Ron, there are those times when you have the piano "trained" after being repeatedly tuned to a set standard, where you do only need to do one pass. Often I will not charge extra for two passes if I think that the owner has really been trying to do the right thing by regularly tuning their piano. If a piano is within say ten cents or so, evenly, not thirty cents low in the top end, then I won't charge for a pitch raise. But, if I get the impression on the first tuning that it hasn't been tuned in two or three years, then hey, I charge more for that kind of situation. And that means that I haven't seen that particular piano before. In fact, on all new calls, I usually quote for my regular tuning fee, but tell them about my fee for a pitch raise, if one should be necessary. Then, after I've stripped off the piano and listened to it, I give them the news and let them decide what it is that they want me to do. Often, I do this first, without even stripping off the piano if I can hear beats in the unisons. You might think that this is punishing the customer for not taking care of their piano, and in a way it is, but before I became a technician, I thought that if I let it go for a couple of years, then hey, I'll pay extra next time; no problem. I didn't expect to get something for nothing. Even though I lived in California. Maybe that's one of the reasons I had to get out; I had nothing in common with those people. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Nossaman" <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 5:48 AM Subject: Re: stability of pitch raises > >Ron, > > If a piano has been neglected long enough to warrent a pitch correction, > >these is no doubt that other items necessary for a healthy piano have been > >piling up also. There is always plenty to do outside of tuning, yes? > > > Of course Dan, but that wasn't the question. > > The question was: > > >> If folks are habitually doing two pass tunings anyway, and since they're > >> probably using an ETD that does pitch raises within a couple of cents of > >> dead on in one pass (as we read repeatedly), why would they find it > >> necessary to charge anything above the cost of a tuning for a pitch > >> adjustment? > > Ron N
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