AND every time you start trying to think how you will give the most complete disclaimer the next time... David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA 94044 ----- Original message ---------------------------------------- From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net> To: pianotech at ptg.org Received: 11/26/2009 7:54:29 PM Subject: Re: [pianotech] call-backs you can't charge for >I especially love the ones when they call you three months after you've been >there and say, "Gee this started happening right after you were here" (a >sticking note right after a tuning suggesting that your tuning caused the >note to start sticking). Usually these are the once every 5 years >customers. >David Love >www.davidlovepianos.com >----- Original Message ----- >From: "David Nereson" <da88ve at gmail.com> >To: <pianotech at ptg.org> >Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 5:50 AM >Subject: [pianotech] call-backs you can't charge for >> A client called and said her daughter hears several buzzing notes. I >> just tuned it a few weeks ago and didn't hear any buzzing. But I go to >> check it out. Client wasn't home -- forgot I was coming. Fortunately >> there was a housekeeper who let me in. I play up and down the scale, and >> sure enough, there's some buzzing underneath somewhere. I open the bottom >> panel and see two small, rusty woodscrews lodged between the plate and the >> bottom board, one of them against the soundboard. I remove them, and, >> "Presto!" -- no more buzzing. (Why couldn't they have buzzed when I was >> tuning a few weeks ago?) >> Suddenly client shows up (was walking the dogs). I show her the >> screws, tell her there's no more buzzing, and she says, "Oh, thank you >> soooo much!" in a tone that's so grateful I can tell she thinks I came to >> remove the problem as a huge gratis favor, and that certainly I don't >> intend to charge anything. (When they say, "Do I owe you anything?" then >> you KNOW you'd better say, "No, that's OK -- I was in the neighborhood" or >> something similar.) >> I spent a half-hour driving, two minutes finding the problem, ten >> minutes waiting around for the client, and another half-hour back to the >> shop -- 1 1/4 hours for no compensation. Sometimes you just get the "vibe" >> from the client that they think any buzz, noise, tinnyness, or other quirk >> that shows up within, say, a month after you tuned it, is your fault, >> since it wasn't doing that before you tuned it, and therefore must've been >> caused by your "tuning" and you should come fix it for free. >> Oh sure, you can say, "I have a $xx minimum billing for service calls," >> but then you lose the customer and any referrals from them. >> I've even done 12 hours' extra labor on a large reconditioning job to >> get rid of problems they implied were my fault, even though these things >> were not in the job estimate, but from their tone of voice and attitude >> you can tell that it's either fix everything for free or get into a big >> argument, much unpleasantness, and maybe even a lawsuit. >> But of course you can't deduct the value of your time on your tax >> return, since the IRS doesn't see your time as being worth anything. >> --David Nereson, RPT
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