Wim,
I was just giving an example. Sometimes I offer discounts, sometimes I don't. If I need the business, I actually do the opposite of what you do, and I don't offer a discount. I still get the work. It may depend on where you are located if you need to offer a discount for fear of not getting the job. However, if I do need work, I would definitely hand in the invoice first thing. It can take these institutions quite a while for turn around sometimes.
My whole point was that if you submit the invoice first thing, then I wouldn't worry about submitting another because the situation has changed.
One time I submitted an invoice to a school to tune four pianos. They wanted me to fax the invoice right away because they only had a few days to use their funds before the next budget year started. So I submitted it for four pianos (yes, with a break for each one). Anyway, when I got there to tune we (the choir director and myself) had discovered one of the pianos had been vandalized. (Some kid dumped a bucket of water in a grand). So I skipped that one. When I finished the three, I submitted another invoice for the three I did. When I got the check a few weeks later, I found they had still paid me for the four (my original invoice). You know how much of a hassle it can be to try and deal with this, when you are probably dealing with a dozen different people at the school, so I didn't bother (not my mistake). Oh, and I don't give credits either.
TODD PIANO WORKS
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com
--- On Sat, 3/27/10, tnrwim at aol.com <tnrwim at aol.com> wrote:
From: tnrwim at aol.com <tnrwim at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] pros and cons of discounts
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Saturday, March 27, 2010, 5:11 AM
What do you do for situations where you submit an invoice in advance, and things don't work out exactly as originally planned?
Example: You go to tune three pianos at a local school, with the agreed upon price minus $4 per piano. You submit the invoice to the guy and begin work. You just finish the first piano, and someone comes in and says "shhhhh, we are having testing". So now you need to reschedule the other two pianos for a different time. Do you still give the $4 discount, even if you already submitted the invoice? Me personally, if I gave only $4 off per piano, it wouldn't bother me and I would give it to them anyway. But I know there is the clause "per piano in the same location/building at the same appointment".
TODD PIANO WORKS
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician
Matthew
Plain and simple, don't sweat the small stuff. As I said in my report, if you don't need to give discounts, then you wouldn't have offered it in the first place. So apparently you need the business. Since you offered a discount, sure it would be nice to do only what you've originally agreed to do. But even if it takes 2 days, or three trips, to the school, you're still going to get paid to tune 3 pianos. If you hadn't offered the discount, you would not have tuned any pianos, and you have made zero dollars.
Now that I've made that clear, in the future, I would suggest you don't hand in the final invoice until after you've tuned all the pianos. I realize some schools want an invoice to get approval for the work before you even start. But you should insert some sort of language that allows you to change the final bill to reflect "additional work" that needed to be done to the pianos. What you do with that is up to you, but if you feel you need to charge them "full boat" because of scheduling problem, but all means, do so. If anything, do a little extra to the piano, like regulation, voicing, etc., something that doesn't take too long, to justify the increase in price.
Wim
-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Todd <toddpianoworks at att.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Fri, Mar 26, 2010 12:45 pm
Subject: Re: [pianotech] pros and cons of discounts
Dean,
What do you do for situations where you submit an invoice in advance, and things don't work out exactly as originally planned?
Example: You go to tune three pianos at a local school, with the agreed upon price minus $4 per piano. You submit the invoice to the guy and begin work. You just finish the first piano, and someone comes in and says "shhhhh, we are having testing". So now you need to reschedule the other two pianos for a different time. Do you still give the $4 discount, even if you already submitted the invoice? Me personally, if I gave only $4 off per piano, it wouldn't bother me and I would give it to them anyway. But I know there is the clause "per piano in the same location/building at the same appointment".
TODD PIANO WORKS
Matthew Todd, Piano Technician
(979) 248-9578
http://www.toddpianoworks.com
--- On Fri, 3/26/10, Dean May <deanmay at pianorebuilders.com> wrote:
From: Dean May <deanmay at pianorebuilders.com>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] pros and cons of discounts
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Friday, March 26, 2010, 5:03 PM
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I began this year offering a $4 discount for multiple pianos. If there is more than one piano at a location being tuned, or they schedule together with another friend or friends, $4 off for each piano. It is working well and I’m very happy with it.
Dean
Dean W May (812) 235-5272
PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY
Terre Haute IN 47802
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of tnrwim at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:05 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] pros and cons of discounts
Several of us on this list have pined our opinions on discounting our services. There are some who flat out refuse to offer any kind of discount, no matter what, while there are others who regularly offer a discount, to both individuals and non-profits, like churches. What we need to take into consideration when we offer a discount is how it effects our business. If you have all the business you can handle, and are regularly booked several weeks in advance, then you are in a position to stick to your regular service fee and work on only those pianos you deem worthy of your talent. I envy all of you who can do that, because there used to be time when I was in that position. But, unfortunately, such is not longer the case.
With the current economic condition in our country the way it is, one we have not encountered in over 70 years, "tough times call for tough measures". It used to be that servicing 20 or more customers in a week was the norm. But often times I end the week with no more than 12 - 15 appointments. And those were hard to come by, in that I did have to offer a discount. The discount was offered, or promoted, not so much to get my customers to use me instead of a competitor, but just to get the customer to have her piano tuned. There are many people who are now making tough decisions on how to spend their money. They don't have the discretionary income to spend going out to dinner or buying a new flat screen TV. So when they call to get their piano tuned, and the fee is more than they think it should be, they will opt to delay getting that done. They will, instead, use that money to take a trip, or fix the house.
Discounts are becoming a way of life in our country. Everything is "on sale", and that includes getting pianos tuned. There is nothing wrong with offering the discount. It might be the only way to stay in business. And this includes offering discounts to teachers who promise to recommend you to their students, and working on rat infested spinets in a stinky house. There is nothing wrong with doing what needs to be done to make a buck, while maintaining your self respect and dignity.
Wim
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