<HTML><HTML>List Second visit to a client's house yesterday.  First call was a tuning.&= nbsp;  At that visit she complained about my fee, claiming that I tune= d her neighbor's piano for $20 less.  This was simply not true.  = She reluctantly paid it, only after arguing with me for a good 2 or 3 minut= es.  I wouldn't back down.  (My fee is not even on the high end = of techs here in Chicago.) Why did I agree to come back and do repairs for her? Upon handing her the bill she claimed I told her it would take me only 30 mi= nutes to do the following:       replace a broken treble string      replace two broken hammer shanks with new ones      repair/replace two broken key buttons There is no way I would ever estimate that to take 30 minutes.  Maybe = one of you guys could do that in 30 minutes, but not me.  It actually = took me 90 minutes, mostly due to it taking me forever to cut down a new key= button to fit a dogleg key.  I felt that it should have taken me less= time to do this, (any tips on this procedure would be welcome: I used a lit= tle saw, then filed it and it came out nicely, but there has to be a better = way...) so I only charged her for 60 minutes plus parts, which is what I bel= ieve I quoted her on my estimate. She wasn't satisfied until I charged her only for the 30 minutes plus parts.=   I simply refused to argue with her beyond the first 2 or 3 minutes, = and I caved.  I have to point out that my labor rate is lower than any= other tech I know.  So the bill was LOW to begin with. Now I should probably just let this go and move on, but I am about to mail h= er a letter in which I advise her to find another technician to work on her = piano in the future. When it comes down to you vs. them, how do you deal with that?   = Perhaps in her country of origin it is appropriate behavior to haggle over t= hings such as this.   I found it offensive.  I just wanted = to get out of the house and be done with her. Luckily the day ended on a nicer note.  Another repair, another house.=   This time I handed her the bill and she said, "Oh, no, that's not en= ough!" and gave me an extra $10. Tom Sivak Chicago </HTML>