>Have any of you ever had the opposite response? Once in a while the client >will >say to me when I arrive, "It really needs a tuning!" I start working on it, >and >it's really not bad at all. This happens a lot, and I've wondered about it too. I think it's because people tend to automatically assume that the professional (insert specialty) is possessed of knowledge they can't possibly know or understand. Once they've decided that, they resist being further educated on the subject, but will often relentlessly follow the sometimes truly bizarre instructions from the last expert as they think they remember them being given, whether they make any sense or not. I don't think they're trying to appear intelligent, so much, as they are accepting and trusting what their "expert" told them without trying to understand the reasoning behind the advice. Someone tells them "Tune twice a year, without fail". After years of this, they (by any number of circumstances) happen to have me tune the piano and ask why so frequent tunings are necessary when they think the piano sounds fine. If I find the piano in decent tune, I'll agree with them and suggest yearly tunings unless their ear tells them otherwise before then. This is so unexpected and foreign to them that they immediately become suspicious and I have their full attention from then on. If the piano sounds nasty, we talk about the usual climate control issues and such. I try to get them the most tuning (and service) mileage I can for their dollar, rather than try to sell them the idea that they owe me two guaranteed tuning fees a year and any other service I can manage to talk them into so I can make the most money with the least work at their expense. I resent the fact that too many other "professionals" are doing that to me on a daily basis and I try not to abuse my people with that sort of thing. The other side of that coin is, of course, that I owe them the truth when they ask me what I think of their instrument, or if I find a real problem during the course of tuning. Over and over again, I hear "I wish I'd known that before I spent the money for that other work, I'd have just gotten a better piano" or "Why didn't the last four tuners tell me anything about this?" They aren't used to being treated as intelligent humans by professional service people and being addressed as something other than a source of income gets their attention. The short version is that I don't think anyone ever really 'splained anything to them. Yea, I know, there's a reason for it and I've talked to many a piano owning tree stump myself, but I still can't help but try and most of them are receptive and capable if given half a chance. It helps more than it hurts. Hope you're not sorry you mentioned it. <G> Ron N
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