I for one am very grateful for Mark Wisner's advice. I have done work at a dealer's request and then had him ask me to bill the manufacturer instead of him AFTER I finished the work and gave him an invoice. It is difficult to know how to work together with the manufacturers. We want to be fair to them, and we want them to be fair to us. It would be helpful if there was some kind of rate sheet for different repairs to manufacturers. I know, I know, price fixing and all that..... I sent a request to a manufacturer recently to do a repinning job on a grand piano in a very high profile setting. My price was evidently too high in the manufacturer's opinion, because, as soon as I quoted a price, the head tech started avoiding me. Finally, I wrote the individual and said, "If there is a problem, please contact me so we can discuss it." I got an email back the next day telling me how much they could pay for that job. I finished it last weekend. Certainly we are not adversaries. We all have the same goal, to provide pianos to our customers that inspire them to keep playing and make music! --and to stay in business ourselves. Diane Hofstetter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the case Israel relates below, it seems like the proper thing to do would be to notify the manufacturer that you have discovered a defect that you believe should be covered and corrected under warranty. If the maker agrees, they'll authorize you to do the job, then you send them the bill when the work is done. It's certainly possible that I've misunderstood what Wim wrote earlier, but as I recall the dealer asked Wim to do the job and send the bill to the manufacturer, without it ever being authorized. You usually don't get to spend someone else's money without them saying it's OK first. Mark Wisner Diane Hofstetter
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