surcharge revisited

[Roy Ulrich]

After your original message I got to thinking I'm due for a raise, not in
the form of a surcharge that I would be best served by removing after the
gas prices go down as they will, but just for the heck of it. So I bumped
the tunings by 5 bucks and the mileage by another nickle per mile,
permanent. Or at least until the next time....People are already po'd about
the gas prices, in my opinion a "surcharge" just reinforces their po-edness
and makes you part of the "system" in that the average "Joe" working at the
average job for an employer, doesn't have the opportunity to increase his
paycheck to off set the increase in gas prices. I smell resentment in that
case and prefer to avoid the bad press that comes with our ability to apply
a surcharge as needed when most of our customers, can't. They still have to
drive to the work site every day and gas up along the way - can they go to
the boss and ask for a "surcharge" because it costs them more to get to and
from work? Sure. You can ask for anything. Will they get it? Probably not. I
suggest that we're not necessary, like the grocery store, shoe store, liquor
mart, whatever. Prudence might dictate that we try to stay on top of
inflation, but avoid the political "hot topics". But do what you will,
you're self employed with all those coffee cans of cash buried in the back
yard ya know....

Roy Ulrich

-----Original Message-----
From: Wimblees@AOL.COM <Wimblees@AOL.COM>
To: Pianotech@ptg.org <Pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2000 8:58 AM
Subject: surcharge revisited


>As you recall, I asked the question on charging a little extra for my
tunings
>to compensate for the increase in gas prices. For the most part, it was
>recommended I bite the bullet, and wait it out.
>
>Well, guess what, folks. Yesterday by Keyboard Carriage delivered two
piano,
>and the bill was $30 higher than normal. The normal delivery charge is $130
>per piano. Not only had they raised the price to $140 per piano, but they
>also added a $5 surcharge to offset the increase in diesel fuel prices. It
>will be interesting to see if they remove the surcharge in a couple of
weeks
>when prices are supposed to come down.
>
>Next week I going to add a $2 surcharge to my tuning bill.
>
>Willem
>