Dear Ms. Bie, I saw your post to the Pianotech e-mail mailing list. As the name signifies, the list is for piano technicians, but others are welcome also. Before writing this response, I have read every word of your web page at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/1095 and I am finishing the process of following all of your links on your web page. I also will return to read the web page as it is updated. I took the time to do this before responding to your post in order to attempt to understand you better. Please do me the favor of reading my response to you. If you have the inclination, my web page is at http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ for you to read. Ms. Bie, according to your web page, you are a highly educated (3 Master's degrees and additional post graduate work, with over 500 semester hours of college level courses), highly proficient pianist, organist, master teacher and concert artist. At one point, I believe you had 56 students, two teaching studios, and were the organist at several churches, and were performing concerts all at the same time. You had in your home 2 grand pianos as well as a concert organ. Now if you had your piano regularly serviced, you can't be ignorant of the cost of having your pianos tuned and voiced and regulated. For your information, since that time, the average wage of piano technicians has not kept up with the rate of inflation by any stretch of the imagination. At 08:53 PM 5/5/98 -0400, you wrote: >I am a visually disabled elderly widow. Say I have a problem with my piano or >organ. I have no income but a measly govt pension for disability. I am truly sorry for your present condition. I happen to know quite a few people in the same condition. In fact, I usually take that into consideration and give a discount to people such as yourself. My wife is neurologically disabled; don't you think it is fair for me to charge enough for my work to support her and our children? A few years ago, I was in the home of an elderly lady in a very small home, who had a badly neglected piano. It was very flat in pitch, and was badly in need of regulation. I spent 6 hours, tuning, repairing and adjusting her piano. I felt sympathy for her, and charged her only $35.00. When the time came for her to pay me, she asked me to fill out the check, which she then signed. Then she asked me to fill the amount into her checkbook register. I nearly fell over in shock when I saw that the balance of her checkbook was over $35,000.00. This was at a time when I was struggling to pay rent, and barely was able to buy groceries. If I would have charged her the full amount for my work, she could well have afforded it, and I would not have had to put my wife and children through the stress and uncertainty of not being able to pay our bills. Appearances can be deceiving. >I call you >and need a screw tightened. Since I am visually impaired I can't see the slot >in the screw. Ma'am, whether or not you are visually impaired, you do not know which screws to turn, nor why you are turning them. I have spent a lot of time, energy, and money, to develop the skills to service pianos. Without that training I myself would not know which screws to tighten and which screws to leave alone. You are paying me for my knowledge and understanding, as well as for the work itself. But suppose that you call me to get a screw tightened -- I have to pay the phone company for the privilege of having a phone in my home. I have to pay for the advertisement that you saw in the Yellow pages. I have to pay for clothes, and shoes for myself, my wife and children to wear. I have to pay for my food. I have to pay for my car that I drive to your house, including wear and tear, tires, gas and oil, insurance and replacement costs. When I get to your house and tighten the screw, I use tools that I had to pay for. I have to pay for printing for the invoice that I give you that lists the charges for the service. When I get home, I spend time doing the necessary paperwork, so that I can give you a reminder call in six months to tighten the screw again. I have to keep track of my income and expenses, file my taxes, and pay EXTRA taxes because I am self employed. If I keep track of these things in a computer, I have to buy the computer. If I have an accountant keep track of this, I have to pay the accountant. If I want a chair and table to sit at for dinner, I have to buy it. If I want to sleep in a bed, I have to pay for the bed. If I want to sleep in a house, I have to pay rent or a mortgage. If I want light and heat, I have to pay my gas and electric bills. If I want to give money to my church or to a charity, it comes out of my pocket. If I don't want to work 7 days a week, I have to make enough money the other 5 or 6 days in the week so that I can take off one day. If I want a vacation, I have to pay for it. If I want to increase my knowledge of pianos and how to service them, I have to pay for extra training, books, and technical journals. If I want to buy new tools or to replace worn or missing tools, I have to pay for them. If I want Medical Insurance, need to go to the doctor, optometrist or dentist, or need to go to the hospital, I have to pay for it. If I someday want to retire, I have to save enough money to do that. And IF there is anything left over, it is called PROFIT, and, believe me, there isn't much left over. There is nothing wrong with earning a little profit. I gather that you have an interest in justice. It would be an INJUSTICE if I did NOT charge for my services, because then I would not be fulfilling my duty as a husband and father. My wife and children depend on me to support them. It would be an injustice if I did not charge enough to provide for their needs. Whew. I love pianos and working on them. If I could, I would work on pianos for free, just because I am so fascinated with the way they work. But this is my profession and my primary source of income. It is not just a hobby. >I ask for help. In order to get it (I live alone, no husband >or kids or greedy selfish