Yes, always, always explain your tuning fee at the scheduling of the appointment so there are no surprises. My pitch raise fee is a sliding scale from my normal rate of 95 up to 175 if they are really, really bad. I explain that if it needs a pitch raise almost all of them run in the 125-150 range, very rarely will it go up to 175. I'll be able to give them a better quote after inspecting the piano, but if it has been tuned in the last 3-5 years then likely it will just need a standard tuning. When a piano is 150-200 cents flat I find that two passes often just won't do it. I generally have to make a third pass over octaves 3 through 5 or 6. When pianos are that bad people expect to pay more, and they deserve to as well. I'm not going to disappoint them, especially when it takes longer and is more wearing on me. That pitch raise results in the 175 bill and I'm thinking about raising it to 195. OTH, if the bass is near pitch, the tenor is 25 cents flat tapering to near pitch in octave 5-6, then a first pass from the tenor break to octave 5, then a single pass over the whole thing, i.e., a 1.5 pass pitch raise. For that I'll charge 120. Mostly I just use the force when it comes to setting the final price. Really, give yourself some leeway. Some pianos are just bears on a pitch raise and you should be able to charge more when that happens. Different strokes. Figure out what works for you and what you can sell your customers. But try to always explain potential fees before you get there. Dean Dean May cell 812.239.3359 PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272 Terre Haute IN 47802 _____ From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Terry Farrell Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 7:31 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] i'll take a pass Which is why I always explain to a caller that if the piano is up or near standard pitch, my $95 tuning fee covers what I need to do regarding tuning. But if the piano is significantly below standard pitch, then we will have to do a separate proceedure called a pitch raise to get the piano up to standard pitch before I can tune it. My fee for a pitch raise is $45 - but, of course, only if your piano needs it. I approach this statement by asking how long it has been since the last tuning...... (Yeah, yeah, I know - but this is how I present my tuning fee structure to a caller. That way, no surprises come appointment day....... Terry Farrell On Aug 21, 2009, at 6:08 PM, Britney Kirk wrote: That's how I do it. It gives bad vibes when you get to someone's house and say, " By the way, it'll cost you even more than you originally thought!" -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org]On Behalf Of Noah Frere Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 3:58 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] i'll take a pass So am I to understand you have one flat rate for every tuning, no matter how long it takes? On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 7:24 PM, Tom Sivak <tvaktvak at sbcglobal.net> wrote: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090821/e8373db7/attachment-0001.htm>
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