Greetings, This is alwys a tough one. When I go into a new customer's piano, I try to make sure they are standing right there, and I show them the "lay of the land" as far as the piano's issues are concerned. I try every key, look at the bridges and play some keys and ask them if they can "hear that" and point out any extraneous ringning or other key/action sticking problems or worn key bushings clacking etc. I ask them how long they have the piano, and ask if it was in a basement or near a heat source before they got it. As you probably know, the old uprights are the worst. I point out the dirt/dust if any, and/or other problems and tell them that it indicates the piano was neglected. Testing the A-440 tells all, of course . I find that if I do is in the beginning, it lowers their expectations of what services I can perform to ge the piano acceptably playable again. I guess some people expect us to be "miracle" workers on such "beasts". Julia Reading, PA In a message dated 11/22/2009 3:28:07 AM Eastern Standard Time, dianepianotuner at msn.com writes: 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. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20091129/246d5f58/attachment.htm>
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