[pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do?

[wimblees at aol.com]

Tom said:

First of all,?I'd ditch them for being so unreliable. ?I'm not going to drive that far only to find the house empty ever again. ?Secondly, I would never drive that far to tune a piano. ?That one tuning almost kills a whole day! ? Four hours of driving, one hour tuning. ? Aren't there any tuners closer to their home you could recommend? ?
Tom. I'm sorry, and please don't think I am picking on you. but this is not the answer to the question. I appreciate that you did answer, and you gave a very good one. But why muddy the waters with a statement like this. For what ever reason, Joseph had to travel 90 miles. I don't know where he lives, but in many parts of this country, driving?180 miles round trip to tune a piano is almost an every day occurrence. 

Wim 



-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Sivak <tvaktvak at sbcglobal.net>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Wed, Jul 15, 2009 7:26 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do?







You ask, what would you do?




First of all,?I'd ditch them for being so unreliable. ?I'm not going to drive that far only to find the house empty ever again. ?Secondly, I would never drive that far to tune a piano. ?That one tuning almost kills a whole day! ? Four hours of driving, one hour tuning. ? Aren't there any tuners closer to their home you could recommend? ?



But to address the situation where the owners are not home at the time of the appointment, were they a long standing customer that was comfortable with you being in the house by yourself, or was this a first appointment? 



If I had been going there for years and had a good relationship with, I might have let myself in. ? Certainly, I would have initiated a dialog with them when they got home, though. ?Something along the lines of:




"I hope I did the right thing by coming in and tuning the piano without you being here. ?It was a 90 mile trip, as you know, so I hated to just turn around and go home. ?I would have had to bill you for the trip, and I thought this was the best thing to do."




See what they say after that. ?




Tom Sivak

Chicago






--- On Wed, 7/15/09, Joseph Rosenberg <rosenbergpiano at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Joseph Rosenberg <rosenbergpiano at gmail.com>
Subject: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do?
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 4:27 PM


I made an appointment with a customer that was 90 miles / 2 hr. drive (one way) from me. 



I called before I left to confirm that someone would be there, and they said they would be there.




When I got there, the gate opened up to let me in. There were two cars out front. The front door was open, the screen door was ajar, and there was a TV set on very loudly. A dog barked for a few minutes, and then was quiet.




I rang the bell a number of times, knocked on the door, yelled inside, walked around the house to see if they were outside, called their phone but got a voice mail.




After about 15 minutes, I walked around to a side door that was open. The piano was right there. I went in, kept yelling "Hello", and proceeded to tune the piano.




As I was finishing the tuning, the customers came home. They didn't say anything about me being in the house alone, or who let me in.




I'd like to know what other tuners would do in this situation.




Thanks.




Joe Rosenberg














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