jptuner wrote: > when you tune for dealers you have to draw a > line,you can not keep a dealer for to long for charging for pitch raises > they will soon find a tuner cheaper and use them. > . Dear jptuner, When I first started tuning for dealers, I felt exactly the same as you do. Six months or a year later, I had to explain why the piano was not tuned correctly originally. That is an awkward situation to say the least! The fact that the dealer wouldn't pay for pitch raises, didn't impress them overmuch! You need to decide whether you are building a client list for when you will strike out on your own later, or you are just tuning the dealer's pianos. If you choose the former, then donate the time to do it right the first time! Make the customer happy and they are yours from then on! NO ONE can steal them from you! The more competant musician the customer is the more you do to make the piano right for them. Sell the four tunings the first year that most manufacturers recommend and you'll put their piano in excellent tune and adjustment and make back your losses in six months! When you are known to be the man does pianos "right" the world will beat a path to your door! There are too many "halfway tooners" out there already! I used this procedure to build a group of 750 customers in a little over three years working for two dealers. Half of that group were tuning every six months! As far as the customers who refuse to pay for the pitch raise, the problem is you haven't made them want the benefits of an "in tune" piano! Fuller, clearer sound that feels correct to people who have a good pitch sense and just sounds nice to the others. And the most important thing, most people, if they are going to have it tuned at all, deep down want it tuned "RIGHT"!! Simply say, "Mrs. Jones, your piano is 40 cents flat! Do you want me to tune it flat or do you want me to TUNE IT CORRECTLY? What we've done here is tell them they have a BIG PROBLEM, and that tuning it flat is NOT CORRECT! You know what most red-blooded American piano owners are going to choose when you ask them that question? They are going to want it done right! And even if it's not in the budget, they will figure out some way to pay for it! I get about one in 15-20 that give me the wrong answer to that question! Try it----you'll like it! Warren -- Warren D. Fisher fish@communique.net Registered Piano Technician Piano Technicians Guild New Orleans Chapter 701
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