Difficult situations

[Susan Kline]

Gina,

I concur with everything you've written here. I just keep offering new
appointment times until I can find one when the owner will be home, the
first time. After that, if they want to show me where their housekey is
hidden ... well, I'm still not comfortable with it, but if they seemed okay,
I'll do it. I can picture the day when someone breaks into a house where I
have carefully locked up and left a few hours before, or where the door lock
won't work, and someone comes in after I go, but so far it hasn't happened.
(Knock wood!)

The only other thing I make sure I never do is answer a customer's phone,
even if I suspect the owner might be trying to reach me. Can you imagine a
wife calling her husband, only to have me answer??! There was one time I
worked on a piano for a man who worked at home, and I was just leaving as
his wife pulled in. I got a LOOK! Good thing I had left a card and a receipt.

The men are in a much more dangerous position than we are, especially as
regards young girls left alone. All I can do is sympathize. I've sometimes
wondered what I might be in for when some male clients call, but so far
nothing has been a problem. One man kind of plaintively offered the opinion
that extramarital affairs really did no one any harm, but I don't think that
level of approach is anything to worry about. I knew his wife, too!

There was one really rough-sounding customer in Stockton, who called because
he'd gotten his piano out of storage after he'd been in jail. I went (to a
very "mean street") with some trepidation, but relaxed when I saw an old
lady, a rather beady-eyed old lady, sitting on the porch. As I was tuning,
he told me it was his granny. "She looks after me. If anybody gives me any
trouble, she gets out her shotgun!"

At 06:51 AM 3/27/97 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 97-03-27 00:16:10 EST, lesbart@juno.com (Leslie W
>Bartlett) writes:
>
> "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're NOT after me"............
>  On the other hand, too safe is better than too sorry. >>
>
>Les,
>Alas, what a sad situation we find ourselves in today. But better to face and
>deal with the reality than to put yourself in a potential harmful situation.
>I think you've already answered your own question.
>
>When I set up a first time appointment, I try to set it for a time when the
>customer is at home. That way I can tell her my evaluation of the piano and
>what it needs. This also ensures that we establish some rapport and trust for
>future service. I will admit, tho, that I have customers I have never
>met--only their pianos! But I make it a practice not to go to a home the
>first time with only a child there--babysitter, maid, neighbor, some adult
>must be there.
>
>In your assessment of this situation one question you might ask yourself:
>from where or whom did the referral come? Was it another customer? Was it
>from the yellow pages. If from another customer, some semblance of trust is
>already established but it is our responsibility to safeguard ourselves. If
>you have doubts, act on them!
>
>Gina Carter

Susan Kline, R.P.T.
skline@proaxis.com
P.O. Box 1651,
Philomath, OR 97370
(541) 929-3971

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."