As a for instance, the timing belt / water pump job on your car may take a competent technician an hour to do and $100 in parts. Or, if you have a car like mine, it may take 5 hours and $300 in parts. Should auto technicians charge the same ammount for both cars because they're both "timing belt / water pump" jobs? I don't think so. Bringing it to piano work, would you expect to pay the same ammount to replace a pinblock on a typical grand as on an old curved, one piece, open face Knabe? Ummm, no. The reason the mechanic charges more to replace a difficult water pump, and the reason you charge more to replace is curved pin block, is because it takes longer. The longer we take to do a job, the more we should charge. Many do choose to standardize their tuning fees in the consideration that many of their piano tunings will be comparable in the ammount of time it will take and the difficulty involved. And many do already charge extra for things like pitch raises, where more time / effort is called for. I don't hear anyone crying foul over that. One of the problems we have in our industry is, we try to combine a set fee, (tuning, and pitch raising), with work that is done at an hourly rate, (regulation, voicing, etc.) The way I have solved this discrepancy is to make a list of all the jobs I do, and estimate approximately how long it "normally" takes me to do them, including tuning. I try to stick to this list as best I can, deviating occasionally when I think a particular job will take me a little longer. If there is a job I have never done before, I try to estimate how long it will take. If it takes me longer, I usually eat the time. If it takes me less time, I reduce the amount I charge. I realize there are some techs that charge by the "job", and ask for that amount, regardless of how long it took, because the customer paid for the job to be done, and is happy to pay that amount. I don't work that way. I sell my time, and if a job takes me less than I originally estimated, I give the customer a break. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Brian Trout <brian_trout at hotmail.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sat, Jul 3, 2010 2:40 am Subject: Re: [pianotech] Ethics was Re: business I suppose some of an individual conclusion depends upon how one interprets, "I find these pianos a pain in the a$$". A more "business like" statement that reflects these conditions might be more like, "These pianos are at a higher level of dificulty in servicing", or something similar. >From my own experience, I have found that some pianos are much easier to work on (as well as certain extra jobs thereto related) than others and I do not have any problem with anyone who chooses to charge according to the level of difficulty encountered. We see it all the time in other fields. As a for instance, the timing belt / water pump job on your car may take a competent technician an hour to do and $100 in parts. Or, if you have a car like mine, it may take 5 hours and $300 in parts. Should auto technicians charge the same ammount for both cars because they're both "timing belt / water pump" jobs? I don't think so. Bringing it to piano work, would you expect to pay the same ammount to replace a pinblock on a typical grand as on an old curved, one piece, open face Knabe? Ummm, no. Many do choose to standardize their tuning fees in the consideration that many of their piano tunings will be comparable in the ammount of time it will take and the difficulty involved. And many do already charge extra for things like pitch raises, where more time / effort is called for. I don't hear anyone crying foul over that. Call a spade a spade, or a PITA a PITA. Asign levels of difficulty and appropriate pricing if you choose to do so. Charging accordingly doesn't sound like an ethics violation to me. It sounds like fair pricing. Running a vacuum cleaner through a slightly used recondition wouldn't seem to demand the same hourly fee as running a CNC router in the making of that custom Knabe pinblock I mentioned above. At least in my opinion. Some may feel differetly. Brian To: pianotech at ptg.org From: tnrwim at aol.com Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2010 00:01:11 -0400 Subject: [pianotech] Ethics was Re: business Terry said: Quite simply I find these pianos a pain in the a$$ and they take more time to tune - so I want to charge more. Problem? There are two statements here that apply to charging more. One is ethical, the other is not. "they take more time to tune". We sell our services by the time it takes to do our work. If a piano takes more time to tune, then you should charge more. "I find these pianos a pain in the a$$". How a piano make you feel is your problem, and the customer should not be made to pay for it. Our Code of Ethics says: "2. I will render the best possible service under the circumstances, always keeping the best interest of my client in mind." We need to keep the best interest of our customer in mind when we tune a piano, NOT what our opinion is of the piano. The same applies to how we feel about doing certain tasks, like repairing or regulating, and under what circumstances we have to work, or how important the work is. We should have a standard hourly fee for doing our work, and stick to it, regardless of the type or condition of the piano or the customer. Yes, we have the right to charge what we want, but it needs to be the same rate for everyone, and for everything we do. That's the way I interpret the code of ethics. Wim The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. Get busy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100703/ce06a0a9/attachment-0001.htm>
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