No Show / Doors Left Unlocked Updates

[Tom Cole]

Zen Reinhardt wrote:
>  
> ...I didn't bother checking the door to see if it was unlocked.  For one
> thing, no arrangements had been made in advance for entering her home in
> her absence.

Zen,

Two times I stepped over this line. The first time, I heard about it in
spades.

A customer I had tuned for before was not at home when I arrived. It was
a long, windy road to her house in the woods and I was in no mood to be
stood up. After waiting a while, I knocked on the door of the rental
cabin on her property which was being rented by a friend of mine (who is
a piano tuner!) and, after speaking with him for a while, decided to
tune the piano anyway since she had left her door unlocked (and I had
driven all that way) (on a _very_ windy road).

I got a phone call that evening from an irate woman who needed for me to
know that she felt violated. And, now that _I_ know that she doesn't
lock her front door, the rest of the universe will soon be privy to this
very same information, too, and on and on. No apology would placate her
and she wouldn't have let it go if I hadn't offered to reduce my fee to
one half the amount I had billed her. Needless to say, I no longer tune
her piano. (Guess who does.)

Mistake number two: I had arranged to do an annual tuning for some older
customers who, as usual, weren't going to be home but would leave a key
under the mat. At the appointed day and time, I found no key under the
mat (they forgot) and so I decided to try the back door to the attached
garage which I found open and which allowed me to enter the house
through the kitchen. I tuned the piano and left a bill. Which they paid.
Eventually. They even complimented me on my resourcefulness. Since it
has been years since that last annual tuning, it appears that I was a
little too "resourceful". I now know _their_ little secret, too.

I continue to tune pianos for people who are not at home at the time of
the appointment but with a clear understanding of how I am to enter and
leave the house. Furthermore, it's important to have some alternatives:
if the key is not under the mat, then what do I do? Is there a neighbor
to contact? Do you work close to home? What's your work number? That
way, you won't have to leave an angry message on their front lawn with
your back wheels.

Tom







-- 
Thomas A. Cole RPT
Santa Cruz, CA