Referral Fees

[David Ilvedson]

George,

Welcome to the List...even if you've been lurking for awhile...;-]  Obviously you're "colleaque" won't be receiving any more referrals from you.  I hope you let him know this?  I expect your rebuilding figures were in the normal range of other technicians meaning his pronouncement for both jobs was for a cut-rate figure?  One of the advantages of PTG is meeting a larger group of technicians in your area from which to possibly do business.  This kind of behind your back non-ethics is frowned upon...;-].  

David Ilvedson, RPT

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 2/7/01 at 8:49 PM George wrote:

>Terry,
>I am not sure if I should write to the listserv since I am not a PTG 
>member.  I agree to some sort of referral fee for any recommendation.
>About 30 years ago, when I was a beginner, one of my costumer wanted to do 
>some major repairs on his piano refinishing included.  Since I am not a 
>furniture refinisher, I recommended my costumer to a colleague of mine who 
>had a complete refinishing section in his piano shop. ( For information 
>purposes he was a piano rebuilder with a complete shop).  When he returned 
>the piano to my costumer with a very beautiful piano a got paid he said he 
>could have done both his job and mine for the refinishing job.
>That was two recommendation to this fellow from; the first and last.
>I thought I mention this to all sincere technicians to be on the lookout 
>when referring someone.
>George Takats
>retired technician
>
>At 06:32 PM 2/7/01 -0500, you wrote:
>>This post is related to Howard's recent post. Some techs like a lot of
>shop
>>work and some don't. Some tune almost exclusively. They obviously run into
>>many pianos that could use major regulation, action rebuilding, bridge
>>repairs, restringing, rebuilding, etc.
>>
>>If a tech called me up and said that he/she had a customer with a piano
>that
>>needs bridge work, restringing and a new pinblock - let's just say $3,000
>>worth of work - it would seem appropriate to me to work out some type of
>>referral fee for this type of work. I get what I want (shop work), the
>other
>>tech gets a happy customer and a better piano to tune.
>>
>>I would think a referral fee would entice those non-shop oriented techs
>into
>>pursuing these types of arrangements. Does anyone have any experience with
>>this type of thing. I just did a bridge repair for another tech and gave
>him
>>10% of the job fee. Any thoughts?
>>
>>Terry Farrell
>>Piano Tuning & Service
>>Tampa, Florida
>>mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com