.
>
>Jeff