Haunted House....and cleaning fees

[Clyde Hollinger]

Today I had to put new hinges on a piano bench and also a lid prop which it
apparently never had which would explain why the hinges were broken.  I did *not*
charge the normal hourly rate, because it took me longer than I thought it should
have.

Clyde

Clyde Hollinger wrote:

> Corey,
>
> Welcome to the list.  I charge the same hourly rate for everything I do unless I
> have a predetermined standard fee for some things that usually take about the
> same amount of time for each piano.  Cleaning the inside of a piano can't be done
> by the cleaning lady; it is very specialized work.
>
> But four hours is a long time for cleaning, so for sure you would want to give
> the client an estimate before you start so they don't raise the roof later.  When
> giving the estimate you might also want to politely say that you require that the
> work be done before you will do anything else, if you feel that way, then be
> prepared to walk away from the whole job if they refuse.  (You would still charge
> for your evaluation, of course.)
>
> Regards, Clyde
>
> SimsPiano@AOL.COM wrote:
>
> > Shortening
> > the story, it took me about 4 hours to get the piano clean enough for me to
> > tune!  And this was really some sweaty nasty work.  (Thank God for my dust
> > mask.)
> >
> > Do most of you charge an hourly rate for something like this based on your
> > tuning fees (eg, where a tuning would be 2 hours of this rate)??
> >
> > Thanks a lot,
> > Corey Sims
> > RTP Chapter, North Carolina