Terry, It sounds to me like you handled it pretty well. I have a couple thoughts. This situation brings to mind something that happened to me last year. On May 10 I tuned a little church's piano, and on June 22 I got a complaint that several notes sounded out of tune. I was dubious but agreed to call back and check it out. Indeed, for no reason I can explain, one of the E5 strings was wildly out of tune. I was quite embarrassed, fixed the offending note and retuned the whole piano at no charge. Is there a chance that this may have happened in your situation as well? I'm also thinking that when I have clients who've left their pianos go 180 cents flat, they don't generally hear a little slippage that occurs over three months. Could it be that he is listening to the beats of the thirds or something, and mistaking that for out-of-tuneness? In relation to "guaranteeing" my tunings, if I am called within a month or so (a rare occurrence), I usually go out to see what the problem is and have done retunings or touchups at no additional charge, but that usually includes a little education also. In one case, I had tuned in July, when the air conditioner was on. Two months later I got a complaint, and when I went back, the piano was wildly sharp in the tenor, during a cool humid September streak when the air conditioner was off. I charged half, although I should have charged the full price, because the tuning change was due to no fault of mine. The piano needed a humidity control system. But there are times when it's worth it to give a little free time just to preserve goodwill. Regards, Clyde pianolover 88 wrote: > I got a call tonight from a customer who told me that his piano has "kind of > gone out of tune." This particular piano (very old spinet)was 180+ cents > flat when I pitch raised and tuned it close to 3 months ago. I originally > told him that his piano, having been neglected for many years, would very > likely need to be tuned again in about 3 months, (How's that for timing?) > due to the years of neglect and the fact that it was so flat, not to mention > the sheer age and overall condition of the piano. > > So, i asked him if he would like to schedule a follow-up tuning, and that it > probably would NOT need another pitch raise, (as I had left it a little > sharp, anticipating another, albeit lesser drop) just a basic tuning, and i > quoted him my basic tuning fee. WOW! He immediatey asked ... "Don't you > guarantee your work?" (I Didn't see that one coming, so i asked him what he > meant.) He continued... "Well, the piano seems to have kinda gone out of > tune and I didn't expect to have to pay you AGAIN to tune it." > I reminded him of what i had told him when i first tuned his piano, and that > pianos cannot be "guaranteed" to stay in tune indefinitely, especially a > piano that had been so severely neglected and was so flat. Then he > said.."well, I just don't have the money right now." I did what i could to > be "diplomatic", and ended the conversation by thanking him for calling, and > to please call again when his situation changes, and i would be happy to > schedule a follow-up tuning. I am wondering how other list members have > dealt with this type of situation. Thanks. > > Terry Peterson > Associate Member PTG > Los Angeles, CA > > _________________________________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. > > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at > http://profiles.msn.com.
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