price raising

[DGPEAKE@AOL.COM]

I would like add my 3 cents here. Last Saturday a fellow called me up and 
said he bought an upright. He would like to have it tuned, 2 bass strings 
replace, checked over, etc. He does not want to spend more than $200. 

I told him that I could not guaranty the price but would look it over. If I 
can do it for $200 or less, I will go ahead. If it is much more than $200 and 
he does not want spend it, I must collect my minimum charge. If I feel it is 
not worth working on, I will tell him and still collect my minimum charge. I 
have a right to refuse the work.

He agreed and set up the appointment. It is always a good idea to do your 
homework before you go out to the job.

Dave Peake, RPT
Portland Chapter
Oregon City, OR
www.davespianoworks.locality.com



In a message dated 09/11/2000 7:02:55 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com writes:

<< I know you have a good point. I do not do this all the time. It gets so
 yucky sometimes with these old uprights. I know many techs will not even
 service them (ethics?). You have a piano owner that just bought this old rat
 trap for $200 and they want it tuned. So you go. Then you pick away at the
 darned thing, sometimes carefully positioning a finger adjacent to the left
 side of the hammer for C5, after spending 3 minutes carefully calculating
 the deflection angle required to exactly send the hammer - that, left to its
 own wanderings, will hit two strings of B4 and only the left string of C5 -
 onto the ALL three strings of C5 (just one example of the things that will
 slow you down and you do not have something easily identifiable that needs
 fixing - keeping in mind if they spent $200 for the piano, hammer alignment
 is not likely high on their list - there are many more similar things). Do
 this a few times and you have your 10 minutes (or much more) for 10 dollars.
 
 Keeping in mind the $200 piano customer, it can be kinda sticky at times to
 stop 1/4 way through the tuning to tell the piano owner that it will be $5
 to  glue this hammer back on. And 1/2 way through the tuning to say it will
 cost $3 to glue the jack for A4 back on and 3/4 way through the tuning, it
 will be $18 to re-install the damper spoon on B6 that popped out......oh,
 and because I need to take the action out, we will need to spend $50 to
 replace the bridal straps........ad nausium. You know where I am going with
 this. It's just frustration. I feel like I gotta do something!
 
 I actually only do it once in a while when I have someone on the phone that
 is a would-be new client that sounds like they will pay for a tuning but not
 a pitch raise, and certainly not anything else! After all, all the keys
 work......usually. I figure they will likely call someone else. On the few
 occassions when I did get the tuning, if the piano was actually OK, I just
 charge my normal fee -  I do not volunteer anything, just hand them the bill
 for the normal amount. If they say anything, I just say it tuned up just
 fine and it didn't take as long as usual and that is my fee. No one has ever
 argued (only happend a couple times).
 
 Terry Farrell
 Piano Tuning & Service
 Tampa, Florida
 mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
  >>