Hi, Dennis -- Sorry to hear about your situation. It sounds as if you were called by a customer who was hard to satisfy and didn't like paying his bills. There were some tip-offs -- history of difficulties between customer and dealer was one, and the customer not being there to let you in was the second. Implications: he was an argumentative person from the get-go, and he didn't want to take the trouble to be responsive to you even by letting you into the house himself. So it doesn't surprise me that the customer didn't pay you. You may not have been the only person in his life that he has balked at paying. At this point, because of similar experiences, I only take new customers if they will be in the house themselves at the first visit; we go over the work to be done and the cost at that point. And there have been customers in my life who have never paid me -- they were too disturbed to follow through, and trying to chase them down dis-spirited me too much. Sometimes I just have to cut my losses, when doing that is cost-effective. I would not go back to the customer you describe. Life is too short. Move on. It's unfortunate that the dealer became a player here. (That's why I changed the subject line.) You had no arrangement with him, and I don't think he should have been obligated to pay you. His getting involved was a result of arm-twisting by the customer, and you became a factor in his quarrel. Bad feelings all around. If I were in a mood to be a purist, I probably would have sent back the dealer's check, because taking it muddied the waters. The customer is the person who owes you. Let him fight with the dealer all he wants, but he needs to pay you. I have no idea what this has to do with CAUT -- I can't find a tie-in. Sorry about that. Best wishes, Dorrie Bell Bell's Piano Service Boston, MA ----- Original Message ----- From: Dennis Johnson To: caut at ptg.org Sent: 11/25/2009 1:02:39 PM Subject: Re: [CAUT] Jeanie's brain storm - was Boston changed to dealers... Hi- So since we've taken it this far, I have a question. This is a real problem which has happened to me, and fairly recently. I am called to tune and check and service, as feasible, a piano I have not known from a new customer who is referred by older customers. The piano is from eastern europe and probably about 5 years old. They are very unhappy with it to say the least and have been through the dealers service enough times to be looking elsewhere. I arrive, the customer is not even there but arranges for someone to have let me in. Via phone, I confirm lots of regulation, voicing and tuning needs, but only have about 3 hrs max to offer with this visit. I explain very clearly that I am not a representative from the dealer and do not have any prior association with that particular dealer, and, nothing personal, but I'm not here to start such a relationship with that dealer either. I could greatly improve this piano, but this is between you -the customer- and me. As I see it, my rate was most reasonable anyway, but the point is the customer should be able make that choice. I was not interested in going though or working for that particular dealer. Just how it is. Customer approved this arrangement and I got to work and left my invoice. A few weeks later I wasn't paid yet, so made a call. Turns out the customer changed his mind and decided that indeed the dealer should pay anyway so he made an issue. You can imagine what happens next. In the end the dealer paid, but wasn't very happy and I feel betrayed by the customer. I don't know if I'll go back there or not. There is no other product I can think of in any market where customers seem to have so much flexibility about service. Take your car anywhere you want, but if the dealer is going to pay for it under warranty you need to talk to them. Can we not trust an independent agreement with the piano owner for service on a piano less than 10 years old? Any suggestions.......? cheers, Dennis Johnson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20091125/c3089b08/attachment.htm>
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