No-show fees?

[Richard Moody]

I agree with you Avery.

  If it is a new client that is a risk you take with first time
calls. You can send a bill or reschedule.  If you did not mention
BEFORE that you charge for "no show" it might be hard to collect
if they decide not to honor the bill or re-schedule at what ever
extra rate.
  In this day of cell phones especially those that store numbers
that called you,  "missed appointments" are becoming more of the
burden of the practicing professional since having a cell phone is
or soon will be considered part of professional standard
practices.
    Another way to insure yourself against "no shows" is to charge
$5 extra for first time appointments so the one out of 50 times
this may happen, (I think it much less) you have a   $ 250
cushion.
    For old clients they get a break (if you want to keep them)
for the missed appointment but then you get to push for that $350
regulation they have been putting off, etc, or spending a few
thousand trading up for that nice AB Chase grand you just rebuilt.


---rm



----- Original Message -----
From: Avery Todd <avery@ev1.net>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 4:57 PM
Subject: Re: No-show fees?


> I TOTALLY disagree with both of you! At least Wim wasn't
> sarcastic in disagreeing with me!
>
> When one lives in a city the size of Houston and sometimes
> has to drive 30+ miles to get to an appointment, it's well
> worth it to call first. Especially if the appointment was
> made several days before! As Wim says, maybe other things
> are more important to the customer. But them being there
> is VERY important to us! And a 30 second call won't totally
> destroy your day. If it does, you have more problems than
> I want to deal with! To me, it's just a courtesy. I can't
> tell you the number of times I've saved myself a trip by
> doing that. Unexpected things CAN come up. For both of us.
> I also do my customers the courtesy of calling them if
> something unexpected happens.
>
> Sorry I'm being kind of negative here but these posts
> (especially the last one) really got under my skin! Who is
> Perry Williams, anyway???????
>
> Avery
>
> At 02:38 PM 05/30/03 -0700, you wrote:
> >Thank you Avery, yet I will leave a conginial message
> >stating that sorry we missed each other my charge
> >today is 37.50 1/2 of my tuning charge please call me
> >and I will clean the sound board "cover your
> >furniture" polish the key tops and the charge for my
> >next visit will be 112.50 Thank you your Piano
> >Technician ................
> >--- Wimblees@aol.com wrote:
> > > In a message dated 5/30/03 4:13:25 PM Central
> > > Daylight Time, avery@ev1.net
> > > writes:
> > >
> > > > Has anyone actually considered calling the
> > > customer before you go? Just
> > > > to be sure?
> > > >
> > > > Avery
> > > >
> > >
> > > How far do we have to go to "baby" our customers. My
> > > feeling is, if they
> > > can't keep track of their lives, why should I
> > > bother.
> > >
> > > I wrote an article about this topic some months back
> > > in the Journal. My
> > > attitude is, no shows are a part of doing business.
> > > It comes with the territory. No
> > > matter what we do, it's going to happen. We have to
> > > realize a piano tuning
> > > might not be the most important thing in a
> > > customer's life. And who are we to
> > > judge what is more important. What might be a
> > > trivial thing to us, (like getting
> > > your hair done), might be a very important event for
> > > the customer. Yes, it's
> > > a hassle, and yes, we do loose money, but that's
> > > life as a piano tuner. And,
> > > as I concluded at the end of my article, if you
> > > don't like it, get out of the
> > > business.
> > >
> > > Wim