Hi, Wim I agree with some of this, but not entirely. We charge by time, but if something is physically challenging, and we end up exhausted and unfit for work the next day, that will take more of our time (for recovery) than just the hours spent on the job itself. As we get older, this issue tends to crop up more than it once did, at least for me. If you are talking about "pain in the a$$" as just meaning disgust and boredom, then I agree with you. If it's literally a pain, as in the lower back from leaning over a square grand for several hours, then it takes away from our ability to do other work, and it is reasonable to charge more for it. I stopped tuning squares and players with the actions still in them some time ago. I realized that I had done all of them which had presented themselves to me for twenty years, had paid a physical price for it, and I figured I've served my sentence on them. There's another consideration coming at us as we get older. Businesses mature, and so do we. As more work appears with the passage of time, while our physical tolerance for doing it decreases, at some point the two lines will intersect. We'll be offered more work than we can or should do. At that point, how do we triage? I take the best stuff, especially the concert work, because I see no one to take my place (yet) and because I like it the best. And I take good pianos and old customers. And once in awhile, I take an old wreck for someone who just desperately needs some real help that they can afford. I consider this my "pro bono" work. I charge a normal tuning fee, but do a lot more. By keeping the volume of work low, one can keep the satisfaction of each job high, and I think in the end I will tune more pianos for longer by taking this tack. No five minute pitch raises, thanks just the same. If I'm in a hurry, I'm exhausted, and in the long run the exhaustion will win. I'm not in my thirties anymore. We work for the money, for the satisfaction, for the value to the customer, and to be a crucially needed part of the musical community. The work should be enjoyable, IMO, both for the piano tech and for the customer. I call it "semi-retirement." If someone after thirty years in the business still needs a high income so badly that they have to keep up high volume at premium rates no matter what, I sympathize. If it's just a matter of habit, and they haven't considered the tradeoffs, maybe it would be good to look ahead a little, before burnout or injury gets them out of the business altogether. Susan Kline --------------------------------------------------- >"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.
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