Haunted House....and cleaning fees

[Terry Neely]

Corey,
    Yes! Figure out what your hourly rate is for labor and charge accordingly for
any extra work above and beyond your regular fee for a service call.

Terry Neely

SimsPiano@AOL.COM wrote:

> This is my 1st post to this group.  I've been tuning for money for almost one
> year now and business is still slow.  But I love it and plan to continue
> since it's getting better.
>
> My question:  Today I went to tune and clean an extremely dirty Mason and
> Hamlin console.  The owner knew it was dirty and I said I may have to charge
> a little extra if I have to take the keys out to get all the dog hair and
> ashes and dust which are gunking up the keys and action.  Well this piano
> looked like a haunted house, with dusty, sooty, spider webs and a truckload
> of dirt and grime and dust, etc.  I vacuumed everwhere I could and used some
> little tiny attachments since I don't have an air compressor.   Shortening
> the story, it took me about 4 hours to get the piano clean enough for me to
> tune!  And this was really some sweaty nasty work.  (Thank God for my dust
> mask.)
>
> Do most of you charge an hourly rate for something like this based on your
> tuning fees (eg, where a tuning would be 2 hours of this rate)??
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Corey Sims
> RTP Chapter, North Carolina