empty house call

[Del Gittinger]

Quite often when I show up to do a "the door's open" tuning someone has
been home.  So, my rule of thumb is - knock first ANYWAY! 

Because:
  	Kids get sick and stay home from school
	Parents get an unexpected day off from work
	The family schedule gets changed unexpectedly (and they didn't remember
the tuner was coming)
	The married daughter is at mom's doing her laundry
	etc. etc.

Del Gittinger, RPT
Registered Piano Technician
of the Piano Techicians Guild
delgit@acc-net.com


----------
> From: Larry Fisher <larryf@pacifier.com>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: empty house call
> Date: Saturday, January 10, 1998 12:50 AM
> 
> Years ago, when I was a dealer slave in Minneapolis, I was told that the
> door would be unlocked and to just go on in and tune the piano.  The
house
> was on Lake Minnetonka and the house numbers were a bit skewed on the
dead
> end road, in the far corner of the lake.  The home owner didn't realize
that
> there was a house a few doors before his that had the exact same house
> number.  That twist may have been because the winters there tend to eat
that
> which is weak (rotten house numbers get inverted or fall off posts and
such)
> or because in fact there was a duplicate house number there, I never
found
> out.  All I know is I walked into a house that wasn't empty, there was a
> coat draped across the sofa, and someone was upstairs and there wasn't a
> piano in sight.   OOOOOOPPPPPSSSie  I vaporized myself quickly back to my
CJ
> and drove across the frozen lake to put as much ground/ice between me and
> that house as fast as that whimpy little 6 banger would go through 6
inches
> of snow to the farthest boat ramp I could find.
> 
> I now have a policy with people for those who can't be home.  Do I know
> them?  Have I done their piano before?  Was I referred to them by someone
> else that I'm in good standing with??  Is there a dealer association
> involved??  If after all these questions are answered favorably, I have
them
> put a piece of tape on the door knob.  The homeowner and I are the only
ones
> that know what that's for.  The key placement is their perogative
> ..........  their risk.
> 
> 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/ (revised 10/96)
>            Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water
>