That's interesting, Paul, that's been my experience too. I think we're just one more in a long line of "service people" for our wealthier clients. For many of my customers, having the piano tuned is an outlay of cash that they consider closely in the budget and would never forget (and some even enjoy my visits - go figure!) Kerry Kean www.ohiopianotuner.com <http://www.ohiopianotuner.com/> _____ From: Paul T Williams [mailto:pwilliams4 at unlnotes.unl.edu] Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:22 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do? That's right, Wim! Just ask Randy Potter...lives in Bend....goes to Portland a good 200 miles ONE way. I used to live on an island in Washington. Having 3 other RPT's and a couple of "tooners" there, we all had to take a ferry boat sit in lines, drive great distances and sometimes extrememly long days. One of the reasons I became a CAUT! :>) Home at 5pm everyday (most of the time) and a 6 mile commute! However, I'd be pretty PO'd if I made one of these long journeys just to find nobody home. I found this more true in well-to- do neighborhoods. It simply "slips their minds" somehow. Paul wimblees at aol.com Sent by: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 07/15/2009 12:44 PM Please respond to pianotech at ptg.org To pianotech at ptg.org cc Subject Re: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do? 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 < <mailto:rosenbergpiano at gmail.com> 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 _____ Performance <http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1223081934x1201714279/aol?redir=htt p:%2F%2Faltfarm.mediaplex.com%2Fad%2Fck%2F12309%2D81939%2D1629%2D4> you need and the value you want! Check out great laptop deals from Dell! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090715/226ab0ce/attachment-0001.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC