Full Service Appointments: was Re: Yamaha hammers

[David Love]

Barbara:

I agree with the idea of full service appointments that allow enough time
to touch up the voicing or regulation a bit, though when the topic came up
some time ago there was much resistance to the idea for a variety of
reasons.  I would be curious if there are many people whose fees include a
bit of extra time for those things.  

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net


> [Original Message]
> From: Barbara Richmond <piano57@flash.net>
> To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Date: 11/6/2003 5:30:50 PM
> Subject: Re: Yamaha hammers
>
> Hey Avery,
>
> It's because some technicians don't bother to voice often enough.  I was
> asking myself the question, why would anyone let that happen to the
hammers
> in the first place.  I suppose it's the approach to business.  As YOU know
> (since I taught that class in Houston years ago) my approach isn't just to
> tune a piano--a service call includes tuning and a bit of voicing and/or
> regulation.  We're not talking about major stuff here, just keeping things
> sounding nice.  There's no excuse when working on verticals, and it
doesn't
> take much effort to even up the voicing in a grand if it's done often
> enough.  My suggestion is to not be in such a hurry, take the time to do
> what needs to be done.  If folks are only charging for tuning, they might
> change their rate to include some fix up time.  I can't stress how many
> times I've followed other tuners because the customers were unhappy--the
> pianos were in tune, but needed things like mating hammers to the strings.
> Heck, I do that while I'm tuning.  It's hard to set unisons with that blip
> going on.
>
> Barbara Richmond, RPT
> somewhere near Peoria, IL