$65 to adjust one damper?

[pmc033 at earthlink.net]

HI, David:
    My first thought is- was it ringing before you tuned it?  I assume you were there to tune the piano.  Did you discuss the repair with the customer?  If not, and you expected the repair to be a "quickie", you just ate it.  Otherwise, I think you would be justified charging whatever you think was fair.  It wouldn't be fair to charge a customer for your learning curve, so I'd figure that into your charges, and adjust accordingly.  
    You know, it brings up a question.  If I'm struggling with a particular problem, and I can't seem to get it fixed right, is it ethical to charge for the mistakes I made in mis-diagnosis of the problem?  Like when you take your car in for repair, and they try this and that, replacing parts until the problem goes away.  And you pay for the whole thing.  It doesn't seem fair to me that way.  
    Better to charge for the job than by the hour.  Knowing what to charge for that job is the critical thing.  
    Food for thought...

    Paul McCloud
    San Diego


----- Original Message ----- 
From: David Nereson 
To: List Pianotech
Sent: 08/18/2006 10:07:19 PM 
Subject: $65 to adjust one damper?


 I’m sure something similar has happened to everyone on the list.  I noticed one damper had a long after-ring, so tried to bend it up, down, sideways, etc., to make it contact the strings better.  No dice.  Had to pull the action.  This is one of the dampers right against a plate strut, with the long right-angle bend before the damper wire goes down the guide hole.  Anyhow, pulled the damper, made what I thought was the necessary bend, and of course the damper head comes loose from the wire, even though I was holding it tightly in place with parallel pliers.  Had to plug the hole with a toothpick splinter and tap the wire back into the hole with a small punch, then add a drop of CA glue.  Then put the damper back in the underlever, regulated, re-installed the action and tried it.  Nope.  Still rings.  By now probably 15 or 20 minutes have elapsed.  Yes I have the tool that enables bending it side to side with the damper in place.   No dice.  Still rings.  Pull the action and damper again, try squeezing the felt to make it settle down farther into the strings, reinstall damper, reinstall action, try again.  Nope, still rings.  By now about a half hour has elapsed.  Pull action and damper again, try fluffing up the felt with a voicing tool on the one string that still rings.  Reinstall everything and try again.  Better, but now the 7th partial is too strong.  Try bending forward and back to kill the partial.  No dice.  This goes on and on for another half hour before I finally get the damper to satisfactorily dampen that note.  Do I now charge $65 just for adjusting one damper?  How do I explain this to the customer?  Certainly if I had let it ring, I would have gotten a call-back about it.
            --David Nereson, RPT  
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