[pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises

[David Love]

The idea of a full service appointment is that it allows time to take care
of things that pianos invariably need but may vary from piano to piano.  I
prefer to just have the time built in to be able to fix what needs fixing as
long as it can be accomplished within the time frame of the appointment.
Better that than spending 15 minutes explaining a repair that takes 15
minutes and for which you charge only 15 minutes even though you took 30 to
explain why you need to do it and why it will cost an extra 15 minutes worth
of your time.  Haven't met a piano yet that didn't need something other than
just tuning.    If it's a more time consuming repair then I probably don't
have enough time scheduled to do it anyway and will need to schedule a
follow up appointment.  

 

The problem of rush jobs (as Don M. described) are easily taken care of by
my "rush" charge:-)!   If my normal appointment is an hour and they only
give me 30 minutes then my rush charge is 100%.  Yes, that's a joke.  There
is an overriding minimum on all appointments unless I'm the one who cuts it
short for some reason.  

 

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Gerald Groot
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2010 2:02 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] billing dilemma with pitch raises

 

And, where do you stop the so called level of "minor repairs?"  Is a broken
key considered a minor repair?  After all, it will probably "only take" an
additional 20 minutes or so, to fix it?  With so many parts inside of a
piano, how can one include "minor repairs" in your tuning fee without also
knowing the amount of time involved?   If you give set aside a 2 hour time
frame for tuning and only use 1 hour, do you still charge for 2 hours?  

 

 Charging by the hour is common in all business areas.  Giving away
something as being included in a tuning fee is usually done frequently in
the piano tuning profession.  A car tune up is a car tune up.  That doesn't
include outside  "minor repairs."    Nor do they consider it a nuisance of
explaining and figuring charges for every trifle.  Last time I looked, they
even charged me to fill up my window washer fluid.  Never mind the fact that
it was nearly full when I drove in there.  J

 

Jer

 

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