Yeah ...what he said! Dale S. Erwin -----Original Message----- From: David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> Similar to Dale, there should be a structure of some type depending on the scope of the project. First payments should always cover all parts costs plus some portion of your initial labor (you don’t want to be working for free at the outset waiting for the next payment). On action rebuilding projects that might mean 50% plus any outside contracting costs in full (such as if you have to have a new set of keys made, for example). Balance on completion. On full rebuilding projects it might be divided into thirds. The first payment enough to cover all materials plus a percentage of the labor costs until you reach the next payment phase in which you then ask for another payment to cover the materials costs plus some portion of the labor for the next phase, final payment due on completion. Rarely does it break out to third/third/third. Usually it’s more like 40%/35%/25% or something like that. If you are contracting out the refinishing and managing the project plus the payments then the entire amount should be paid up front and you become the fiduciary to be responsible for the transfer of payments to the finisher. Depending on where in the project that takes place (some people do the finishing before stringing so the plate can be out) you might itemize that separately outside of the scope of the other work to be completed and treat it as a separate payment. The main idea is that you don’t want to be out of pocket for parts or work that you have to contract out (just in case they disappear on you), you want to have some portion of your labor for each phase covered in advance so that you can pay yourself something while you are working on the project, you want the balance paid on delivery (if it’s an action job for example) or in advance of the piano being returned if it’s a full restoration job. An in shop inspection before you return the piano is an opportune time to collect final balances and you could even have a piano coming out party and pour some wine ;-). Of course, make sure you factor that into the price—just kidding. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Dale Erwin Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 7:20 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Deposit or not? We work in progress payments in various forms. ie. 1/2, 1/3, /1/4. Whatever works!. It depend on how big the job is. The first one which covers the parts. Dale S. Erwin www.Erwinspiano.com -----Original Message----- From: APC Hotmail <alliedpianocraft at hotmail.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Tue, Nov 16, 2010 5:13 am Subject: Re: [pianotech] Deposit or not? I usually require half Al - High Point, NC On Nov 15, 2010, at 10:56 PM, Gary wrote: > With the high price of parts etc do you require any sort of deposit before ordering or doing work? > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101116/2e7c536a/attachment.htm>
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