Etiquette in the Customer's Home

[Farrell]

Hope I'm not being toooo darn picky here, but just one point:

"...but you should know that I find it very difficult to give your piano a good tuning with all the competition from the clocks."

Perhaps better stated: It is very difficult to tune...... rather than: I have a difficult time tuning.....

Kinda like: oops, I broke a string - as opposed to: maam, a string broke.

It ain't your fault!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
To: "Alan R. Barnard" <mathstar@salemnet.com>; "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 7:22 AM
Subject: Re: Etiquette in the Customer's Home


> Alan,
> 
> Every customer of mine gets an appointment reminder card several days in
> advance.  The card states, "A quiet atmosphere will help me do the best
> job for you."  It is a rare situation where I need to deal with noise.
> If you don't do mailings, you could just say something to that effect as
> you conclude your phone conversation.  Stop the problem before it
> starts.
> 
> (Sometimes I am scheduled to tune the piano while the cleaning lady is
> there.  Since she never got the card, I have a polite little
> conversation with her about vacuum cleaner noise, then we work things
> out the best we can.)
> 
> But yours is an already existing situation.  One option is to just put
> up with it; it adds color to your otherwise boring work day.  <G>  But
> if it makes you not want to tune there anymore, you could say something
> to the customer.
> 
> I would probably go this direction:  "Mr (Mrs./Ms.) Tickabong, I
> apologize for not mentioning this to you before, but you should know
> that I find it very difficult to give your piano a good tuning with all
> the competition from the clocks.  Tuning a piano involves listening very
> closely for indicators that are sometimes barely audible.
>         "I don't think I can bring myself to tune your piano again under
> these circumstances, so we have a couple options.  One would be for you
> to stop all the clocks before I arrive.  If you do not want to do that,
> then I would encourage you to look for another piano tuner, one for whom
> the noise is no problem.  What are your thoughts on how we should handle
> this?"  Then take it from there.
> 
> Someone else suggested we should just learn to tune with the distracting
> noises around us.  That's actually a pretty good idea, but I'm getting
> old and grouchy now and set in my ways.  So I'll leave these noisy
> settings to those who specialize in this kind of work.  :-)  I have
> enough to do without those jobs.
> 
> Regards,
> Clyde
> 
> "Alan R. Barnard" wrote:
> 
> > Situation: Customer collects clocks. Regulators. Cuckoos. Mantels.
> > Grandmothers and Grandfathers. Novelty Clocks. All kinda
> > clocks...tick, ticka, tickety, tickaty, bong, chime, gong, wang, ding,
> > ticka, tick ... None in sync with any other and all slightly off from
> > each other as they strike the quarter hours ... Bbang bbongong bbbing
> > boonng.... Question: Would it be "rude" or, in some other way,
> > socially unacceptable to take my 2 1/2 pound stringing sledge and
> > start adjusting these little treasures?
>