Rick, I also bring a Humidity Gauge along w/ me for every tuning, and I record the %RH in my "little book of notes". It can sometimes help me anticipate any future problems in pitch & unisons. But the real issue is, and your customer can call any/all other tuners for confirmation, that no tuning is guaranteed much past a few days. When the humidity (& secondarily the temperature) changes, the tuning & unisons will too. When the humidity (& secondarily the temperature) changes DRASTICALLY, the tuning can change DRASTICALLY too. Especially without a DC or like. As to customers having their pianos tuned 1/yr or 2x/yr or even more often, I tell them that I'll call back in a year for another tuning. Then I say: "But if the piano does change (which it will) and you want it tuned earlier, please call and I'll schedule an earlier tuning." Regardless of whether I tune the piano 1/yr or sooner... I charge for a regular tuning. And if it's more than 10-15 cents off, I know instead of running thru the piano on a standard tuning that I'll need to perform an extra pass (aka Pitch Raise), along w/ (a mild scolding &) explanation of humidity's role in keeping their piano tuning stable, AND the same changes affecting any/all of their wood furniture. Along w/ earlier comments about making sure one has "stable" pricing (aka $xx for yy job), you might want to consider at what "cents away from target pitch" that you will advise the customer for the need for a Pitch Raise. -40 cents would definitely qualify in my book. So for this customer, I'd advise that "I've run into other pianos needing a sooner tuning, due to the weather, and (warn that) if the pitch is lower than xx, that it will require a $yy Pitch Raise as well. After that... as I learned in the sales business, let your competitors have the bad customers. Don't worry too much about a bad referral from "her". People who know her will probably not value what this witch says, anyway. Bill Fritz, St Louis From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Richard Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 3:49 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Return visit List, Client calls today (piano teacher) , and says "My piano doesn't right". It was tuned 10/30/09, Kawai kg-2. We have just emerged from a two week bitter cold snap here in the NE, and many pianos have been 40+ cents flat that usually are not that bad in past years. She has forced air and a wood stove about two feet from the piano. She isn't buying my reply that the weather etc. is to blame. Of course she is an hour away, and I've arrainged to get to her next week. She is a once a year tuning; I could use some advice on how to handle this situation. Thanks, Rick Ucci/ Ucci Piano -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100117/b04e07ca/attachment.htm>
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