piano service in music colleges

[Jim]

Dear David:

150 pianos is too much for any technician to care for adequately at the
FULLTIME rate.  I did for 15 years, but not to my satisfaction.  The only
waY I could do it at all was to work the PM shift so that I didn't
have to waste time trying to get into studios etc.  Even at that , you
have to be very fast and have a good priority system (written about
previously).  If you don't have time to do good work, you WILL have
complaints.  My successor discovered this.

You need to keep track of how much time you are working on pianos and
how much time you spend in communication about the needs including
administrating time.  If you are on a bid basis, you could starve and
ruin your reputation.  If they are using a leasing plan for the pianos
they will need more tunings.  If they own the pianos, they need to assess
the value of the stock and plan for replacements if they are not going
to commit any funds to upkeep.  I didn't realize how much pressure
there was on me until I resigned after 15 years.  I felt better and made
more money the next year.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

PS My school just lost the Rose Bowl game tonight.  We could have won it
and really tho't we had.  But it's not over until it's over.  Too bad.
Well, anyway, we sure made our former coach Cooper sweat.  He didn't get
happy until the very last minute of the game.

Jim Coleman, Sr.

On Wed, 1 Jan 1997, David Forman wrote:

> > Date:          Wed, 01 Jan 1997 09:22:15 -0800
> > From:          Warren Fisher <fish@communique.net>
> > Subject:       Re: piano service in music colleges
> > To:            pianotech@byu.edu
> > Cc:            ptg-l@prairienet.org
> > Reply-to:      pianotech@byu.edu
>
> >
> >
> > David Forman wrote:
> > >
> > > I am a piano technician at a music college with 150 pianos. Presently
> > > I am employed only 20 hours a week. I am trying to find out how many
> > > hours most colleges hire their technicians for when there are this
> > > many pianos to be serviced. Working this limited amount of hours with
> > > so many pianos certainly does not allow these instruments to be
> > > properly serviced. Knowing how other colleges deal with this will
> > > help us set up a better piano service program. Thank you in advance
> > > for your help.
> > >
> > > David Forman
> >
> > David, do I understand correctly, that you are paid for work hours and
> > are not on a piece-work contract (so much for tuning, and so much hourly
> > for repairs)?  First you need to ask around the staff and find out what
> > amount of money the school will disburse for anything without going into
> > "bid mode".  The schools I work for will spend around $100-$200 per
> > piano (without even blinking) for additional work on 4-5 pianos per
> > semester and up to $300 for special cases.  The next thing I would do is
> > evaluate each piano needing re-conditioning, and put them in order of
> > importance to the staff, and how much needs to be done. Now pick the one
> > most worthy of help and spend 5-6 hours a week working on it and do
> > tunings the rest of the week.  You won't have to do more than one for
> > the right staff member for most colleges to see the light.  Also collect
> > information about the cost of new pianos like the one you're planning to
> > work on.  This will make many administators realize they can spend
> > considerably more to keep the pianos they already have in good shape!
> >
> > Good Hunting!
> >
> > Warren
> > --
> > Warren D. Fisher
> > fish@communique.net
> > Registered Piano Technician
> > Piano Technicians Guild
> > New Orleans Chapter 701
> >
> > Warren,
> Thank you for your reply. I am employed  as a half-time employee(20
> hours per week). My pay includes tuning and all repairs, regulation,
> voicing, etc- there is no extra pay for any work other than tuning.
> What I am trying to find out is if most colleges with  this many
> pianos has a full-time technician on staff, and if so(which I'm
> fairly sure is the case), try to convince my school that they need to
> bring the time I work there up to the standard that most school are
> at now. The students here are not satisfied with the condition of
> many of the pianos-neither am I-but there is not enough time to keep
> all these pianos in tune. Any other work is a luxury. I regulate and
> voice when I have time, but not nearly enough of this is done. Again,
> I welcome any and all responses to this problem.
> Dave
>