You vs. Them

[Fred Brown]

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Tom,
I know the feeling. I had a lady(piano teacher no less) who had been given a
spinet to use as a second piano. When I talked to her over the phone I
stated my fees which also might include a $25-$35 extra charge for a pitch
raise. When I arrived at her door she then spent the next 1/2 hour(no
exaggeration) trying to talk me down re my fee. As I recall the piano was
100cents flat and she intended to use it as a teaching piano. I began my
service call by repairing a couple of broken hammer shanks for which I was
going to charge her a measly $25 for 1/2 hr of labor. When I finished the
repair I packed my tools and told her then to find someone else to do the
tuning and refused payment for the work that I had already done. This was a
first for me...you would have to know me to know that I typically take care
of the customer's interests before mine. I won't mention country of origin
but it seems to be standard operational procedure to dicker over price for
some nationalities. They ONLY back when when they feel they have offended
you...then are glad to pay because they think they have struck the best
deal. I had a tight schedule and told her that I could either tune the piano
twice or stand there and argue with her but that I couldn't do both...packed
my stuff and left.
My next customer of the day complemented me on my promptness and gave me an
extra $20 for lunch. 
GO FIGURE
Fred Brown RPT
Atlanta

   _____  

From: Tvak@aol.com [mailto:Tvak@aol.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 1:53 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: You vs. Them


List

Second visit to a client's house yesterday.  First call was a tuning.   At
that visit she complained about my fee, claiming that I tuned her neighbor's
piano for $20 less.  This was simply not true.  She reluctantly paid it,
only after arguing with me for a good 2 or 3 minutes.  I wouldn't back down.
(My fee is not even on the high end of techs here in Chicago.)

Why did I agree to come back and do repairs for her?

Upon handing her the bill she claimed I told her it would take me only 30
minutes to do the following:  
     replace a broken treble string
     replace two broken hammer shanks with new ones
     repair/replace two broken key buttons

There is no way I would ever estimate that to take 30 minutes.  Maybe one of
you guys could do that in 30 minutes, but not me.  It actually took me 90
minutes, mostly due to it taking me forever to cut down a new key button to
fit a dogleg key.  I felt that it should have taken me less time to do this,
(any tips on this procedure would be welcome: I used a little saw, then
filed it and it came out nicely, but there has to be a better way...) so I
only charged her for 60 minutes plus parts, which is what I believe I quoted
her on my estimate.

She wasn't satisfied until I charged her only for the 30 minutes plus parts.
I simply refused to argue with her beyond the first 2 or 3 minutes, and I
caved.  I have to point out that my labor rate is lower than any other tech
I know.  So the bill was LOW to begin with.

Now I should probably just let this go and move on, but I am about to mail
her a letter in which I advise her to find another technician to work on her
piano in the future.

When it comes down to you vs. them, how do you deal with that?   Perhaps in
her country of origin it is appropriate behavior to haggle over things such
as this.   I found it offensive.  I just wanted to get out of the house and
be done with her.

Luckily the day ended on a nicer note.  Another repair, another house.  This
time I handed her the bill and she said, "Oh, no, that's not enough!" and
gave me an extra $10.

Tom Sivak
Chicago 


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