[pianotech] call-backs you can't charge for

[William Truitt]

Hi David:

You are still the master of your destiny, so the choice is entirely yours
whether or not to charge for this visit.  Most of the time I would, for the
kind of reasons you give.  Sometimes I don't charge my regular, good,
longtime customers - but they always offer to compensate me because they do
place a value on my time.  My choice.  

One way around this is to make clear to the customer before the visit that
there will likely be a service charge if the cause of the buzzing is
unrelated to anything you did when you were there to perform your services.
If I find my missing tool inside the piano, obviously I would not charge
them.

It is important to remember that one of the ways our customers get their
cues on how much value to place on OUR time from US.  The irony is that if
we give away too much or charge too little, then too many people will
correspondingly place little value to it.  That is obviously the opposite
reaction to what we would hope for from our customers.

If the customer needs the explanation you just gave to us as to your
investment of time and loss of work time that could be compensated
elsewhere, give it to her and unapologetically, politely, and with a
friendly smile on your face, HAND HER THE BILL.

As for myself, I choose not to work for people who want me to work for free.


My policy where there is a honest dispute is to give a little but not a lot.
Giving away 12 hours labor free for work that you did not contract for falls
in that category of giving away a lot.  If you feel bullied by the customer,
it is because you allowed yourself to be bullied. Losing that customer is no
great loss because you don't want that kind of customer.  And you likely
will not retain them as a customer after you have given everything away,
because they know they have worked you and so don't wish to face their
victim. 

The vast majority of our customers are nice, honest, and fair people whom it
is a pleasure to work for.  But not everyone is, and we have to say no on
occasion.  And we are the only person who can make that choice to say no.

Best wishes,

Will Truitt



-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Nereson
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 6:50 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] call-backs you can't charge for

    A client called and said her daughter hears several buzzing 
notes.  I just tuned it a few weeks ago and didn't hear any 
buzzing.  But I go to check it out.  Client wasn't home --  
forgot I was coming.  Fortunately there was a housekeeper who 
let me in.  I play up and down the scale, and sure enough, 
there's some buzzing underneath somewhere.  I open the bottom 
panel and see two small, rusty woodscrews lodged between the 
plate and the bottom board, one of them against the soundboard. 
I remove them, and, "Presto!" -- no more buzzing.  (Why couldn't 
they have buzzed when I was tuning a few weeks ago?)
    Suddenly client shows up (was walking the dogs).  I show her 
the screws, tell her there's no more buzzing, and she says, "Oh, 
thank you soooo much!" in a tone that's so grateful I can tell 
she thinks I came to remove the problem as a huge gratis favor, 
and that certainly I don't intend to charge anything.  (When 
they say, "Do I owe you anything?" then you KNOW you'd better 
say, "No, that's OK -- I was in the neighborhood" or something 
similar.)
       I spent a half-hour driving, two minutes finding the 
problem, ten minutes waiting around for the client, and another 
half-hour back to the shop -- 1 1/4 hours for no compensation. 
Sometimes you just get the "vibe" from the client that they 
think any buzz, noise, tinnyness, or other quirk that shows up 
within, say, a month after you tuned it, is your fault, since it 
wasn't doing that before you tuned it, and therefore must've 
been caused by your "tuning" and you should come fix it for 
free.
    Oh sure, you can say, "I have a $xx minimum billing for 
service calls," but then you lose the customer and any referrals 
from them.
    I've even done 12 hours' extra labor on a large 
reconditioning job to get rid of problems they implied were my 
fault, even though these things were not in the job estimate, 
but from their tone of voice and attitude you can tell that it's 
either fix everything for free or get into a big argument, much 
unpleasantness, and maybe even a lawsuit.
    But of course you can't deduct the value of your time on 
your tax return, since the IRS doesn't see your time as being 
worth anything.
    --David Nereson, RPT