SV: Home Alone

[Roy Ulrich]

I like that. I wait ten minutes and go on to the next. 15 if I'm in a good
mood. But usually, if they're not home a the appointed time, they completely
forgot I was coming.

Had one once, in fact July of '99 - they were to get the free tuning with
the new piano purchase. Big brand new house on a lake 40 miles away. I
showed up and found no one home. Later that afternoon I'm standing on my
head under the leaking kitchen sink, phone rings, it's him. "Yeah, I guess
we had something else to do...." After some details of my fee and mileage
for the wasted trip he suggested that I bill the store as if I was there and
they'd "just find someone local."

At tha point I lost my candor and hung up. As it turned out the store paid
me as if I was there (after speaking to the customer), and I agreed to take
it. Punch line - there IS NO ONE "local" for this retired high school music
teacher and his new piano. And I'll let you guess whether I'll go should he
ever all me....

Roy Ulrich

----- Original Message -----
From: <Wimblees@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 8:28 AM
Subject: Re: SV: Home Alone


> In a message dated 12/14/00 4:04:24 AM Central Standard Time,
> pianola@online.no writes:
>
> I will wait 10 minutes for a customer to come home, unless it's the last
> appointment of the day, or I have extra time after the appointment. I then
> leave a message asking the customer to call to reschedule the appointment.
I
> don't "punish" the customer for missing the appointment. I only allow one
missed
> appointment, however, If the customer stands me up a second, time it's
> curtains.
>
> I did have one customer call me and tell me she wouldn't use me again,
> because I didn't wait 20 minutes for her to get home. She realized she was
> running late, and made every effort to get there on time. She didn't
> understand that if I had waited more than 15 minutes, that the rest of my
> appointments would be late. And some customers don't like it when I'm 5
> minutes late to an appointment.