How do you get them to shut the #%$@ up?

Thomas Cole tcole@cruzio.com
Sat, 20 Sep 2003 14:11:55 -0700


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Mark,

I tell myself that piano owners probably aren't going to hire me to tune 
their piano so that they can run the vacuum and make it impossible for 
me to do a nice job. Maybe there are a few malevolent ones out there, 
but it's unlikely, e.g., that the person with the power mower is aware 
that he is following Bob Davis around town. Unfortunately what that 
means is that a whole lot of people have to be educated/reminded when 
the noise is just too much (I have even seen *piano tuners* talking 
loudly when another tuner is tuning nearby!)

My point being that we need to set the stage for the tuning, and that 
includes asking for the quiet that we need; I normally do this as needed 
rather than every tuning. Treat it as part of the job description, if 
you will. As soon as a noisy situation begins, I'll speak up. Where we 
get into trouble is when we _assume_ that everyone knows, and remembers, 
that there has to be silence.

The most difficult situation is when it starts out quiet...  then people 
start talking in a whisper...  which turns into normal speech...  which 
gets punctuated with laughter...  and pretty soon they're screaming. 
That one can sneak up on me. You have to be very in touch with your 
feelings to know when to say "enough" before it comes out "ENOUGH!"

Tom Cole

Mark Dierauf wrote:

> I've been doing this for like 25 years, and I still haven't figured 
> out how to deal with customers who insist on using the piano tuning 
> appointment as the ideal time to catch up on their vacuuming, 
> carpentry, chainsawing, or to finish watching that copy of 
> "Armageddon" on surround sound DVD. Or rather the only way that occurs 
> to me once the noise has begun wouldn't lend itself to much in the way 
> of repeat business. No matter how diplomatic I try and be in 
> requesting that they keep it down, I'm afraid that I can't hide the 
> fact that I'm already annoyed. I've thought about possible solutions 
> like painting in large block letters on my tool box: "QUIET - TUNER AT 
> WORK!", but given the high rate of illiteracy I have my doubts whether 
> that would be effective. Does anybody have any helpful ideas?
>
>  
>
> - Mark
>

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