Service calls

[Alan R. Barnard]

I try to always schedule new customer/piano as the last appointment of the day. You never know what you're going to run into. If it's just a tune, fine. If it ends up being just a service call and "bad news" session, that's okay, too. If it turns into repairs or bigger job I can at least get started, get a deposit, and do some scheduling.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO
Joshua 24:15






Original message
From: PIANOTECHNICIAN at aol.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Received: 02/02/2007 8:32:55 AM
Subject: Service calls


Many times I get a call from a new tuning customer with a "questionable" piano. If the piano is old, especially if it's a Whitney, Sojin, Lyric (offshoot of Wurlitzer), or any piano I suspect may be untuneable, I do the following: if the customer lives in an area that I frequent, and most do, I tell them that I'll stop by when I'm in the area, at no charge, to look the piano over in order to see if it's workable. In this way I don't end up setting aside a couple of hours for a job that will never materialize. I guest most technicians have the policy of just making the appointment and charging for a service call if the piano's a bomb. I don't like doing this, because the customer feels badly enough being told that there's no hope for his/her piano. To charge him/her a service call on top of this bad news just adds insult to injury.This is how I feel. Your comments?
 
Jesse Gitnik  NYC
Tech. since 1980
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