turning down unwanted biz

[Andrew and Rebeca Anderson]

I simply tell the customer I would feel dishonest taking money to try 
to do anything to the piano as it is not retrievable for anything 
near the cost of a new piano and what I could do would not add to its 
market value.  They say something about needing it for a child taking 
lessons (I'm also a teacher) and I say that this PSO is a 
piano-lesson road-block, not a starter-piano--that they would be 
wasting money twice over if I worked on it and then the child had to 
practice on it while they pay for lessons.
It does take time for a statement like that to sink in, and they will 
try offering money etc. but a lost cause is exactly that and when it 
gets through they are more then grateful that you had the courage to 
say it clearly without equivocation.

Andrew Anderson
At 06:08 AM 2/27/2008, you wrote:


>>     How do you tell people you don't want to work on their old 
>> beater / junker / clunker without coming off as a piano snob, 
>> especially if the person who referred you has a piano you've been 
>> tuning for years that's no better?  ("You worked on theirs, now 
>> all the sudden ours isn't good enough for ya?")
>>     --veteran tuner, but still stymied by certain situations
>>     --David Nereson, RPT
>>
>
>floccinaucinihilipilifize it. If being reluctant to make servicing 
>motions over a dead piano at the owner's expense and your own 
>disquiet makes you a piano snob, so be it. No matter what you do, 
>someone won't be happy with you, so do  what you think is as close 
>to right as you can manage for both yourself and them, and move on.
>
>Ron N