Break Time

[Don]

Hi Folks,

Perhaps it is time to tidy the list up. My "rule of thumb" is that unless I
am replying to a specific question if I would not want my words published
in the PTG Journal I will not post them to the list.

At 06:18 AM 9/24/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>        >>  
> Susan<<        Susan,     I would consider it a great loss if you stop
>posting. I sincerely appreciate your contributions.        Dean  Dean May  
>          cell 812.239.3359  PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272  Terre
>Haute IN  47802       -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
>Behalf Of Susan Kline
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 10:52 PM
> To: Pianotech
> Subject: Break Time      When I'm starting to write this emotional-ethical
>kind of post, I 
> can see that my emotional reaction to the state of the world as a whole -- 
> the hurricanes, the debt, the vanishing oil, the war, etc. -- is leaking 
> into whatever else I write. It's time to take a break from pianotech for 
> awhile ... anyone, feel free to write me privately, off list ... 
> 
> That said, I have to answer a little of Dean's post before disappearing. 
> 
> Susan 
> 
> 
> At 08:16 PM 9/23/2005 -0500, you wrote:    >>Consider the cost to me that
>it took to develop the expertise to do this job. 
> 
> Okay, I will. What costs? Your computer time? I certainly paid nothing to 
> learn this job, except some extra time for that first Zimmerman, to do 
> the work more laboriously than necessary. Did you travel to a distant 
> convention, or pay somebody a bundle to teach you to put CA glue on 
> pinblocks? >>
> 
> Let's see, I spent many hours learning the craft, many hours and dollars
>practicing and correcting mistakes. I spent many years using CA glue in
>other applications learning its idiosyncrasies particularly how wood
>responds to it. I spend an annual fee to the PTG. I took the time to attend
>meetings and network with other techs. I took the time to attend seminars.
>And yes, I take time here at the computer culling these posts for nuggets.
>Those are all real costs.   
> So, you generalize your fee for the CA work onto your whole training and
>work experience -- I don't. I figure that if CA had never entered the
>scene, I still would have put in just as much work and time on the rest of
>the piano training as I did. Learning about CA didn't add appreciably to
>the general educational expense, and it's saved me incredible amounts of
>time and grief. 
>     >>Consider how much money I am saving the customer. 
> 
> I'm afraid I'm more likely to consider the money you are taking 
> from your customer. If you can keep the piano playable and tunable 
> for pennies and minutes per tuning, what are they paying the $250 for? >>
> 
> I could get a job at Wal-Mart for $5 per hour as well. How can I sleep at
>night charging $85 for a tuning? How can David Love charge $150? (Sorry to
>bring you into this, David. I certainly in no way begrudge you your rates.
>You earn every penny) What do you charge for a tuning, Susan, and how can
>you justify that knowing that comparatively most of the world only makes
>pennies on the dollar on a per hour basis?   
> "" tunings, by including minor repairs and stuff like CA on loose pins, so
>long as they don't seriously increase my work time. If they are going to, I
>discuss options with the owner and we decide what to do.
> 
>  
>     >>Consider that everyone of these jobs that I've sold my customers
>have been very happy to pay such an amount for all of those benefits. 
> 
> Would they still be happy if they knew you how little it cost you to do
>it? Have you really thought through whether your fees should reflect
>whatever you can get, versus whether they should be based on how much
>effort and expense you have to shell out? If they spend money on their
>pianos which they didn't need to spend, they don't have it for everything
>else. >>
> 
> Well, they watch real close. They see me tip the piano, they see my get
>out a little bottle of glue, they look at how it is applied and they watch
>the clock. I don't do any trickery, no incantations, nothing up the sleeve.
>If they can't figure out my actual costs in a ballpark range I should be
>charging them triple. They aren't paying for the actual costs and they know
>it. They are paying for my expertise and the peace of mind of an 8 year
>warranty. Less than $30 a year is making their piano usable where it
>previously wasn't. I am giving my customers a warranty. You aren't. Tell me
>who is giving their customer a better value?   
> I submit that I give them a better value, since I get their pianos with
>loose pins working and charge them nothing extra, instead of $250. If they
>and you are both happy with your fee structure, that's your business -- but
>I don't think that charging $250 for a 30 minute job will ever become part
>of my business (barring a Weimar-style hyperinflation.) 
>     >>Just my take on it -- we all have to figure out business ethics for
>ourselves. <<
> 
> I have no problem defending my charges. In fact I appreciate the
>challenge. But here is where it gets a little dicey. You have been pretty
>strongly implying that I am unethical in my charges.   
> As I've said several times, your business ethics are up to you, not me. I
>can say that an hourly rate like that, for ME in the area where _I_ live I
>would consider unethically high. If you're comfortable with it, that's your
>affair. 
> 
> I have nothing against your experience, your qualifications, your
>expenses, or your life style. I have 27 years of experience, and two
>applied music degrees. I get by ... 
> 
>         No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG
>Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.6/111 - Release Date:
>9/23/2005 

Regards,
Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat

mailto:pianotuna@yahoo.com	http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/

3004 Grant Rd. REGINA, SK, S4S 5G7
306-352-3620 or 1-888-29t-uner