No- shows..... again

[Thomas Cole]

I had a similar long trip into the mountains to find that the owner was 
not at home. I found the front door unlocked and since the piano was 
just inside the door and I had tuned for the woman a couple of times 
before, I decided to save the appointment and do the tuning.

Arriving home that evening, I got a call from a very irate woman who was 
extremely upset that I had entered her house while she was gone 
(forgotten about the tuning date) and now "The Whole World" knows that 
she doesn't lock her front door and I let her go on venting hoping that 
she wears herself out screaming at me instead of doing something else.

The only thing that would settle the argument was that I accepted half 
of my fee. So I took it that entering a house without previous 
arrangement is probably not a good policy and have refrained from doing 
so ever since.

Another thing I learned, then and since is that either crazy people live 
in the mountains or living in the mountains makes you crazy.

Tom Cole

Dean May wrote:

> I had a no show a couple of weeks ago, a fairly long time customer in 
> a small nearby town. Her door was open so I went in, tuned the piano 
> and left an invoice. Always check the door. If it is open and it is a 
> repeat customer who knows me I always go ahead and go in to tune it.
>
>  
>
> Turns out this lady had been taken to the hospital the morning before. 
> She was out in a couple of days and sent me a check with a note of 
> thanks that I went ahead and tuned her piano.
>
>  
>
> Dean
>
> Dean May             cell 812.239.3359
>
> PianoRebuilders.com   812.235.5272
>
> Terre Haute IN  47802
>
>  
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On 
> Behalf Of reggaepass at aol.com
> Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 8:38 AM
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: No- shows..... again
>
>  
>
> Here, here Ed.
>
> When someone stands me up, I leave a note stating that I was there at 
> the appointed time I had on my calendar, waited fifteen minutes, and 
> then left.  (After all, it is possible that I wrote is down wrong.)  
> While I'm waiting, I call 1) their house (in case they are there, but 
> don't hear the door), and then, 2) I call my answer machine to see if 
> there is word from them there.  If no, and they afterwards call and 
> explain that they had a (true) emergency and didn't have my number 
> with them, OK.  If they just forgot, I tell them that they will have 
> to pay for half of a service call for the missed appointment without 
> prior notice when I do service their piano next.  Otherwise, they need 
> to find another date to the prom. 
>
> In concert with this no show policy is a rather liberal cancellation 
> policy: As long as they let me know that they will not be able to keep 
> the appointment, no love is lost.  The stated advance warning is 24 
> hours, but in practice I will accept them actually reaching me any 
> time before the scheduled service.  It comes down to a matter of 
> consideration, and as Ed has pointed out, thinning the heard of 
> undesirables is a good thing in terms of re-ordering your universe for 
> the better.
>
> Alan Eder
>
>  
>
>  
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A440A at aol.com
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Sent: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 3:25 am
> Subject: Re: No- shows..... again
>
>
>
>
>
><< How do you deal with a no show appointment? Do you bill them? Bill half? 
>
>
>
>Not 
>
>
>
>at all? Any other way to deal wit them? >>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Greetings, 
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>SNIP
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   Our day by day decisions determine what our life is like, and gradually, 
>
>
>
>over the years, our clientele develops around our own personality. They aren't 
>
>
>
>really "them", but, rather, "They are us",  so we are responsible for what 
>
>
>
>kind of a career we have.  We, in some way, choose our customers, and  If taking 
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>care of ourselves means that we lose the occasional  inconsiderate customer, 
>
>
>
>is that a big loss or simply cleaning up our customer base to better suit our 
>
>
>
>vocation? 
>
>
>
>Regards, 
>
>
>
>Ed Foote RPT 
>
>
>
>http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
>
>
>
>www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html <http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html>
>
>
>
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