help wanted...very long

[Brian Trout]

Hi Wim,

I was hoping that more people would respond to your inquiry, as I am one of
the people who do some tunings for a local dealer.

I was an employee for a number of years, so there was a semblance of a
relationship already.  Over the last year of my employment, I began making
plans to begin my own piano business, and as of the last quarter of 1999, I
am no longer an employee.  The dealer is not blessed with a large number of
tuners.  He requested that I do subcontract tunings for him, to help him
with his service work, and to help me with a regular income.

It has worked with moderate success, but the long term outlook isn't so
good.

I'll lay out the particulars, just so you can see how it's set up.

1)  His customers (that I've worked for on his behalf) are his, even if they
call me privately.
2)  If one of his customers (who I have not worked for before on his behalf)
calls me, they become my customer.  (I would have no way of knowing that
they had been his customer if I hadn't serviced them previously.)
3)  I must maintain records of who received service, when, and what they
received.
4)  I must bill the customer in the home and collect payment when possible,
with only a very few exceptions.
5)  All scheduling is done from their office.  I provide appointment dates
and times for them to fill.  If they need times and dates I've not offered,
they may ask, but I am not obligated to take them.
6)  All expenses, which includes auto expense, and travel time, are at my
expense.  Parts and supplies needed to complete his customer's job are all
at his expense, and he makes the profit on parts markup.
7)  For the above, I receive a flat rate as follows:
    Standard in home tuning                 $40
    Multiples at same location              $35
    Additional time / quarter hr.              $9
8) The dealer will receive $70 for a standard tuning, and $60/hr for
additional time.  I don't know about multiples.?

That being said, let me tell you a little about what has(n't) worked and my
overall feelings about such.

Overall, it has been a help to me getting my own business up and running.
It was steady work at a time when my own work was rather spotty.

But as of late, the appointment slots have gone about half unfilled, and
many of the little extra jobs (such as Dampp-Chaser installations) where I
can make a little extra, have pretty much dried up.

All those people for whom I've tuned are not my customers.  If I relied upon
what he offered, I don't have any customers.  (I have not.  I'm building a
customer base of my own, thank you very much.)

I've heard both sides of the argument.  1) You're getting screwed, taken
advantage of, etc., and 2) You've got it good, don't rock the boat.  Who's
right depends upon who you're talking to.

What hasn't worked?  The number one thing that hasn't worked is travel
distance.  As you can see from the above, there is no allowance for such.
Unfortunately, since the schedules have not been getting filled, there have
been too many instances where I end up spending half a day, and driving 150
miles to do one tuning for $40.  That doesn't work.  I have since placed a
mileage restriction which limits those instances until we can reach a more
reasonable arrangement.

Scheduling doesn't work when they don't fill the appointments I give them.
I have no more than about one day's notice if they did not fill my schedule.
It's very difficult for me (at this point) to fill my schedule on a days
notice.  I am working on developing a more flexible shop schedule so that
those hours (or days) may not be a total loss.

So where does that leave us?  Well, I can assure you that the relationship
we have now is not building a loyalty to his company that supercedes all
others.  The pay is doable in the short term, but long term, it doesn't
compare to what I can make on my own.  Eventually, I believe we will end up
pretty much parting company when it comes to the day to day stuff.  Why
would I do 26 tunings at $40 instead of 15 tunings at $70?  Is the
scheduling end of it really worth almost half the gross?  Not to me, at
least not long term.

Please forgive my length of reply.  It's a bit convoluted.  But if any of
you have thoughts or input or suggestions to make things better, I would
certainly be open to hearing them as well, as well as what others are doing.

Have a good day, all.

Brian Trout
Quarryville, PA
btrout@desupernet.net




> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Wimblees@aol.com>
> To: <Pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2000 1:45 AM
> Subject: help wanted
>
>
> > Several months ago I asked about how much floor tuners were getting. Now
I
> am
> > getting to the point in my business where I need some help with my
tuning
> > business. I would like to get someone to do tunings for me, but that I
> keep
> > the customer.
> >
> > For those of you who do tunings for a store, or for another tuner, where
> you
> > do not get to keep the customer for your own files, what percentage of
the
> > tuning fee do you get? Or to put it another way, do you give the store,
or
> > the other tuner, a discount on your own tuning fee? If so, how much of a
> > discount?
> >
> > You can respond privately, if you wish.
> >
> > Willem Blees
> >
> >
>
>