Ethical quandary

[Dave Sanderson]

Tom
Your question only raised the ethical issue which I address here. Please
do not take this message personally as I commend you for raising this
very sensitive issue of taking fees.  Thank you for bringing it up and
allowing us to air it out.  I hope we all benefit from the discussion and
it does not get pointed at you personally.
Dave

Anytime you take money from both parties in an agreement,
your credibility will be vulnerable.  Personally, I don't like it when
our politicians say that the taking of a person's contribution never
influenced their policy decision making. Why? because they cannot prove
it.  It's a "trust me" situation.

We sell rebuilt pianos at my shop.  A customer called us one day
inquiring if we had any rebuilt Steinways.  We did, she came out, she
looked, she played and she liked.  and then hired her technician to come
out to our shop to evaluate the piano.
The technician came out, (BTW it was totally a social visit), and left.
We sold the piano after a positive recommendation. OK not my problem that
the technician didn't even pull the action.  Anyways after the delivery
was completed the technician calls up asking for the "customary 5%
commission."  Woops!
It turns out that this technician was partially responsible for the
customer's initial call to our shop, although more than one technician
had recommended us.  Well the technician felt we should split the 5% fee
with the other technician.   Settling for 2 1/2% seemed appropriate to
this person.  Wouldn't  the customer who did the hiring want to know
about the technician's 5% commission request? She did and was indignant
that a $1,250 request was made for the small service provided.

I realize that this story hits a nerve with some of you who make a fair
amount of money in this manner.  I hear the reasoning about the time
involved etc.  The point is that if you are hired by a person, you work
for that person, at least that's what they  think, and to accept money
without their knowledge and approval from the other party, is a betrayal
of their trust.

Telling a customer where there is a good honest piano dealer or
recommending a certain brand piano does not seem to fall into that
category to me. If it is a service we should bill the person to whom we
provided the service.  It smacks of being sneaky to turn around, call the
dealer and let them know we are sending over a customer and to put our
name on a list for the fee.
David Sanderson
Littleton,Ma
Pianobiz@juno.com