Perry I would disagree with you on this. Calling her will only aggravate the problem. And telling her she did something wrong will just make heer more angry. Maybe you were lucky, but getting on the defensive about something like this is not a good way to come up with a viable solution. If anything, I would call her and ask what you can do to get paid. If there is nothing, then let the legals deal with it. Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT Piano Tuner/Technician Mililani, Oahu, HI 808-349-2943 Author of: The Business of Piano Tuning available from Potter Press www.pianotuning.com -----Original Message----- From: perrys piano restorations <perrymark at hotmail.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Sent: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 7:20 pm Subject: Re: [pianotech] Looking for ideas WOW!? I apologize on behalf of this person.??We work awful hard for so little money as it is.? We often have to?fight for work, search diligently, call on our days off, recieve calls on Christmas, easter, newyears, dinner, talk pianos at baseball games,?etc.? I would call her directly and in a firm way state that you owned up to your end of the agreement, and that the 50%?did not even cover your?costs!? Tell?her you need to be paid and that what she is doing is both dishonest, and a sin!???? this has worked for me on two occasions.? Fortunately this?is a rare thing.? I feel good about?calling things a "SIN" because I remind them that they cannot steal from God.? I don't care what religion they are,?if any.? I use the term freely, and it invokes guilt.? If that does not work, a certified letter that you write may be enough to get her moving.? Who knows.? Good luck! ? Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 22:00:19 -0700 From: tunerryan at gmail.com To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: Re: [pianotech] Looking for ideas How awful! Since you have a contract I'd be tempted to take her to small claims court. If you get a judgement you may be able to take it to a collection agency. If its a pretty good chunk of money (which it sounds like it probably is) you might just hire an attorney to send her a threatening letter. Maybe that would be enough to grease the lady's wheels. I sympathize. There are some really difficult people out there. Luckily this kind of thing doesn't happen very often. Best wishes! Let us know what happens. On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 9:17 PM, <pianositter at aol.com> wrote: I'm having my first experience in non-payment in my twenty-something years at this!? I have a contract the customer signed which specified a 50% deposit, 50% on completion.? I put on new hammers, and asked the customer to show me a few notes that she liked the sound of, so I would understand her concept and could make all the notes sound that way.? It was a normal, average, good Steinway sound (w/ the Abel natural felt hammers).? She wrote me a check the first time I finished the job, and I left.? She called an hour or so later to say it was just too loud, it wasn't what she wanted, and I must come back RIGHT NOW and make it softer.? So I did, but it was getting late and I told her I could make i softer but it wouldn't be even until I returned the following week.? She said to go ahead and do that.? I did.? THen she called a day or two later to say she'd stopped payment on the check and I must come the next day, Saturday (instead of in 4 days time, which was the appointment) to "fix it".? Nobody had ever stopped payment on a check to me before, and I was not happy.? But I went the next day, and worked all day on her piano.? She said it was what she wanted, that she would try it a few days and "if there was nothing wrong" she would mail me a check.? Another week goes by, no check.? Now she says ......yadda yadda yadda. What have other done in this situation?? Looks like I got a real wacky one here.? Do I have to just sue her in Small Claims Court? Please advise.? What happens if they award you the money in Small Claims?? How do you then collect it? Thanks, Linda Scott E-file your IRS taxes FREE with TaxACT & have your refund in as few as 8 days. -- Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Olympia, WA www.pianova.net Quick access to your favorite MSN content and Windows Live with Internet Explorer 8. Download FREE now! = -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090404/e3a11437/attachment.html>
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