Christmas

[Dean May]

There is another way to look at it, and perhaps this is more along the lines
of what Robin was thinking. There is practically no amount of money that
would get me to go out on Christmas. About the only way I could do it would
be as a favor. To put a value on it would be to make the customer believe
they could actually hire me away from my family on Christmas for that amount
of money. Conversely, doing it as a favor garners an incalculable amount of
goodwill that no money could buy. 

 

I do a similar thing when I work for close friends. I either don't charge
them and just let them give me whatever they want, or I'll ask them to take
me and my wife out to dinner with them. When it is the latter we always have
a great time of much more value than what I would get for charging them for
a tuning. 

 

Dean

Dean May             cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272 

Terre Haute IN  47802

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From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Farrell
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 9:02 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: Re: Christmas

 

>From what I understand of the situation from the original post, I agree
completely with you Win.

 

And, FWIW, $95 (standard tuning fee) + $45 (pitch raise fee) + 2 hours
travel fee ($120) + 100% surcharge for not-normal-working-day (okay, let's
reduce the travel fee to 50% because we ride a motorcycle and just love the
#$%^ out of it - well, that equals: $340.

 

Did you charge less? (I mean, this wasn't your sister or anything - right?)

 

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Willem Blees <mailto:wimblees at aol.com>  

To: pianotech at ptg.org 

Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 8:30 PM

Subject: Re: Christmas

 

Robin

It was very nice of you to comp the pitch raise part of the tuning for the
wedding. But unless you knew the family, and were invited to the party, and
that was part of your wedding gift, in my opinion, you sent the wrong
message to them, especially since they are a musical family. I'm sure the
caterers, and everyone else who "worked" that wedding didn't do anything
special or extra out of the goodness of their heart. I hope you at least
charged them double for tuning the piano in the first place.  

Mele Kalikimaka everyone. 

Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT
Piano Tuner/Technician
Honolulu, HI
Author of 
The Business of Piano Tuning
available from Potter Press
www.pianotuning.com



-----Original Message-----

About ten years ago, I got a panicky call from a client living an hour's
drive away.... their daughter was getting married at home on Christmas
Day!!! And, no one had thought of having the piano tuned. The poor old thing
was about 60 cents flat and not a very good instrument at its best. What was
most surprising was that this was a professional musical family, with a
recording studio in their basement and quite a reputation in the area for
doing good work. I gifted the pitch raise part as a Christmas/Wedding gift
and felt good that I had helped make their special day a bit nicer. 

 

Robin Blankenship

Matoaca, VA 


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