Opinions of Working For Dealers

[Arnold]

     I would like to get some opinions from those of you who have
worked for dealers as to what you ended up thinking of it.
Naturally, these opinions will vary, some dealer situations are
better than others, but I am curious to know differing thoughts on
the subject.

     When I first left school and started my business, all the
dealers I contacted in the Raleigh area, except one, already had
technicians, had others on waiting lists, and didn't need anybody;
it still seems to be this way.    This particular dealer, with whom
I started working as an independent contractor, is, I think,
somewhat different from most dealers. When I told another
technician in the area that I was working for them, he wished me
luck, and said he had been able to get too few of the piano owners
to whom he was given access through that dealer to tune their
pianos on a regular basis.

     It seems that the majority of the pianos that leave their
store are leases.  A majority of their customers seem to be people
who are leasing a piano either to begin lessons themselves, or are
wanting their children to do so.  These leases are for a year, at
the end of which the customer is encouraged to buy either the piano
they already have, or another one.  But they are encouraged to buy
the one already in their house; it isn't as if they have a
dedicated group of pianos that are for lease only.

     Although they knew I would give the purchase customers a
business card and would encourage the customer to call me, the
store naturally recommended that the customer call the store,
rather than me.  And the store did not want me to call the lease
customers to remind them it was time to tune their piano again (the
contract said the piano would be tuned every six months during the
lease, but, unless the customer complained about it, lots of times,
it wasn't tuned at all after the first tuning.)  And, being that
they believed in doing as few floor tunings as possible (less than
10 a month), it would depress you to know how vastly out of tune
some of the pianos were that went into people's houses.  Naturally,
the store didn't really care whether I tuned it to a440 or not, at
least they didn't pay extra for it; only my wanting to do it
"correctly" encouraged me to do so.

     Although I have been able to get some of the purchase
customers to tune their pianos, a lot of them aren't interested
after the first tuning, and some of the others tell me that they
would rather just deal with the dealer (they seem to think I am
trying to cheat the dealer out of a tuning.)  The dealer would not
give me a letter showing the customer it was all right for the
customer just to call me.)

     So, for those who have worked with dealers in the past, or
currently do so, what are your opinions?  Do you end up with enough
customers to make it worth your working for the dealer "for next to
nothing?"

     I realize that there are some dealers on this list.  Your
opinions as to what you look for in a technician, and the
arrangements under which you employ them would also be appreciated.
Are they employees that are not permitted to solicit your customers
as their own?  If you do permit it, and if they ask, would you be
willing to give them  access to your past purchaser list so they
might send these purchasers information about themselves?  (The
dealer for whom I worked was not willing to do this; I even offered
to rent the list.)  Was this an unreasonable request on my part?

     Thanks.

Arnold Schmidt