No- shows..... again + digressions

[Paul T Williams]

I was called once from a woman who asked me to come and tune their piano 
at their summer place on Whidbey Island (where I used to live).  We made 
the appointment, etc. and I was thinking, ("oh yea, a summer 
place...probably a junker)  When I arrived at the drive way I was still 
thinking the same thing.....junker") as I drove in the landscaping 
started, got bigger, fancier, Japanese ponds with Koy fish, little red 
bridge to drive over, around a corner ...HUGE 6-7000 square foot log 
"cabin" style home with indoor olympic size pool overlooking Puget 
Sound....I started getting excited.  Oh boy a nice big piano.  WRONG.  In 
a smaller room...a green painted Lester spinet!!  I had to leave a bill 
too!! It dawned on me when I met the head of the household that it was one 
of Microsoft's head guys (just a couple notches down from Gates)  Go 
figgur..

Paul





Thomas Cole <tcole at cruzio.com> 
Sent by: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org
08/01/2008 11:09 PM
Please respond to
tcole at cruzio.com; Please respond to
Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>


To
Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
cc

Subject
Re: No- shows..... again + digressions






The thing I notice all too often is that the wealthier the owner (and 
larger the house), the smaller and more cheaply made the piano. I've been 
in places, whose living room could contain our whole house, to tune a 
spinet and almost jokingly suggest that they get a grand piano, only to 
hear, "Oh no, we don't have room for a grand piano." <groan>

Tom

Fenton Murray wrote:
And another thing, Tom, digressing ever so slightly. Why is it that 'rich 
folk' want me to leave a bill, and 'poor folk' pay me in cash? Happens 
over and over, oh well. 
Fenton
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Fenton Murray 
To: tcole at cruzio.com ; Pianotech List 
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: No- shows..... again

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
Causeral, corollary, or coincidental I agree, Tom. Anyway, I miss whatever 
it was when I moved back to California from Colorado 30 years ago.
Fenton
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Thomas Cole 
To: Pianotech List 
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: No- shows..... again

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




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