[pianotech] rock solid for how long?

[Kerry]

It seems to me we need to apply some common sense to what amounts to a
balancing act between what we know as technicians and what we can get our
clients to understand and accept. I apply a kind of sliding time scale to
this kind of callback, meaning that if it's a piano I tune regularly and
something slips within a week or so (not the slow roll that's been referred
to but really out), I'll take direct responsibility, make a free touch-up
visit and try to use the opportunity to explain something about the number
and complexity of the factors that affect the tuning (and maybe try to sell
them on humidity control). When it's been a longer period of time, or the
piano had not been tuned regularly, I'll try to make them understand why it
may have gone out but hold firm in charging for a service call. This doesn't
apply to performance work, where the expectations are higher and the time
frame shorter.

I guess the bottom line is, put yourself in your client's shoes. When
something goes wrong with some service person's work shortly after they
leave, and they refuse to make it right for free, no amount of explanation
or rationalization would make me feel like I haven't been cheated. Emphasis
here is on defining "shortly" for yourself.


Kerry Kean
www.ohiopianotuner.com


-----Original Message-----
From: David Nereson [mailto:da88ve at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 2:07 AM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] rock solid for how long?

 > We cannot be held responsible for what happens to the piano 
itself once we
> leave the premises.  Many factors must be taken into account 
> including
> humidity flucuations.
>
> Jer

    I think this gets to the root of what I was actually 
concerned with.  I get the attitude or expectation or impression 
from many clients than I AM responsible for that tuning holding 
for a reasonable amount of time -- at least 4 months or so, or 
even a year or two, in some people's minds.  I remember many 
call-backs in the past (and occasional ones even now) where a 
string slipped within a few days of the tuning.  The customer 
always feels that's the tuner's fault, since they think a tuning 
should last at least a year.  In fact, when they were growing 
up, their mom only tuned the piano every 5 years or so, and it 
sounded fine (they think).  So if my tuning doesn't last that 
long, I must not be very good, or else I did something wrong, or 
am getting old and can't hear, or was in a hurry or whatever.
    But more to the point of rock-solidness, how do you know, 
other than by using the forearm test or pounding the heck out of 
each and every unison, that that tuning will stay absolutely 
stable?  Do you go thru and tap every pin with the flat end of 
your tuning hammer's head to see if any pins move, then go thru 
and touch them up?  And after you do, how do you know those 
touch-ups are stable?  You don't.  And, yes, at concerts, 
sometimes tuners come out at intermission to touch-up a few 
strings.  And this is understandable to the layperson because a 
concert artist was thrashing out a heavy piano concerto.  But 
their home piano should stay in tune for at least a year since 
it's only used by light-handed, casual players.  (Or some 
similar train of thought.)
    I still experience some guilt if I charge full fare, then 
get a call-back because a unison or a few slip(s) within the 
next few weeks.
    --David Nereson, RPT