Small colleges in remote towns

[Wimblees@aol.com]

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In a message dated 11/4/01 2:19:34 PM !!!First Boot!!!, 
kswafford@earthlink.net writes:


> The college has a local tech that does regular tunings. The college likes
> the idea of having an "outside expert" come in regularly, and turned to me
> after they found out how much it would cost to have a real Steinway tech
> come from New York.  :)
> 
> I don't give any sort of discount for my services at this college which
> presents a real problem for the local tech, since he _does_ substantially
> discount his services. Therefore, I come in and in just two days use up a
> rather substantial portion of the annual piano service budget.
> 
> 

As of now, I have not been approached by smaller colleges around here, but 
the Steinway dealer told me he would recommend me to them. 

As I thought about this, on the one hand it is nice to be asked to be the 
"outside expert." But on the other hand, if the regular tuner does a 
satisfactory job, why would they need the outside expert. I wonder, as in 
your case, Kent, if the local tech was given the money the school promised 
you, if he couldn't do the same kind of service you are going to give. In 
other words, perhaps you will charge $1000 to tune and regulate the concert 
and faculty pianos. But perhaps if the local tech was given the same amount 
of money, he would be able to the same thing. Perhaps the local tech knows 
the budget is limited, and wants to keep his price low, so they will continue 
to use him. This might be a catch 22. If the local tech can do the advanced 
work, and charges more, he will not get the regular work. If he gives a 
discount so as to get the regular work, he won't get the advanced work. 
Before giving a bid to the school, perhaps you should ask the college if they 
are satisfied with the local tech's work. If they are, recommend they 
continue using him/her, but offer him/her more money to do the work. Of 
course, if they are not sattisfied with his/her work, that's another story. 

At one of the local colleges in St. Louis, the head of the piano faculty, who 
is from New York, convinced the school that no one in St. Louis was qualified 
to rebuild the D in the concert hall. So it was sent off to New York to be 
rebuild by the faculty member's "expert." Several years later I had the 
opportunity to tune that piano. I did better work in my first year as a 
rebuilder. Yet, the school thought is was great. After all, it was done by an 
"outside expert" in New York. 

Wim 

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