Different Cultures/Foreign Techs.

[Lance Lafargue]

This past week I've tuned/worked for three Russians, a Greek, and two
Oriental customers.  One of My Russian customers (a teacher) told me the I
needed to go back and check the tuning on her student's piano (one of the
other Russians) because chords were not clear and sounded terrible in the
unison bass section before the break. The PSO in question is a new
Wurlitzer spinet.  The owner was already leery about my services because I
charged her more than she thought I would ($80 for a 40 cent pitch raise
plus adjustments and cabinet touch-up) and I was only there for a total of
two hours.  She also commented (to the teacher) that Russian technicians
took three hours and charged much less.  
When I arrived I found the piano in almost perfect (as perfect as it would
allow) tune.  I played chords up and down the piano and it did sound bad in
that section, like all spinets do.  I checked and rechecked and found some
of the hammers misaligned and hitting adjacent strings (could only be heard
with sustain pedal depressed and a hard blow struck).  I corrected the
alignment, touched up unisons and left.  She seemed O.K.
I pointed out to the teacher that they may benefit from comparing hourly
rates in other fields (electricians, plumbers, etc) in Russia as well to
compare.  U.S. technician rates may not look so bad.  
My point or question in all of this is- What difficulties are there with
customers from other countries due to differences in cultural, economic,
and normally accepted business practices around the world?  I usually know
to take off my shoes in an Asian household (I even had to wear a female
customer's slippers once to walk over and use her phone), etc., but what
other things have you come across in customer's expectations??  Do techs in
other countries all vacuum the piano as a normal course of a tuning call,
do regulation, voicing, polish the cabinet, mow the lawn etc, etc.?  I find
this interesting and wonder what a tech on the other side of the world does
on an average call.  How long do foreign techs spend on a piano? 
Lance Lafargue, RPT
New Orleans Chapter
Covington, LA. USA
lafargue@iamerica.net