PTG standards for pitch raises.

[Roger Jolly]

Hi Bill,
           A very refreshing post, if those that are reading it, would
think of the business implications with their approach. Walk a mile in the
customers shoes, they are not dummies, they just will not call back.
  I am JUST an associate, but I will never lower my standards to this kind
of rip off. I have come across many techs over the years that use PR as a
lame excuses for poor pin setting, and indifferent tuning quality. Hell
they want the piano in tune before they start work.
  The customer has a right to know up front what the charge is going to be,
just like the routine oil change on the car. That is honorable. It is not
the customers fault if the tech cannot raise the piano 20c and end up with
a reasonable commercial tuning. 
  A 20c + swing is just normal seasonal adjustments in this neck of the
woods, perhaps we get more practice?
  A 50c PR is one fast 25% over pull and a tuning 1 1/2 times standard tuning.
  Much of my time is spent travelling as a trouble shooter for a respected
mfg. I have loss count of the number of so say, faulty sound boards,
bridges, and pin blocks that have been blamed for tuning instability, when
the real culprit has been poor tuning, pin setting, and bridge seating.
  Perhaps we need a positive and pro active discussion, on how to
commercially PR a piano to the benifit of the customer and ourselves. In a
business sense they are mutually inclusive. The old PTG guide lines that I
remember, does nothing to enhance our proffessional image. As
proffessionals most of what we do is PR a piano?????? 
 Now I will wear my flame suit and get off the pulpit.
Regards Roger
 


At 02:56 PM 24/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear list:
>
>Seems to me that this is a PTG sponsored list, most of you are PTG members,
>and that in a real  "PROFESSIONAL" way, the PTG is failing a reasonable
>responsibility, which is to define what actually comprises a pitch raise.  I
>have attended many PTG conventions, and have never seen a consensus on how
>many cents raise actually constitutes a pitch raise. There certainly is no
>agreement on this list!
>
> I seldom feel the urge to post to this list, but the discussions of pitch
>raising and what to charge for it have gotten ridiculous.  ($240.00 for a 100
>cents raise?  Well, stick it to ‘em!)
>
>Seems to me  like some technicians out there consider a raise of 4 cents
to be
>a pitch raise, and that any pitch raise is a huge deal, and therefore one
>should charge all the market can bear. Whether or not that is your individual
>attitude, and there is no law against it,  one cannot even begin to think
that
>this is "professional" behavior.  I know, I know,  ---just to be paid is
to be
>a professional, ---therefore what you do, and this behavior, is professional.
>Bullshit!
>
>Even lowly barbers are "Professional" to a degree far beyond the tuners on
>this list because they have to be certified, there are educational and
>licensing requirements, there is a state board of examiners for
accountability
>and responsibility, etc. There are also standard "reasonable and customary "
>charges which can be determined beforehand.
>
>No one on this list would think it acceptable for the car dealership to
>suddenly charge you $200.00 per hour to fix your car, instead of the $42.00
>standard rate, because they know you really needed your car this weekend.
>Their billing could be challenged in court, and they would lose!
>
>I am not advocating that tuners should be licensed by the state, I do not
>think they should be. A customer, however, should be able to call a
>technician, state that they absolutely know they need only a pitch raise and
>tuning, on a piano that is otherwise perfect, and you should be able to give
>the total cost over the phone.  Until that happens, until there is a "pitch
>raise standard" - many tuners on this list will be  more closely related to
>con-artists than “professionals”.
>
>The Piano Technician’s Guild has done a great deal  to raise standards of
>piano tuners, and is in a perfect position to set some “standards of
practice”
>which will increase the legitimacy of the profession of piano service, and
>increase their own legitimacy and influence in the process. 
>
>I seriously lost interest in the PTG organization when out of 20 members at a
>local PTG meeting, not one wanted to  go and look at, let alone testify in
>court, that it was improper pin tapping  of a grand piano, without supporting
>the pinblock, that  delaminated the pinblock of a little old lady’s piano and
>prevented action removal.  ( It was discussed that no one could point to any
>PTG technical standards that said so!) Heck, - to try to fix that problem the
>clod installed a couple of big bolts to try to pull the pinblock together
>again, and THEY stuck down too far to allow removal of the action!
>
>That is my 25 cents! - (Now there’s a pitch raise!)
>
>Bill Simon
>NOT a PTG member.
>Tuning for over 20 years in Phoenix, AZ.
> 
Roger Jolly
Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre
Saskatoon and Regina
Saskatchewan, Canada.
306-665-0213
Fax 652-0505