I do. I WISH I was scheduling for next March! WOW! I AM jealous (I'm only booked two weeks out)! (If you are that booked up, are you charging enough for a regular service appointment?) Even still though, I have what I refer to as a "special service request" (at least that is what I call it for myself) charge for a service call that requires a special trip, or is only to be done at hours I don't wish to work, and/or is just plain short notice "I am getting married tomorrow and my piano JUST went out of tune this morning!" I have been charging $20 extra when a service request cannot fit into my regular schedule. I might do one of these per month. The last one I did required a drive to the other side of town (40 minutes, one way) for a $75 tuning. I typically average about $50 per hour when in someone's home ($40 per hour if many things go wrong). I think I am short-changing myself with my $20 fee. I'm thinking fees for the special request appointments should be tuning fee plus travel time @ $40 or $50 per hour. The greater travel-time-based extra fee would have made my last call a $135 call, rather than a $95 call - it took me a good three hours total for the call, or about $32 per hour - the higher fee would have put me up to about $45 per hour - which is more in the average day range. But are we not talking about extra charges here because we don't normally tune a piano at 7 pm on Christmas Eve? So maybe it should be tuning fee plus hourly travel charge plus $20 (or plus 50% of tuning fee). Maybe at that stage the piano owner's piano will start sounding a lot better as is. I think the travel-time-based extra charge is a good way to go because I really don't mind slipping in an off-hours service call for someone two blocks over (remember, I am only booked two weeks ahead), but it becomes quite a hassle and less profitable when the customer is way across town. Of course if you live two counties over, have an old M&H BB, want it tuned, and go on to say that I had rebuilt her daughter's piano and that she wants only me to completely rebuild her BB (give her a price while I am there tuning) - I might just drive out there with a big smile on my face, tune her piano and only charge her $75! Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 6:44 AM Subject: Charging overtime > OK, I'll let you know what's been going through my mind these last several > days. Suppose all local piano technicians have all the work they need for the > next several months, and a new client calls and needs a tuning done within two > weeks. All technicians say they can't do it because they are fully booked. > What is that client to do? I have not checked with other local technicians to > see how busy they are, but I am taking new client orders for next March. > > I think if a new client were willing to pay more (an "overtime" rate so to > speak), then I would just take personal time and go do the job. I did suggest > this to one person recently, and I actually charged on this basis once, when I > was called on a Friday night to tune a piano before a Saturday wedding. The > clients were grateful they could find someone who would do the job on short > order even at a higher cost. I charged 50% more than my normal rate. > > Thoughts? Do any of you do this? > > Regards, > Clyde > > Farrell wrote: > > > I've had the same thought in the past. I think that when I am too busy with > > service appointments, I will raise my price quite a bit for first-time > > appointments, but then discount those that repeat at least once a year. But > > not until I am too busy. I'm sure such a policy will scare away some of > > those first-timers. I think it is a great idea. > > >
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC