Time to level pins, dress coils...?

[Clyde Hollinger]

If I notice sloppy repair work the first time I service a piano, I may point it
out to the client but usually let it go.  If it tears me up every time I tune the
piano to have to look at that crap, I will probably try to talk the client into
letting me do it right.  When I mentioned this to one client she called me cute or
precious or some such thing and gave the go ahead, but we weren't really talking
about that much money in that instance.

Clyde Hollinger

Newton Hunt wrote:

> The question arises, did you do this to satisfy your desire for a
> pretty and sightly arrangement of the pins and coils or did you do it
> for the immediate benefit of the piano and the customer.
>
> Yes nice coils are nice but the piano had stood in a semblance of tune
> for 25 years so the question becomes will the piano stay substantially
> longer in tune after the work as it would have before the work?
>
> Doing work for our professional esthetic is great when we are doing an
> original stringing (in this example) where the time investment is
> small relative to the whole job.  Doing pin and coil work on a new
> piano does have a customer benefit, appearance AND tuning stability
> because the strings are new, the pins are new so there is no corrosion
> to help keep them in place.
>
> With an older piano the benefit may well be moot.
>
> Doing work just to satisfy your personal reasons does not necessarily
> benefit the customer and charging full price for it may well be doing
> the customer a disservice.
>
> Where does the line reside?  _I_ cannot say because I do not know.
> But somewhere between our desire to do perfect work, our wallet, and
> the benefit to the piano and customer based upon the overall condition
> of the instrument, the uses of the piano, the capabilities of the
> players, the value of the instrument, our reputation and the
> durability of the piano.  These and other factors need to be
> considered before even SUGGESTING the choices of benefits of the work
> to the customer.  Convincing a customer is sales hype.  Providing a
> range of choices, the advantages and disadvantages of each allows the
> customer the opportunity to choose what or what not to do.
>
> Charge her for half your time investment.
>