No- shows..... again

[piannaman at aol.com]

 I have a stated policy of  billing no-shows "$50.00 or a really good excuse."  I'd feel really badly for billing someone that was in an operating room.

I have never tried to collect for a no-show.  My reasoning?  Anybody that I really would want to bill for it--people who willingly blew me off, for instance--wouldn't pay anyway.  The people who would pay and who have actually offered to pay in the past are good clients, and I wouldn't feel right about charging them for it.  I'd rather keep the client than make the $50.00.

Ed F., you are so right about how our business is fashioned around our own personalities.  

It's necessary to think and act "long-term" if we want to stay in business.


 


Dave Stahl, RPT
Dave Stahl Piano Service
dstahlpiano at sbcglobal.net
dstahlpiano.net

 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Willem Blees <wimblees at aol.com>
To: joey at onkeypiano.com; pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 9:13 pm
Subject: Re: No- shows..... again









Once I tried to reason with a customer to pay me for a missed appointment. I asked her how she would like it if she showed up for work one day, and after working for 3 hours, her boss told her to go home, and not get paid for the day. She said she didn't like that, but she didn't understand how that applied to me. 



My wife teaches piano lessons. She has students, and/or their parents, call at the last minute to cancel a lesson, and don't want to pay for it.=2
0They don't seem to understand that it is lost income that can never be repaid. 



If doctors can do it, why can't we? Maybe we're too "soft" on our customers. But then some of us need all the income we can get, even it it costs us a no-show once in a while






Wim



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

From: Joey Recker <tech at onkeypiano.com>

To: 'Pianotech List' <pianotech at ptg.org>

Sent: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 12:32 pm

Subject: RE: No- shows..... again
















I leave a bill for my minimum “trip charge”.  This results one of the following:




 





They call with great apology and re-schedule and pay the additional fee20with no complaints.


They call to tell me of an emergency or something beyond their control.  At that point I decide whether or not to charge the “trip charge” based on my previous experience with the customer.  Many times I’ll forgive it if the appointment is close by.  


Only once has a customer refused to pay and complained.  Amazingly she still wanted her piano tuned! But said that she didn’t do business “that way”.  Meaning she would re-schedule but would not pay the trip charge.  I refused to re-schedule until the charge was paid in full.  To date she has never paid and she is on my short list of customers I refuse to tune for.  As a matter of fact; a good friend of mine is an appliance repairman and I found out later
 that she was already on his list of customers he would not work for.  




 




Doesn’t happen often, but it works 
for me.




 
















From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of VOCE88 at aol.com

Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 12:15 AM

To: pianotech at ptg.org

Subject: No- shows..... again






 







Just curious List,









 









 









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?









 









TIA,









 









Rich Galassini









Cunningham Piano Company



























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