Israel Steins message was welcome reading, as are the bulk of the other comments coming through. Someone questioned why I found the journal peice disturbing. Well lets take a look at a couple things said here by Kent and Ron. "I fully admit to some cynicism with regard to customer satisfaction." "I won't alter a tuning to its detriment to please a customer" "It might be, but probably isn't. How much time is it worth to waste finding out?" "I've sat through a number of classes in my life (and participated in a number of discussions) where so much time was taken up by catering to and trying to enlighten the hopelessly lowest common denominator" Yes, I find this kind of thing disturbing at best, especially in the context of this message, especially given the fact that the Presidents column is a kind of official face of the PTG. Many non tuners read the journal and indeed this list. And very many indeed are going to react as myself and obviously significant numbers of other techs. I do not as a member of this organization subscribe whatsoever to the attitude relfected therein, nor do I feel the Presidents column was at all an appropriate place for this kind of thing to be taken up to begin with. As far as the issue itself is concerned. I would submit that if any given technician is experiencing more then a very very occasional callback that the techncian should consider the possibility that a: one perhaps has a need to actually improve ones tuning / technical skills b: one perhaps should take a look at the bottom level quality of instruments one accepts to work on. I would also submit that the number of callbacks a professional should experience should be so low that none of this is worth worrying about to begin with. That said, when a call back does pop up, I believe a "better system" is to endeavour to turn the situation into a positive experience for both myself and the customer. If you have first accepted the job, then give the customer the benifit of the doubt. And yes. I do indeed feel the effort is << worth it >>. Every time. I have full understanding and sympathy for those who read arrogance and defensiveness into the Presidents column and comments. And I have to figure that whether one agrees or not, one should be able to acknowledge that very many will, both in and outside the PTG. JMT. Richard Brekne
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