Cost of Piano tunings

[Dave Bunch]

A well known drain cleaning chain charged me 142.00 for 20 minutes a while
back. I have to hand it to them for their great marketing strategy. "We
don't charge extra to come in the middle of the night." Thats because they
charge their night time rate 24 hours a day. What a great racket!

My theory is this: If your drain backs up or your refridgerator quits, you
want it fixed NOW. People are not willing to live without  plumbing and
appliances so they pay what it takes and don't usually even think to shop
around on price.

On the other hand, many piano owners would probably let their pianos rot
before they would pay 142.00 for 20 minutes of service, because if it
doesn't get tuned this year, we can still play it and besides, its not like
the toilet is backing up!

Dave Bunch
----- Original Message -----
From: <BSHARPTUNE@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2001 9:49 PM
Subject: Cost of Piano tunings


> Dear List:
> I just came back from vacation and noticed the talk about piano tuning
> charges.   Ed Foote's comment about a repairman working on his fridge for
22
> minutes and charging 135.00 really rang a bell with me.  Two similar
> circumstances happened to me and is what prompted me to jump my tuning
charge
> from 75.00 to 95.00 per tuning.
>
> First circumstance:  A year ago (1 month out of warranty, of course), a
Sears
> repairman comes to fix my wife's 449.00 Kenmore dish washer.   He worked
86
> minutes.  The charge was 145.00 labor, 37.00 parts.    I'm thinking, this
guy
> works on a 449.00 dish washer for 88 minutes and charges 145.00, but if I
> work on/tune a 25,000.00 Steinway in the same amount of time, I get 75.00?
> IT DON'T ADD UP FOLKS!  Even most verticals average serveral thousand
dollars
> in value.
>
> Second circumstance:   This summer our central a/c was not doing it's job.
> The repairman determined that the heat disipating fins were dirty.  He
takes
> a panel off the unit, and uses our hose to wash out the fins.  Total time:
> approx. 20 minutes.
> Charge: 75.00.
>
> This really began to bother me.  I concluded that these other repairmen
were
> either charging too much for what they did, or I too little for what I
did.
>
>
>
>
>
>