WOW! If we were all as savy as David Love, this would be an entirely different business! Piano tuners would rank right up there with physicians and lawyers. David, thank you for the EXCELLENT EXAMPLE! Diane Diane Hofstetter ----Original Message Follows---- From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> Reply-To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org> To: "'Pianotech List'" <pianotech at ptg.org> Subject: RE: Deal...or No Deal? Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:03:57 -0700 "Thank you very much for calling. I'd be glad to come and tune the piano. You're probably right, the change in temperature and humidity could have impacted the tuning. Since I didn't tune the piano to begin with and can't be sure what it really needs I'll need to plan to do a complete tuning. Expect the fee to be $$$. When would be a good time for you and I'll see if I can work it into my schedule? Oh, and who will I be billing for this? For the future, you might consider installing a humidity control system. That might lessen the impact of a sudden change in the environment. I can do that while I'm there if you like. The price is $$$ plus a bit of tax for the Governor, of course. After I'm done tuning I can let you know if there's anything else I notice that might be affecting tuning stability. Thanks again, I look forward to meeting you." David Love davidlovepianos at comcast.net www.davidlovepianos.com -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Tom Sivak Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 6:39 PM To: pianotech Subject: Deal...or No Deal? List Well this is a new one on me... I got a call today from a pianist in the next suburb over. I have never tuned his piano. He is also the music director at a local church. I also do not tune the piano at the church, although I would be happy to do both his and the church's since they're very close to my home. He explained to me that they had a concert at the church a couple of days ago and the piano had been tuned for the concert. They are having another concert this Saturday night and a couple of notes have slipped out of tune. He said that it had gotten extremely hot in the room and they had to open all the windows, and he felt that this was instrumental in the piano slipping out of tune. Let me reiterate that it was not I that tuned this piano in the first place. He wanted to know, since I was so close, if I had the time to stop by and just tune up the notes that had slipped. He said, "I'm sure it will only take you a couple of minutes." There was no mention of renumeration for this visit in his message, but I just got the sense that he wanted me to just come by and do this as a favor. (I know the vocalist performing in the concert, but not him.) The comment that it would only take a couple of minutes seemed to indicate that if he was planning on paying me for this, he didn't want it to cost much. What would you say to this man if it were you? I certainly could use his business, and I do like to go out of my way to help people, but I felt conflicted over the possibility of getting his business versus the possibility of being taken advantage of. I could tell you all what I told him, but I wonder what others might say in this situation, so I'll withhold my response to him so as to not influence anyone. (This is assuming someone actually responds to my post!) Tom Sivak Chicago
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