Work Approval, was nothing

[Farrell]

In this particular case your point does have some validity. I am usually
(like EVERY time exept this time) very careful to clearly state whatever
costs will be involved for a repair, etc. This time I did not go down a list
and present an anticipated total prior to doing the work. I must admit, that
I was feeling so comfortable with my role there as piano saviour (after all
his compliments, etc.), that I kinda felt that he had just given me the
go-ahead to fix "whatever it needs". I did say that there were several
strings broken (he had seen in the past what they cost) and he told me to
fix the action........and on, and on. But the fact does remain that in this
one instance, I did not give him a total prior to commencing the work.

And it came right back and bit me.  Well, another lesson learned.

Terry Farrell
Just a tad smarter today!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Howard S. Rosen" <hsrosen@gate.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 8:50 PM


> Terry Farrell wrote:
>
> <!--StartFragment-->So this time I pitch raise, tune, replace three bass
> strings,
> replace several broken jack springs, repin several wippen flanges that had
> pins falling out, reattached action bracket blocks to keybed (suckers were
> just flopping around), minor fix to poor abused sustain pedal - and
charged
> them $247. I spent a solid six hours messing with their piano. The dude
sits
> down at the piano when I was done while I was packing my tools (nearly
> emptied my trunk!) and making out the invoice. Dude says the piano had not
> sounded that nice in two years and could not remember when the keys worked
> so well. Dude sat down with invoice to write check. "Whoa, I had no idea
it
> would be that much - I can't write a check now, I'll have to pass this by
> the church board and they will send a check next week.
>
> ____________________________
>
> Terry,
>
> I believe you made a basic business error here by not estimating and
getting
> approval for that job. This is not merely 20/20 hindsight. One should
never
> do any work without first getting approval. It's just not good business
> practice.
>
> If you can't be certain of the involvement, then at least present some $$$
> parameters to the customer. In my opinion this is the only way to prevent
> this from happening. Your bill should never be a surprise to a customer.
>
>
> Howard S. Rosen, RPT
> 7262 Angel Falls Ct.
> Boynton Beach, Fl  33437
>
> hsrosen@gate.net
> 561-737-2057
>
>
>