Fw: Under an hour tuning (was labor rates)

[Erwinpiano]

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----- Original Message -----=20
From: Farrell To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 6:27 AM
Subject: Re: Under an=20

. I wish we could charge strictly by the hour.
   I came into this thread a little late Soooooooo
  Am I missing something?  Why don't you, every other business does. Any =
way a good flat rate is supposed to encompass prep,drive and work time.


The old upright. The old upright. Geeeeezzz. The old upright. Hmmm. =
First you spend 20 minutes trying to talk the owner out of doing =
anything with it. After failure at that (although I do not always =
fail!), you tune three notes - pound in a tuning pin - tune a few more - =
now you gotta stop because you have a jack flange unglued - fix that - =
bla, bla, bla, - hammers flying off - bla, bla, bla, - you know the =
picture here - even though you charge extra to fix the jack flange and =
unglued hammer butt leather, and broken hammer, etc., etc., it still =
slows you down big time. I find that old uprights will take anywhere =
from 1 to 2 hours to tune - plus the repairs.
  =20
TerryBeen there done that!
 =20
   Time in customers home plus travel time , multiply by your hourly =
rate. What's the problem?  Educating the customer is the problem and =
that starts on the phone with an explanation of cost based on time =
spent. Yes some people will not go for anything but the Lowest price in =
town ( so what)but what are they going to get for that ? The possibly =
worst most unstable tuning money can buy.
 Quality most be sold and then proven when given the oppurtunity.
 =20
So here I tune pianos in 45 minutes to 2 hours and charge the same thing =
(actually I do charge the same for all except $5 more for spinets and =
$10 more for old uprights). This is dictated by piano owners expecting =
one price for tuning.
  =20
    Change their expectations.

The point? Just trying to understand how others work some of this out. =
Thanks.

Terry Farrell

     Terry, when a potential client calls we quote a price range between =
90 and 125 shekels of silver with the explanation of why and also the =
posibility that the piano could possibly need other work and that I (or =
you or somebody) can assess that while tuning. Mostly this scares off =
the low end that are only calling for my every other-decade tune up. =
Yawnnnnn. These people are the worst clients and almost a waste of your =
effort. They tell no one else about you and you spent a herculean  =
effort for the not enough shekels one price fits all tuning fee to try =
to straighten out thir Sorry& and Yuck( I really liked that)

Hope that helps. Just my two cents worth.
 =20
 Dale Erwin
-----=20

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