What would you do? Ethical questions.

[Mike Kurta]

    Hi David:
    That's a tough one, but there are choices here.  The customer's big concern seems to be a new piano that is out of tune in a short time.  My thought would be to bring the dealer in on this one.  Have the customer, you and the dealer (if he is willing) work out some settlement to keep the owner happy.  Perhaps a three-way split.  
    The missed appointment is unfortunate, but accidents do happen.  What did you have in mind when you mentioned "making up the time?"  In this instance you have to set priorities:  Do you want to keep the customer no matter what (doing another tuning free) or stick to your guns as you did and charge for your time as usual?  Being that you failed to show up at the appointed time and day, the customer feels you should make amends.  In the past when faced with this, I've asked the owner what would seem fair to them, then work from there.  
    You're right, the customer has lost faith and confidence in you and likely will never call you back.  What's worse, is that they may tell others what a "bad deal" this turned out to be.  It can turn into a lose-lose situation for everyone, that might have otherwise been saved by doing a free tuning.  I don't like the term "caving in"  rather call it accomodation, goodwill or cooperation......
    Don't beat yourself up on this one, we learn every day.
    Mike Kurta
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060523/be32c55d/attachment.html