Avery, I'll not jump into the best recommendation area, but after considering the replies to date, believe I have arrived at how the present budget was (or is) determined. You said approximately 250 pianos, so let's go with that. 250 pianos times 2 tunings per year times $25 per tuning = $12,500. Close enough. Allowing for a margin of error in the piano count, or -lower- per tuning rate, there's your (or their) numbers. I've seen it too many times. I've actually experienced it a couple times. Your post and their numbers sound like the results of an open bid arrangement. Unfortunately, I've witnessed this pricing structure fairly recently. When I was finally discovered by the local university, it was not by bid, rather by direct phone call from the chair. Long story short: chair bypassed the usual bid arrangement somehow (paper flow, smaller purchase orders, trickery... I don't know). By the time I got to the pianos (at a rate I quoted), I was following an $18 tuner. By that time, the professors, music students, administration, and even people walking down the halls knew it. That's how bad the pianos sounded and performed. The music chair said something to the effect of "false economy" regarding the lowest bid arrangement -- the pianos may have sounded just as good (or bad) with no tunings. I don't know who the former tuner was. It doesn't matter. The point is, even on a university campus, without the need to drive all over town (like your situation), $18~25 tunings, whether called "floor", "discount", or "bulk rate" tunings, they are simply not do-able in today's economy. Sorry about the run-on sentence. My take, Jim Harvey RPT Hooterville, SC >Avery Todd wrote: >> I was asked today about a school system in the Houston area that wanted >> to start a program to have their pianos tuned and "repaired", i.e. >whatever was >> needed. They're not looking necessarily for "cheap". They just want to know >> what would be reasonable. >> They have app. 250 pianos and they wanted to know if $12,000.00 a year >was >> unreasonable. Jim Harvey, RPT Greenwood, SC harvey@greenwood.net ________________________ -- someone who's been in the field too long.
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