[pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises

[William Monroe]

How about that, I agree with Wim, here.  Ultimately you just need to decide
what type of system you are going to operate with and stick to it
unapologetically.  I have a basic tuning fee, and charge extra for pitch
corrections and "extra work."  Having said that, I'm considering going to a
fee structure that is strictly hourly, but has a minimum service call charge
which would cover tuning and pitch correction.  The basic "full service"
appointment.

William R. Monroe



On Sun, Oct 31, 2010 at 1:16 AM, <tnrwim at aol.com> wrote:

> David
>
> There are two ways of looking at this. One is by the job. A normal tuning
> is X. A pitch raise is Y. Put them together, X+Y=Z. regardless of how much
> time you spend. The customer doesn't know how long a "normal" tuning takes,
> so if she's agrees up front to pay you $Z, and if she's happy, and you're
> happy, then it's a done deal.
>  The other way is the time you spend, which in your case, is about the
> same amount. Therefore, you shouldn't charge extra. But perhaps you're
> cheating yourself, and you actually do spend more than 90 minutes to do
> both.
>
> Personally, it takes me about 15 minutes to go through a piano once for a
> pitch raise, using my SAT IV. The follow up tuning then takes me the same as
> a "normal" tuning, which is why I charge a little extra to do both.
>
> Wim
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Nereson <da88ve at gmail.com>
> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Sent: Sat, Oct 30, 2010 7:34 pm
> Subject: [pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises
>
>     Most tunings take me an hour and a half.  And for that
> amount of time I charge $X.
>     But often, after a pitch raise, which gets the piano pretty
> close to being in tune, the final fine tuning only takes an
> hour.
>     Say the pitch raise took 1/2 hr, and the final tuning an
> hour.  That's an hour an a half.  How do I now justify charging
> extra for the pitch raise when a "plain vanilla" tuning also
> takes an hour and a half and I only charge $X for it?
>    Or to look at it another way, if you charge $X per hour and
> base your tuning fee on that, then go do a tuning and pitch
> raise that only takes 1 1/2 hrs., but you still charge extra for
> the pitch raise, then now you're charging more than $X per hour.
>     --David Nereson, RPT
>
>
>
>
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