Since I do a lot of churches, my pet peeve is the way Sunday School teachers treat pianos as catch-alls. I give the mess a one-way ticket to the table and am glad not to be there hearing the sputtering when the teacher arrives in the nick of time for her class on Sunday. Where my home clients are concerned, I have found it helpful to chide the owners humorously in the news letters I send out as reminders. I send at year intervals a letter filled with helpful information and interesting bits (including my current tuning charge, which helps save discussion on price) in which I may make a comment about the time I had to clear 3 dozen trophies off the top of a piano, and remark that since I normally look for anything helpful I can do for the piano (such as tightening a screw here or there) and do it without extra charge, they might prefer for me to spend that time doing something useful rather than use it up clearing the top. Bill Maxim Simpsonville, SC
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