Wim, My tuning fees are already at the top in my area, I'm still a little squeamish because there are those that find $75 tunings hard to pay. When Y2K hits and we're all riding bikes to tune 2 pianos a month to feed our families, I'll still have a few customers because I'm not as expensive as those rich tuners in Missouri! If we live thru 1/1/00, I'll go to $150 tunings! > You always take a chance when you let someone pay you later for that kind of > money. I would keep sending him reminder notices every week until he pays.. > You might also start adding interest. Sometimes that gets them to pay a little > faster. Unfortunately, this guy is an attorney, which scares me most of all. LANCE LAFARGUE, RPT LAFARGUE PIANO SERVICES New Orleans Chapter Mandeville, LA. _______________________________ II III II III II III II III II III II III II III II III II III II ------------------------------------------------------- lafargue@iamerica.net ---------- > From: Wimblees@AOL.COM > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: Re: Customers overpay me! > Date: Wednesday, March 24, 1999 9:11 PM > > In a message dated 3/24/99 11:58:48 PM !!!First Boot!!!, lafargue@iamerica.net > writes: > > << In the last couple of months I have had at least three customers > intentionally overpay me, I guess because they received more than they > thought they would, etc. One lady overpaid me $200 because she was so > happy, last week $75 overpaid for a $300 job, etc. (I'm charging $45/hr.) > > First thing I would do is raise my hourly fee. (I charge $75.00 per hour). If > some customers are willing to pay you more , just think how many are going to > pay you more if you charge them in the first place. > > > THEN, last month a guy I worked for asked if I would allow him to pay me > 1/2 in Feb and 1/2 in March since I did more work and charged more than he > thought (I was open-ended on the original estimate because of the > uncertainty of what would be needed, I was clear with him). Now he's > almost a month late with the balance ($525) and I'm getting a little > nervous. > > > > P.S. > I had a no-show from a customer who scheduled with me, then got another > tuner out quicker than I could and forgot to cancel me. She refuses to pay > the $45.00 failed appointment charge because "I have nothing writing". > What do you do with no-shows? Do we have a case? > > No shows are part of the business. I don't charge for them. Taking them to > court will cost you more than what you lost, if you can win the case. Just > rack it up as a bad experience. > > Wim > > > LANCE LAFARGUE, RPT > LAFARGUE PIANO SERVICES > New Orleans Chapter > Mandeville, LA. >>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC