Some years ago I was working at my bench when the phone rang. I said hello, and the first thing I heard was , is this the piano tuner ? I said yessss. How much do you charge ? ? I told her what my basic rate was, and she proceeded to grill me about my qualifications, did I tune to concert pitch ,do I use an ETD, references, etc. etc. This right after the price quiry. Now she wanted to know what was the soonest I could come. , and do I tune on saturdays, or sundays ? I became a little annoyed with her and decided maybe I didn't want to tune for her, but she lived very close to my place and nice not to have to travel 1/2 hr. or so to a job., but I told her that she should make some calls in the yellow pages to find out what the rates were, etc. She thought that might be a good idea. We hung up and I returned to what I was doing before this wonderful person called to make my day. For the next 10 or 15 mins. I thought about her gall and decided that if she called back I would tell her to drop dead. Of course I wouldn't do that, but makes me feel better just thinking I'd like to. Didn't think she would have the nerve to call back, but we know different , don't we.? Phone rings, and I know it's her. Well I'm right. Just the sound of her voice annoyed me and after she asked me when I could come to tune, I told her that I would be afraid to tune for her , because I'm sure whatever I did wouldn't be good enough, so please call someone else. She was flabergasted, and I just hung up the phone. This happened a long time ago, but I still feel good about myself and I know I saved myself a lot of grief. Not sorry at all. I also wonder how many techs. shes gone thru. Ones that wouldn't go back and others she wouldn't have back. I'm often easy to beat up, but not this time. Carl / Winnipeg paul kemp wrote: > Hey, we deal with > > people all the time, some > > > people go through a lot of techs mostly because > > they can't find anyone > > > who can put up with them. > > Hello, Just a comment, if I feel that a customer or > potential customer is going to be a pain I reserve the > right to say I'm very busy, sorry (no). I can leave > also and say this isn't for me and gently excuse > myself. > > If a customer is calling and asks for a price and is > price shopping and they'll spend more time calling > around to save 10 dollars. I refer them to the yellow > pages. The service has to be mutually beneficial, as I > see it. Often if a customer is difficult on the phone, > they'll be more of a pain later working in their home- > why bother with them? Give it up to someone else who > enjoys that sort of thing. There are plenty of really > nice people who appreciate the service I offer and we > both get something out of it. I'd rather work for > them. Yours, Paul > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. > http://mailplus.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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