[pianotech] priorities

[David Love]

Not much more to be said here.  Customers like this generally take the
dealer sponsored tuning and never call again anyway for another 6-8 years.
They didn't respect you before they paid your late cancellation fee and they
won't respect you after probably.  You certainly won't gain their respect by
walking away uncompensated.  

I agree that dealer tunings (on new pianos anyway) should be at full rate
plus whatever the piano needs and should have been done at the dealer before
it left the showroom.  New pianos are usually twice the work (at least),
there's no guarantee of customer loyalty, so doing them at a substantial
discount guarantees nothing but aggravation.  Moreover, leaving the piano
without doing the necessary work or at least pointing out what needs to
happen on a follow up visit runs the risk of making you look like you don't
know what you're doing.  

No good deed goes unpunished.  


David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Ron Nossaman
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 4:12 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] priorities

On 4/5/2012 5:02 PM, Delwin D Fandrich wrote:
> Well, of course it's a negative. I would consider standing me up without
> any notice to be a negative. I would consider saying nothing to be equal
> to saying my time and that of her carpet cleaner are valuable, mine is
> not so I'll just go away quietly. Sorry, but there is a charge for time
> and mileage that somebody needs to be responsible for.

I agree with Del on this one, though he may well not agree with me by 
the end of this. Old customers (friends) don't do this to you. If they 
screw up and ditch an appointment, it's entirely by accident or 
unavoidable circumstance. Old customers (friends) are forgiven being 
human (therefor flaky, as is their tech), and repeats are nonexistent. 
The infrequent times this happens, there is often an unsolicited 
addition to the check beyond the charge. Cancelling an appointment at 
the door in favor of a carpet cleaning is something from a new customer 
who, if they ever have in their life, doesn't work for a living and 
couldn't care less if they waste your income. I offer to reschedule for 
the price of a service call for this trip, and the tuning for the next, 
paid in advance and subject to extension if there are extra charges when 
the tuning is done - such as the pencils in the action which was the 
only reason the piano needed tuned in the first place. If the ensuing 
huff and spew dies down, I explain that doing this at the doctor's 
office will cost you an office visit fee and the doctor didn't drive 
across town to be stood up. The reason for the fee in both cases is loss 
of scheduled income, and meeting overhead, which is necessary to staying 
in business. Reasonable folk, and there are actually what seem to be 
reasonable rich folk, will see the sense in this and agree. These folk 
often turn into old customers (friends), and were just unaware that 
there was anyone out there for which money didn't just appear as 
requested. The concept of earning a living had just never entered their 
head. If the ensuing huff and spew doesn't die down, they are put on the 
list (which typically contains maybe a couple or three names of 
unresolved offenders). Should they call later after thinking about it, 
it's always to offer to pay the service call, become an old customer 
(friend), and it works out. If they don't call, that's a shame. They 
lose a long time loyal technician (friend), and I lose a tuning fee.

I neither request, nor expect either drinks or tips, but I've always 
been willing to be spoiled should the mood move them.

My customers are subject to the same economic vagaries as most of us, 
but they tend to be honorable and trustworthy, as do I.

Dealer work, however, sucks. Should I do any, it's at full retail with 
the understanding that the dealer will pay the service whether the 
customer lets me do it or not. A brief description of the aforementioned 
huff and spew scene on the doorstep (or a left business card induced 
return call) usually does it. Or they can call someone else who'll 
cheerfully allow his time to be wasted by EVERYONE, and at a wholesale 
rate at that.

Ron N