At 09:27 PM 08/30/2000 +0930, you wrote: >I figure that if I need anything else I should charge extra and then it's >another trip to the car. I think it may be time to look at this concept of charging extra for a trip to the car. On the face of it, this looks like a question of how much to charge, but I think that is only superficial. The question, IMHO, is how much leeway to allow in one's basic tuning fee. One can _assume_ that almost all pianos will have little things which ask to be done. I don't like leaving the holes where there should be knobs, or squeaky pedals, or split key buttons, or missing keyslip screws. In fact, I'm full of things I don't like: I don't like to nickel-and-dime customers, and I don't like having to explain small fees for this and that, and I don't like leaving little stuff wrong. I try to have enough leeway in my basic tuning fee that it will cover the small incidentals which almost always are there. That way I don't need to weigh the length of my arms against the amount I charge, and the short walk to the car doesn't need to start up some sort of meter ("ka-ching!"), like in a taxicab. I don't need to make a big sell job for a "full-service" visit. If it looks like the incidentals will swell to expand my time past an arbitrary limit (which for me is about two hours, YMMV) I'll explain and ask and quote, and all of that. In effect, I'm making all my visits, in a modest way, "full service." I often take care of little stuff which several other tuners have left. People seem to like it okay. I'm a few bucks over some of the other nearby techs, but I seem to hold my own. My $0.02 cents-worth, but I won't quote it and ask for your approval first before writing the post ... consider it's on spec ... Susan Kline
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