Dearest Listserv, I was recently called out to service a piano for a local dealer. The dealer's regular tuner had already gone out and couldn't or wouldn't help. The scenario: Upright, good quality studio in a small "spirit-filled church" with breaking strings. I knew what I would find... Poor church, upright on stage, 5 foot tall bass amp and drum set RIGHT NEXT TO the piano. (no monitor for pianist) Two broken plain wire strings, about four broken bass strings, and the strings left were VERY badly out of tune with no consistency in pitch whatsoever. Hammers were lightly worn since it was still a new piano. The manufacturer told me that the piano sold was inappropriate for it's intended use, but that they now had a revised string scale (bass) made for that piano that they would be willing to send at no charge, but the dealer would have to pay all labor, etc. I assume that the new scale has thicker core wire and less copper wrap for strength. 1)First visit, I evaluated the piano, tied off the tenor strings and tuned it. (I could not tie off the bass stings because they were breaking at the winding near the top and I did not install universals because said manufacturer was 2nd-Day Airing the new strings.) I took all info down, called the manufacturer, called the pastor, called the pianist, (all at their request) spending probably 30-45 minutes explaining to them what was happening and defending the piano manufacturer and dealer. I also spent about 20-30 minutes on the phone with the manufacturer's phone system (press 1 if you're sick of being on hold, press 2 if you don't have another tuning today,etc.) 2) I got the strings, rescheduled customers so I could quickly go out to the church (30+ MINUTES AWAY), tilted the piano, restrung the bass, DID ALL STRING VOICING, tuned the piano (I think 3-4 times in bass and 2-3 round pitchraise for whole piano), touched up the voicing and regulation, misc. problems, called the folks to come and lock up, and at least 7 hours later loaded up my tilt dolly and drove home. The piano sounded pretty darn good! 3)I called the dealer long distance, explained the problems/solutions/actions. I billed the manufacturer $505.00 for the labor, forgetting that the dealer should have been billed. When I later talked to the service guy I spoke to originally, he reminded me that I should have billed the dealer. As he was reminding me he said, "Let me ask you something. Do you usually get $500 for restringing the bass in a piano?" He went on to say that their guys didn't get near that and that no one else does. I'm usually an easy going technician. I reminded him that as the invoice indicated, for the $505 I did the service call (touch-up tuning, tie-offs, evaluation, phone calls,etc), restrung the piano, pitchraised it, fixed other existing problems like clicks, buzzes, sticking keys, non-returning jacks, etc.,and would be going out a third time to tune the piano again in a short time. I concede that this MAY be high in some parts of the country, but I don't see why I should work for less on one piano, when I've got folks begging me for reminder cards and am booked 4-6 weeks in advance. I'm not trying to gouge anybody, I just don't like haggling over what my work is worth. When I look at all time spent traveling, talking, working, etc......It's taken me YEARS to get to the point where I honestly look at the hours worked and charge the houly rate. O.K. What do you think?? "I am what I am" (Popeye)
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