[pianotech] BBB

[wimblees at aol.com]

The only BBB case I had ever had was a customer who had a piano stored in my shop for over a year. When we were ready to delivered it, we discovered that the piano had been sitting on some small stones, so the flat side was damaged. We re-veneered the side,?but it required us to make a seam on the tail. She complained to the BBB. She also hadn't paid us for the storage. The BBB negotiated a settlement, but in the end, she didn't uphold her end of the settlement, (I can't remember the details). This was before we belonged to the BBB.

As I said. being a member of the BBB looks good in your advertising. But in reality, as Del said, there really aren't any benefits. 


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: Delwin D Fandrich <del at fandrichpiano.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Sent: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 9:17 am
Subject: Re: [pianotech] BBB



That is, at least the theory and the marketing story. Over the years, however, I have done follow-up work on several pianos that had be butchered by technicians and shops that were BBB members. When I queried the owners I was told that they did complain to the BBB and they had copies of the letters to prove it. Yet when I made inquiries to the BBB I was assured that there were no "active" complaints against the perps. I've come to the conclusion over the years that the organization is primarily set up to make money for themselves and any benefit--if such really exists--to the community is strictly secondary. 

?

ddf



From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of wimblees at aol.com
Sent: February 23, 2009 5:03 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] BBB




It looks good on your letter head or when you do any other kind of advertising. However, belonging to the BBB does not?give you any more "clout" with them if a customer complains, or even asks about you, other than that they can?say you are a member. On the other hand, a business?cannot belong to the BBB if they have had complaints. So being a?member indicates that you?run a clean business.?

Whether it's worth it, that's hard to say. I used to belong to the BBB back in St. Louis,?but only to support that BBB, not because I thought it would help my business.????


Wim


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090224/d6059d09/attachment.html>