I had a similar long trip into the mountains to find that the owner was not at home. I found the front door unlocked and since the piano was just inside the door and I had tuned for the woman a couple of times before, I decided to save the appointment and do the tuning. Arriving home that evening, I got a call from a very irate woman who was extremely upset that I had entered her house while she was gone (forgotten about the tuning date) and now "The Whole World" knows that she doesn't lock her front door and I let her go on venting hoping that she wears herself out screaming at me instead of doing something else. The only thing that would settle the argument was that I accepted half of my fee. So I took it that entering a house without previous arrangement is probably not a good policy and have refrained from doing so ever since. Another thing I learned, then and since is that either crazy people live in the mountains or living in the mountains makes you crazy. Tom Cole Dean May wrote: > I had a no show a couple of weeks ago, a fairly long time customer in > a small nearby town. Her door was open so I went in, tuned the piano > and left an invoice. Always check the door. If it is open and it is a > repeat customer who knows me I always go ahead and go in to tune it. > > > > Turns out this lady had been taken to the hospital the morning before. > She was out in a couple of days and sent me a check with a note of > thanks that I went ahead and tuned her piano. > > > > Dean > > Dean May cell 812.239.3359 > > PianoRebuilders.com 812.235.5272 > > Terre Haute IN 47802 > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On > Behalf Of reggaepass at aol.com > Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 8:38 AM > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Subject: Re: No- shows..... again > > > > Here, here Ed. > > When someone stands me up, I leave a note stating that I was there at > the appointed time I had on my calendar, waited fifteen minutes, and > then left. (After all, it is possible that I wrote is down wrong.) > While I'm waiting, I call 1) their house (in case they are there, but > don't hear the door), and then, 2) I call my answer machine to see if > there is word from them there. If no, and they afterwards call and > explain that they had a (true) emergency and didn't have my number > with them, OK. If they just forgot, I tell them that they will have > to pay for half of a service call for the missed appointment without > prior notice when I do service their piano next. Otherwise, they need > to find another date to the prom. > > In concert with this no show policy is a rather liberal cancellation > policy: As long as they let me know that they will not be able to keep > the appointment, no love is lost. The stated advance warning is 24 > hours, but in practice I will accept them actually reaching me any > time before the scheduled service. It comes down to a matter of > consideration, and as Ed has pointed out, thinning the heard of > undesirables is a good thing in terms of re-ordering your universe for > the better. > > Alan Eder > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: A440A at aol.com > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Sent: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 3:25 am > Subject: Re: No- shows..... again > > > > > ><< How do you deal with a no show appointment? Do you bill them? Bill half? > > > >Not > > > >at all? Any other way to deal wit them? >> > > > > > > > >Greetings, > > > > > > > >SNIP > > > > > > > > Our day by day decisions determine what our life is like, and gradually, > > > >over the years, our clientele develops around our own personality. They aren't > > > >really "them", but, rather, "They are us", so we are responsible for what > > > >kind of a career we have. We, in some way, choose our customers, and If taking > > > > > > > >care of ourselves means that we lose the occasional inconsiderate customer, > > > >is that a big loss or simply cleaning up our customer base to better suit our > > > >vocation? > > > >Regards, > > > >Ed Foote RPT > > > >http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html > > > >www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html <http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html> > > > > <BR><BR><BR>**************<BR>Get fantasy football with free live scoring. > > > >Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today.<BR> > > > >(http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)</HTML <http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020%29%3C/HTML>> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > The Famous, the Infamous, the Lame - in your browser. Get the TMZ > Toolbar Now > <http://toolbar.aol.com/tmz/download.html?NCID=aolcmp00050000000014>! > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20080801/333d9e5b/attachment.html
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