Paul, there seems to be a contradiction when you first mention that you "tactlessly" informed a teacher about a bad piano, and then "I do still occasionally get a referral from her (the teacher.)". Kind of a Catch-22 ? And in the end, it's always up to the individual "business owner", aka the piano technician as how to respond to an unrealistic customer. As an outside salesman for a highly reputable Electronics firm for over 30 years, while we were taught to do as much as realistically possible for an unhappy customer, we also were strongly encouraged to keep our values & principles and walk away from business if we ourselves felt the customer was either unreasonable or unprofitable. "Let your competitor deal w/ the bum." (Though I believe a different term was used than "bum" ;-) Eventually the unrealistic customer will either self-destruct or will come to understand that you were trying your best to help them, even if at the time they didn't want that help. It's always your call w/ your customer. I'm only stating what I'd do and have done w/ mine. I would try to educate her, but if you are making a special 1hr one-way trip, I would also tell her a tuning 3 months later will be charged like any normal tuning I'd do for a Teacher. Best Regards... Bill Fritz, St Louis >When I later tactlessly told that piano teacher that it was a "piece of junk" she started trying to give me all sorts of excuses, and that's the last I've heard from her. It's OK by me though, and surprisingly enough, I do still occasionally get a referral from her (the teacher.) >Paul Bruesch >Stillwater, MN -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100117/2ff9b991/attachment.htm>
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