missed appointments, no-shows

[Larry Fisher]

Ah yes, that dreaded look about the place that I've become so good at
spotting.  It's as if I can see the heat from the people from with in the
house, or I can hear if there's a heartbeat coming from inside the
house........... and when I can't spot either, and the dog is acting like,
"what are you doing here?" I'm compelled to GET REVENGE!!  Actually I did
this once, in Cheyenne, there's a developement out of town about 12 miles
west, and the appointment was made for a particular time slot.  I drove all
the way out there, in a 40 MPH gentle breeze and found no one home.  I
waited my standard 15 minutes and gave her an additional 5 minutes
considering the distance from town.  The dog greeted me briefly and then
returned back to his dog house, out of the wind.  He didn't like getting
pelted with crushed granite any more than I did.  After deciding that she
totally spaced my call, and I spent all that time and money and gas getting
there for a dry run, I commenced to spin a rather nasty doughnut in what she
might have called her front yard,  spraying her dog and house with rather
large chunks of prairie grass turf and mountain crumbs, then proceeded
through the barrow pit (ditch) and on to the road to head for home.  I
caught a brief view of the event in the mirrors of my 4X4 and saw very
noticable divots in her yard.  This has been the only time I've made any
customer "pay" for a missed appointment.

Frustrating as they are, I can't bring myself to that level of "arrogance"
(the only term I can think of) to charge people for missed appointments, no
matter how busy I am, no matter how far I've traveled.  Fortunately, I don't
do out of town calls much, and when I do, communication is fresh, and the
ramifications are very thoroughly understood.  I had more missed
appointments working for a dealer, on a dealer's payroll, when scheduling
was done by a bimbo, then I've ever had in my entire career.  I usually
found a nice place to take a nap and get paid for it.  Being self-employed
and having to deal with a missed appointment is different.  I have found
that the slightly higher than the cheapest price in town has saved me quite
a bit of grief, including no-shows.

I never heard from the lady outside of Cheyenne, and I didn't leave a
doorknob hanger "sorry we missed you" that I leave now.  It sure felt good
to rip up her front yard and spray her house and dog I'll have you know.  I
was quite a bit younger then.  I still have thoughts these days, but instead
I go find a phone, and if there's still no answer, I go back and leave a
door knob hanger on the house somewhere, and go do errands until the next
call or go fishing.

lar

                                                  Larry Fisher RPT
                specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
                       phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
                  http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/homepage.html (revised 8/96)
                         Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water