New Cu$tomer Fee

[John M. Formsma]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
Of A440A@AOL.COM
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 1999 7:54 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: Re: New Cu$tomer Fee

<<<   I also assume that the first call will take longer,  and since all I
have
to sell is my time,  I have to tell them that the first time costs more.  I
don't charge more simply because it is a first time, but because,
invariably,
there is an additional amount of time that I have to spend to leave a job I
can be proud of. >>>

I think this is very fair.  My chiropractor charges more for the first visit
than for checkups, simply because of the extra time spent analyzing the
patient's condition.   While I don't tell a potential customer that the
first visit will be more, it usually turns out to be because of the pitch
raise from lack of tunings over the past 10 years.  I do explain to them
that pitch raises are required to get the piano up to pitch, then fine
tuning, and that a follow-up tuning will be necessary.  Some balk at the
extra expense, but I look at it this way:  I don't just leave a business
card on the piano--I leave my reputation on it!  If I tried to tune a 10
cent flat piano in one pass, yeah, it would sound OK for a few days, but
then the unisons would be out soon, the octaves would begin to go out, and
my reputation would suffer.  So, I have decided that I would rather not tune
if it is not done right.  I would hate to have a musician visit the home of
the piano I just tuned a week ago to have it sound cruddy, and say that he
will never have Formsma to tune his piano!  Ed is right.  We need to be
proud of the work that we do, and charge accordingly.

Ed, what percentage extra do you charge for a first-time service call?  Do
you spend the extra time tuning, or doing other things?

John Formsma
Blue Mountain, MS