My mistake.....my lesson....a cautionary tale

[bases-loaded@juno.com]

On Wed, 15 Jan 2003 07:14:09 -0500 "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
writes:
> She's in Florida. I think I tuned her piano a couple weeks ago.   ;-)
> 
> Terry Farrell


Terry -
She must 'summer' in Ohio.  I know her well. ;-)  

Let's face it, the occasional client needs more tuning, regulating and
voicing than their piano.   In some cases, a complete remanufacture is
the only answer....:-)   

Fact is, one of the things I like most about self-employment is the
ability to refuse working (more than once!) for knuckleheads.

Mark Potter
bases-loaded@juno.com

    
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Carl Teplitski" <koko99@shaw.ca>
> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 11:38 PM
> Subject: Re: My mistake.....my lesson....a cautionary tale
> 
> 
> > 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
> > >
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