I agree with Isreal’s second paragraph. That’s life. It’s not always a bed of roses, and sometimes it’s a hassle. But once you have been in business a while and perhaps gained a little wisdom with age, you begin to choose the things that are worth getting upset about, and stop sweating the small stuff. This is small potatoes. Do what you need to collect, and just let it go if you cant. Don’t hang onto your resentment, the only person being punished is yourself, by you. And Mark’s recommendation is good advice if you are not comfortable that you will be paid in a timely manner. This is what I do when I do insurance appraisals for damage on the piano. I’m not heartless when the customer is in a bad way, but usually I have them pay me, and then collect from their insurance company – because the insurance companies take forever or never pay you. One thing that has gone unmentioned in this discussion are the harsh economic times that the piano manufacturers are living in right now – all of them. You know that credit crunch you read about? Well, guess you can’t get financing to buy that piano they were planning – yep, Mom and Dad and little Suzy. More of the piano makers and dealers sales are connected to available credit than you may realize, and they are twisting in the wind. So don’t be surprised to see some cracks showing here and there, or even see some makers go down the drain in the near future. Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Israel Stein Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 3:09 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Don't work for this manufacturer >Wednesday, October 28, 2009 11:00:07 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Greg Newell wrote: >Amen to that! Customer pays. Let them hound the manufacturer. I've got better things to do. >Greg Newell >Greg's Piano Forté Greg, Good for you. But it isn't quite that simple. What would you do in a case that you find a serious warranty issue in a new piano that the new owner isn't quite aware of? Say - backchucking (pulley) keys. It doesn't bother them now - but sooner or later their checking will go to hell, and the keys will get noisy. Too soon for the age of the piano - but probably after the warranty expires. So you are going to tell the owner about this - and charge them a fairly steep fee to fix it right - and make them chase the manufacturer for the cost? Good f.....n luck, Greg. Most of the time they'll think you are trying to pull a fast one on them. OK, so you'll just keep your mouth shut and not say anything, right? Would that be ethical? There is more to the business of piano tuning than just doing the work and collecting the fee. If we want to be treated like professionals, we need to behave in a professional manner - which sometimes means dealing with manufacturers and other large companies, and jumping through whatever hoops they make us jump through in order to protect our clients' best interests. And sometimes it's a hassle - but hey, that's all part of the business... Israel Stein >>-----Original Message----- >>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Mark Wisner >>Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 10:21 AM >>To: pianotech at ptg.org >>Subject: Re: [pianotech] Don't work for this manufacturer >>Wim wrote..."I hope that this episode will be a learning experience on Samick's part..." >>Wim, I've no doubt Samick, and Ms. Jones, have learned something from this experience, but I suspect the lesson they learned wasn't the one you intended to teach. >>The "learning experience" with Samick could have been avoided by following a rule I learned a long time ago (the hard way) which is: Whoever requests the service pays the bill. For example; When a party requested that I submit my bill to a third party for payment I'd ask if they were confident that the third party will pay the bill in a timely fashion? And when the inevitable "yes" response followed, my reply was along the lines of "Fine, then you won't have a problem getting reimbursed". >>Mark Wisner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091028/77192738/attachment-0001.htm>
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