"But I think in the future I would consider explaining "a string might fail" BEFORE doing a large pitch raise." ABSOLUTELY! I do it before ANY pitch raise on any piano. That will go a long way toward explaining why you want to charge them for TWO pitch raises on that rusty 1915 Starr upright that is 100 cents flat! On a newer piano and/or a small pitch raise, I will still inform them of the risk of string breakage, but then also say that it is unusual for strings to break on a newer piano like theirs - just to put them at ease (even though you have put them on notice!). Terry Farrell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Neuman" <piano@charlesneuman.net> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 5:26 PM Subject: Re: lessons learned > Mike Kurta wrote: > > Hi Charles: > > No, No, No, don't say those statements, don't even think that way. > > First and foremost, protect yourself by pre-conditioning the customer by > > educating him or her... > > Thanks Mike, > > That's just the kind of thing I was looking for. Would you recommend > educating the customer in this way before doing just a tuning? Suppose > nothing is broken (yet), and you fear that some elbows will break during > the tuning. > > I have successfully gotten through the "a string failed" speech, and I > purposely gave a low price to replace it to show that I wasn't making it > up. But I think in the future I would consider explaining "a string might > fail" BEFORE doing a large pitch raise. That way, a customer CHOOSES the > pitch raise, fully knowing all the risks. Then I would feel more > comfortable charging a more apropriate rate for a string replacement. > > Thanks for the tips. This is really helpful. > > Charles Neuman > PTG Assoc, Long Island > > _______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
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