Paid for Pitch Raises?

[Avery]

I assume that the dealer you were talking about was one of the "the 
way to make money" types. Why doesn't that surprise me????

Avery Todd

At 10:04 AM 2/12/2007, you wrote:
>The last dealer I worked for said, "There are two ways to do 
>things:  the right way and the way to make money."  I suspect 
>altruistic dealers are like unicorns and bigfoot.  I've never seen 
>one ('course I am a relative newbie)
>
>-------------- Original message --------------
>From: "Leslie Bartlett" <l-bartlett at sbcglobal.net>
>When I started i was told that dealers don't pay squat, but it is a 
>good chance to amass experience quickly and get one's tuning time 
>down in short order. I tuned for a dealer for a couple years and now 
>I get occasional warranty tunings from another dealer- the 
>assumption being I keep the customer. That makes it pretty worthwhile.........
>les bartlett
>
>
>----------
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] 
>On Behalf Of Farrell
>Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 7:17 AM
>To: Pianotech List
>Subject: Re: Paid for Pitch Raises?
>
>
>I agree with what Dave has stated. I have found that there is a 
>range of dealer-types - a few who want to take care of their 
>instruments and realize they have to pay someone to do it - and at 
>the other end of the spectrum there are those who nickel and dime 
>everything and will only deal with beginner piano technicians 
>because they know they can pay them a minimum.
>
>I know that many techs find very good advantage to working with some 
>dealers. My few experiences have been poor ones and I have chosen to 
>simply not get involved with any dealers - my life and career are 
>better for it. You may be associated with a dealer that will only 
>pay minimum. It can be a frustrating experience.
>
>I guess all I can suggest is to move as much in the direction that 
>Dave describes and do some benefit-cost analysis of your 
>relationship with this dealer.
>
>Terry Farrell
>----- Original Message -----
>I charge dealers for pitch raises, both in the field and in the 
>store when I was doing in-store work.  You should expect to be 
>compensated for extra time and effort.  Don't let yourself be taken 
>advantage of.  It's a bad habit to get into.
>
>You might think about setting an hourly rate that you're comfortable 
>with, and the dealer is maybe slightly uncomfortable paying.  If you 
>get paid hourly, you can do pitch raises, repairs, perhaps even some 
>regulation if necessary without having to be penalized financially.
>
>If the dealer doesn't whine at you that he's paying too much, you 
>might want to raise your rates.
>
>Dave Stahl
>
>-----Original Message-----
>I tune for a couple of dealers where I live, and when I started, 
>they both told me that they've never paid any technicians for pitch 
>raises. One of the managers told me to go ahead and charge 
>accordingly when I had to pull a piano to pitch that was a half step 
>or more either direction. But I'm wondering if dealers in other 
>areas pay for "routine," pitch raises of, say, less than a half step.
>
>The owner of one of the stores explained that they don't want to 
>have to spend more money than they have to on the used pianos in 
>particular if they can only sell it for so much. I guess I do see 
>the logic in that, but what about all the pitch corrections I have 
>to do on the new pianos? I don't get anything for my time.
>
>I just can't stand leaving a piano off-pitch unless it's just 
>absolutely not worth it.
>
>Any comments?
>
>Daniel Carlton
>
>
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