neighbors will help), Again, I am truly sorry for your present condition. I am sorry that you happen to live next to selfish greedy neighbors. You are welcome to move to Joplin where my neighbors are friendly and willing to help. I work for my living. It is my option, at MY discretion, to donate my time, services, or money where I feel appropriate. If people ask for help, I help them. But if you called me at my business phone number to perform a service for you, and I don't know you or your circumstances, I have every right to charge full price for my services. I also have every right to expect you to pay me at my full price. >I should pay you for your >vacation, for your office expenses, for your overhead, for your driving to 200 >other customers, etc ad nauseum. Yes, you should pay me for these things. Ma'am, this may come as a surprise to you, but if you buy ANYTHING -- groceries, phone bill, gas bill, electric bill, clothes, Internet access, computer, books, music, pianos, or anything -- you are paying for someone else's vacation, office expenses, overhead, and transportation. If you didn't, none of those things would be available for you to buy because nobody could stay in business. As far as transportation, you would only be paying me for the transportation costs to YOUR home and back. The other 200 customers will pay their fair share of that cost as well. >God free me from contacting you. You are welcome to contact me or not as you see fit. >What happened to "love your neighbor"? I do love my neighbor. Unfortunately I can't help "neighbors" who live 1500 miles away from me. >Do you assume I have savings or the ability to earn an income? Yes, I do assume that unless you tell me otherwise. If you called me, I would assume that you had the means to pay. If I find out that you do not have the means to pay, I often go ahead and do work at a reduced rate or free, AT MY OPTION. But it is MY OPTION and cannot be expected or demanded. > I not only can't afford you, I don't want you. I'd rather >do without. Poor young mothers, abandoned by men, can't afford day care and >music lessons, much less instruments or instrument repaired. Unfortunately, a sad fact of life is that many people have to go without. It depends on what your priorities are. If the priority is to get the piano tuned or repaired, it will get done, even if other things are neglected. I can't help the fact that there are many young mothers abandoned by men or that there are some young fathers abandoned by women (yes, it does happen). Did you know that even in families that have both mothers and fathers, there still often is not enough money to pay for daycare, music lessons, musical instruments and repairs? Shock? But that is not my reponsibility. I have MY responsibilities to MY family. I can't take responsibility for other people's choices, only my own. >Maybe I should learn to hate music. I believe you truly do not mean that. I think you would find that music is one of the things that brings joy to our lives. >Maybe I should hate our greedy society. Why should any customer pay you for your overhead? I WILL NOT. So you are expecting that every time you buy anything, you should get it free? Or perhaps you should get things at a cheap enough rate that the business owners can't afford to pay themselves, their bills or their help and go out of business? You pay for overhead when you pay for ANYTHING. >In fact, I don't even want to know you. I am sorry you feel that way. It is your choice as to whether or not you stay on our list. >May God have mercy on your souls, blood-suckers. May God have mercy on the poor unsuspecting piano technician whom you call and expect to perform free work. At 07:24 PM 5/5/98 -0400, you wrote: >The world has changed, and I am appalled. No wonder people can't afford >anything. > >Back in my days of being an independent musician I deducted these things from >my income tax form as business expenses from the money I charged as fees, >usually ending with no profit on which to pay taxes. I never dreamed of >charging customers for my own business expenses. I thought these were >deductions to subtract from what I earned. Now people are terying to charge >the client, the customer and the student for expenses of running a private >business. The world has not changed. Whether you realize it or not, you were charging your students for your overhead. Without charging them for your overhead, how in the world could you have afforded to stay in business and to own two grand pianos and a concert organ? If you didn't charge for your overhead and expenses of running a private business, I am surprised you had a private business to run for very long, unless you had another source of income. >So now the ethic seems to overcharge the customer for one's own >business expenses and don't bother with submitting expenses to the IRS. I >can't believe that our nation has become so greedy as to overcharge others for >ones own business expenses. >Shock! > >>vacation time >>convention costs >>insurance costs >>auto expenses >>office and work space >>new tools >>...etc... Overcharging? Is it overcharging to pass on the legitimate costs of doing business to the customer? If I don't charge the customer for these things, My business will go down hill very quickly and I will not be able to afford to stay in business. And who is foolish enough not to submit expenses to the IRS? >America - the land of greed! America - the land of opportunity! America is a capitalistic society. Face it, that is the way it is. There is nothing wrong with making a profit. The only way to escape this capitalistic society is to move to East Germany, or move to China or Cuba, and they have their own problems there. >Rev. Peggy C. Bie >"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." -Anais Nin >http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/1095 Sincerely, David A. Vanderhoofven Registered Piano Technician Joplin, Missouri dkvander@clandjop.com http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/
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