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

[Jim Busby]

David,

Unless you're doing this a LOT I think it is the old "casting your bread upon the water" thing. (It will come back to you...)

True story - I came after a "technician" replaced some hammers on a lady's piano. If was a very bad job. Looked like bad teeth with many hammers missing strings, varying height, etc. She didn't know me and wanted to make SURE that I wouldn't charge the $500.00 like this fellow charged. When I was done (Two hours, and a tuning too) I said "No charge. I don't want you to think that all piano tuners are out to gouge you." So what? So, for a few hours I didn't get paid...

Or did I?? Next year's tuning she gave me a $100.00 "tip" which I tried to refuse but she insisted on giving it. I've counted over 50 clients she has referred to me. Now, if none of that had happened I still wouldn't have charged her. I felt bad for her. 

Life is generally good to me, when I'm good to others. So, to those who say I'm wrong - you do what you feel is right, and I'll do the same.

Jim Busby


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Nereson
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 4:50 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