Most of those older folks are long gone. I'll explain in detail more. My grandfather started the business in 1926. My dad took over from his dad in 1946. He was in business for over 50 years. He trained 2 of his brothers. He trained myself and my cousin. My dad, grandfather and his 2 brothers have all passed. My cousin and I remain servicing full time. I've been in this business full time for 35 years. 40 altogether if you want to count when I started which was when I was 12. My son is following in my footsteps. With that many years behind the Groot family business we are tuning the some of the old folks that dad tuned for but may of the kids and grand kids etc now… Either way, my main point was that the name is well know around these parts because of that. We also service for Calvin College and have been since they opened. They currently have 90 pianos on campus. They are completely renovating their Fine Arts Center at which point they will probably be adding an additional 10-20 pianos. We get a lot of referrals from that one as well. Does that make more sense? From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Matthew Todd Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 12:19 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do? How does that work? Are the customers that your dad serviced in 1926 still alive? That's almost what it sounded like in your post. :-) TODD PIANO WORKS Matthew Todd, Piano Technician (979) 248-9578 <http://www.toddpianoworks.com/> http://www.toddpianoworks.com --- On Thu, 7/16/09, Gerald Groot <tunerboy3 at comcast.net> wrote: From: Gerald Groot <tunerboy3 at comcast.net> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do? To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Thursday, July 16, 2009, 3:18 AM I'm in Grand Rapids Michigan. I service 90-95% around G.R., but I do travel out of town occasionally but, no further than 25-30 miles. I'm sure that it most certainly helps us that we are very well established here. My grandfather started our family business in 1926. My dad, two of his brothers, myself and my cousin have all tuned around here full time since then. Only 2 of us are left however… The others have since passed. My son is starting out too and will be the 4th generation of us Groot's. 2 of us are 3rd generation. Pretty cool, I think. :-) Our name, reputation and honesty are pretty well known. We trust them, they trust us. It is not an area where we have to be afraid of some of those things mentioned. But, I don't trust the dogs! ;-) Jer From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Tom Sivak Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 10:37 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do? Gerald, where do you live? Your attitude seems so out of place in an urban setting. Are you out in the rural areas? I just read Les Bartlett's post and I thought, yeah, in Houston, you wouldn't go into someone's unlocked home in parts of Houston. Same as Chicago. Some areas, most areas, really, you wouldn't go into someone's home if the door was open. And if you did, people generally would not be tickled pink about it. Tom Sivak --- On Thu, 7/16/09, Gerald Groot <tunerboy3 at comcast.net> wrote: I walk into homes on a regular basis if nobody is home. If it's open, I'll go in. I always double check the magazines or something to make sure that I am at the right house before I begin tuning but, I have not as of yet, had anyone that was dissapointed or angry that I tuned the piano anyway. Most often, they have either left the door open for me or they forgot I was coming but when they found me tuning, they were tickled pink that I let myself in. I just tell them that I figured that's what happened and assumed they left the door open for me. From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Rosenberg Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:27 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Door open, but customer not home - what would you do? 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 _____ <http://www.avast.com/> avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090715-0, 07/15/2009 Tested on: 7/15/2009 9:47:06 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. _____ <http://www.avast.com/> avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090715-0, 07/15/2009 Tested on: 7/15/2009 11:18:02 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. _____ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 090716-1, 07/16/2009 Tested on: 7/16/2009 9:32:17 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2009 ALWIL Software. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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