"On a Wim"

[Cedar Mill Piano Tuning]

On Wed, 13 Nov 1996 22:50:28 -0500, Wimblees@aol.com wrote:

(previous post deleted)

>Don't misinterpret my comments as saying you shouldn't be compensated
>properly for the amount of work you do. If you take an hour to tune a
>"normal" piano, and 2 hours to tune a birdcage, then by all means, charge
>twice as much. If it takes you 3 times longer to regulate the dampers, and
>spend another couple of  hours making new action parts, you have the right to
>be compensated for that time, and the materials. But where do you draw the
>line between what you consider "difficult" work, and "easy" work. Do you
>charge more to tune a  9' grand than you do a console, even if it takes you
>just as long? On the same piano, do you charge a different rate to regulate
>the dampers, and another rate to adjust lost motion, just because one is more
>difficult to do than the other?
>
>Vivian Brooks gives a class on how to figure how much to charge just to pay
>for your overhead. I teach a class that goes one step further and figures out
>how much to charge for your work in order for you to make a comfortable
>living. What it comes down to is that if we offer a service to our customers,
>and we charge them a fee based on the hourly rate, then it shouldn't make any
>difference what work you do, whether it is tightening screws, or doing a
>concert tuning. The rate per hour should not change, just becuse one job is
>more difficult than the other.
>
>To charge a different rate for different jobs, in my honest opinion, is not
>ethical. If you don't want to do the work on a certain piano, just be honest
>with the customer and say so. But I don't think it is honest to charge them 3
>times as much, to pay for your "aggravation", of having to do the work,
>unless the customer is willing to pay the extra money, knowing ahead of time
>what your "normal" charge is.
>
>Willem Blees  RPT
>St. Louis

Willem, with all due respect for your opinion, I disagree, in part.  I think that hourly rates in
service industries may depend on many factors.

 How long did it take to develop the skill to do this particular job?
 How much competition is there that can perform this same job as well as you do?
 How much did you invest in tools and equipment to do this job?
 What effect will this particular work have on your health, mental and physical?
 How painful, aggravating, or dangerous is this job?
 What plant facilities must I have to be able to do this job?

are some that come to mind.

Here's an example: I might not charge a customer as much per hour for replacing bridle
straps in my shop as I charge for tuning her piano.  Why?  Replacing bridle straps is
simply a matter of knowing where to cut off the old straps and where and how to glue on
the new ones.   Most anyone can learn to do this in a matter of minutes.   If my kids were
still at home I could pay them $6 per hour to do this.   What hourly tuning rate would I
have to pay them to incent them to learn how to tune a piano?

If I had more tuning business than I could handle and had to forego tuning one
customer's piano in order to replace bridle straps on another I might charge as much
per hour for the strap job as for the tuning job, otherwise I might not.

I think there's a common misconception that people have that their "time is worth $X per
hour."    And the value of X is the value of whatever is their highest paid skill.   This is true
only if they can find sufficient demand for that skill that it uses all of their time.

I think that charging different hourly rates for different jobs can be both ethical and
reasonable,  As another example, consider "hazardous duty" pay.

Having said that, now I have to say that I agree that it isn't practical to produce separate
hourly rates for each and every various job that one might do.   To establish a general
hourly rate for most of one's technical work makes sense from a practical standpoint.
But to say that charging differing rates for different jobs is "unethical" is unwarranted, in
my opinion.   But that's only my opinion!  <g>

Larry Goss
Cedar Mill Piano Tuning
Cedar Mill, Oregon