charge for pitch raise

[Kevin E. Ramsey]

    $320 for a pitch raise sounds like he's going to have trouble finding
clients in the near future to me. I charge maybe thirty dollars extra for a
100 cent pitch raise, tops. It's not like it's a fine tuning, and doesn't
require anything more than a little more time.
    The only time that I really start to "sweat" while tuning, is on the
last pass, and especially when trying to get those unisons as pure as I can
get them. Of course, that's on all tunings anyway, pitch change or not.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Clyde Hollinger" <cedel@supernet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 3:45 AM
Subject: Re: charge for pitch raise


> Well, for most of us it's charging for the work done.  But one time a tech
told
> me if he arrived to find the piano 50c flat he charges double his normal
tuning
> fee, and if it's 100c flat he charges double again.  As an example, $80 to
tune,
> $160 to pitchraise 50c and tune, $320 to pitchraise 100c and tune.  That
sounds
> like penalizing to me, or am I missing something here?
>
> I've been told from another source that one can never say charges are
> inappropriate.  That never made sense to me before, and it doesn't now.  I
do
> concede, however, that one tech may charge considerably more than another
for
> doing exactly the same thing.  That's what the free market is all about,
and
> it's even against the law to agree to all charge the same thing.
>
> Regards, Clyde
>
> Dave Nereson wrote:
>
> > > Please tell me that no techs around here "penalize" a piano owner for
> > having
> > > a piano that is off pitch - whether it was last tuned last week or in
> > 1962.
> > > Please tell me we simply charge for our labor and expertise....  <
> >
> > It's not "penalizing";  it's just charging for the extra time spent in
doing
> > a pitch raise.  --Dave Nereson,
> > RPT, Denver
>
>