Aaargh!!...aka customer relations

[David Love]

I would say that the piano may be exhibiting some instability from the
drastic change in pitch as a function of having let it go for so long.  Let
it sit for another 4-6 weeks and then tune it again.  The times I have
available that week are ....  There will be a fee for this tuning.  In the
future lets be sure we get the piano on a regular schedule, and maybe put a
Dampp-Chaser in it as well.

David Love
davidlovepianos@earthlink.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Sent: 10/21/2003 7:40:19 AM 
Subject: Aaargh!!...aka customer relations


Fellow self-employed types, 

Has this or something like it happened to you?  I had just gotten my 3 year
old to sleep last night and was about to nod off when my phone rang.  I
glanced at the clock and it was almost 10:30.  I picked it up, and a man
stated his name, and said that I'd been out to his house last week and
tuned his piano.  I remembered him, and I remembered his demanding nature. 

He said that the teacher had been to his house and had played the piano. 
She said that the bass was out of tune.  Now this doesn't surprise me a
bit.  It was a pitch raise of gargantuan proportions and a tuning.  2 hours
worth of work, and I didn't charge him for the pitch raise, because he was
a new customer.  I did warn him that the next time he'd pay.  The piano is
approximately 5 years old, and if had ever been tuned in his house I'd be
surprised.  Normally when I pitch raise a piano, it's pretty stable, as
long as it was stabilized at one point in it's life.  That was certainly
not the case here. 

In my dazed state, I stated that I'd come out(today) and check it out.  He
was extremely rude, and acted as if I'd done something wrong.  My first
reaction was to make it better so that the customer--and his teacher, who'd
recommended me--were no longer disgruntled.  I thought about it for awhile,
and realized that I'd done nothing wrong, and had indeed given him far more
than he paid for.  I called him back and left him a polite message to that
effect on his work phone, which he should pick up today.  I pointed out
that I'd do it for free this time, but that I wasn't the one who let the
piano go untuned for so long. 

Any advice on possible responses to this sort of thing? 

This type of stuff really rankles me.  I guess the lesson here is to not
take it too personally.  Kinda hard to do sometimes when you're the whole
show. 

Thanks for reading.   

Dave Stahl