Zen Reinhardt wrote: > > ...I didn't bother checking the door to see if it was unlocked. For one > thing, no arrangements had been made in advance for entering her home in > her absence. Zen, Two times I stepped over this line. The first time, I heard about it in spades. A customer I had tuned for before was not at home when I arrived. It was a long, windy road to her house in the woods and I was in no mood to be stood up. After waiting a while, I knocked on the door of the rental cabin on her property which was being rented by a friend of mine (who is a piano tuner!) and, after speaking with him for a while, decided to tune the piano anyway since she had left her door unlocked (and I had driven all that way) (on a _very_ windy road). I got a phone call that evening from an irate woman who needed for me to know that she felt violated. And, now that _I_ know that she doesn't lock her front door, the rest of the universe will soon be privy to this very same information, too, and on and on. No apology would placate her and she wouldn't have let it go if I hadn't offered to reduce my fee to one half the amount I had billed her. Needless to say, I no longer tune her piano. (Guess who does.) Mistake number two: I had arranged to do an annual tuning for some older customers who, as usual, weren't going to be home but would leave a key under the mat. At the appointed day and time, I found no key under the mat (they forgot) and so I decided to try the back door to the attached garage which I found open and which allowed me to enter the house through the kitchen. I tuned the piano and left a bill. Which they paid. Eventually. They even complimented me on my resourcefulness. Since it has been years since that last annual tuning, it appears that I was a little too "resourceful". I now know _their_ little secret, too. I continue to tune pianos for people who are not at home at the time of the appointment but with a clear understanding of how I am to enter and leave the house. Furthermore, it's important to have some alternatives: if the key is not under the mat, then what do I do? Is there a neighbor to contact? Do you work close to home? What's your work number? That way, you won't have to leave an angry message on their front lawn with your back wheels. Tom -- Thomas A. Cole RPT Santa Cruz, CA
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