Missed Appointments; The Tuner, too.

[TunerJeff@aol.com]

Dear List,

     Yeah, well... sometimes WE are the ones who miss an appointment. What
then?
Do you compensate your customer for his/her lost time?!!? It seems to me that
we owe the customer the same consideration (...and/or renumeration..) for the
time THEY lose when we can't get to them, on short or zero notification.

      Case in Point; Me!

     Last week, I had a service appointment set for a church. My faithful
chariot decided to take a break after the first tuning that day (ie; "No. I
do not wish to start. I am content to grind away and go 'PPHHHttzzzz!' every
once in a while, just to keep you hopeful. But no. I will not start until you
completely re-set the points & timing. Right now.). I attempted to call the
church, but there is no phone. I call my contact for the church, but she's
already at the church... waiting for me.

     She calls that evening, not terribly upset, and re-schedules the tuning
for the following week. She had assumed that I was detained, and understood
that there was no way to reach her at the church. No problem. Everything's
fine. Right?

     Well...this morning my faithful 4-banger cracked a fan... guess what?
Can you determine (...from these few simple clues...) which tuning was
re-scheduled for the afternoon??? Can you guess who was (again) waiting at
the church? Yup.

     I'm not sure how you folks would feel in my position, but you may
understand why I'm giving them a 25% discount on this tuning! And, we've
decided that next time; She'll wait at home for my call, when I reach town,
before setting out for the church. I certainly hope that we manage to cross
paths this time. We'll see!

Chagrined,
Jeffrey T. Hickey, RPT

ps-
When it's the customer/client that misses the meeting; Hey! Everybody gets
one for free.
After that, it's a service charge. Same charge as driving out to repair one
sticky key. But, somehow... I don't believe I've ever actually charged
someone.... somehow it always seems so reasonable. But, I do raise the
spectre every once in a while! Yah sure!
(But, I'm a sucker for a good story. Who isn't?)     ;>)