My tutor in the business, John Grace, once completed an $1800 reconditioning of a grand piano for a local doctor's wife. She decided he was tardy in finishing, and that the plate didn't look refinished after the simple clean she had agreed to. She had paid $800 down, and declined to pay him the other $1000.
He hadn't yet done the final tuning, so the doctor's wife called and my wife set up an appointment. When I saw the name on the calendar, I called her. I told her I could not tune her piano as her account was not current with Mr. Grace. She explained she felt the account was current because yada yada yada. I asked her if she would feel similarly if someone stiffed her husband for a thousand dollars. She told me she thought the comparison was unfortunate. I then told her I would be unwilling to tune her piano because I had to consider her a bad credit risk.
As far as I know, no one has ever tuned her piano.
This happened several years ago. Because of this, we invited a lawyer to a chapter meeting to talk about collecting money. In the state of Washington, when you repair something, you are part owner of it until you are paid. From small claims court, you can go to a higher court and get a judgment requiring the sheriff to remove the piano, auction it and pay you first, then the person who should have paid you gets whatever is left. I have never known anyone who has taken it that far.
David Stocker, RPT
Tumwater, WA
From: Matthew Todd
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 20:32
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Collection Agencies
The recent topic regarding manufacturer payments has reminded me of something I have been wanting to throw at everyone.
Has anyone ever had the sheer pleasure of turning in a non-paying client to collections? Is this even possible in our line of work? What kind of legal grounds would one need? I have each of my clients, or whoever is there, sign the invoice when my work is complete, showing that I have completed the work to their satisfaction.
I know to some of you, dealing with a collection agency may not be at all worth it financially to you, as I am sure you would be lucky to recover 30% of your invoice amount. However, it's just the point that if someone did try to intentionally stiff you of your services, collections would at least leave a mark on their credit, which I feel would be better than just walking away.
Thoughts anyone?
Matthew
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091028/08ed3565/attachment-0001.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC