<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>what would you do.</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1250"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3059" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Les, </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Everyone's comments are right on as far as making sure you get paid for your work. I have made a change in the way I charge for  all of my service calls by keeping my price at a higher amount that would normally cover a pitch raise, fine tune and some touch-up regulating. It's annoying to the customers when they are told that the price you quoted has become more because of this or that. Since I've raised my rate I have had more business (believe it or not) and I'll see a tip every so often.  I'll spend 90+ minutes per appointment and most people are thankful to have a more comprehensive service done. When was the last time you worked on a piano that didn't need work other than a tune-up. It's also a bit more satisfying for me to make a better musical instrument out of the piano so I can enjoy playing some demo songs and feel and hear the improvements. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David C. </FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=l-bartlett@sbcglobal.net href="mailto:l-bartlett@sbcglobal.net">Leslie Bartlett</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 14, 2007 8:18 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> what would you do.</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Today I tuned a piano which the owner said was tuned two weeks ago, but sounded badly.  The former tuner, listed in Chinese Yellow Pages (huge Chinese population here in Houston), left a mute in the piano, a phillips screwdrever, and screwed about with the fallboard.   The piano was from zero to 60 cents flat, 15-25 in the first five octaves, and about 25-40 in the last two.  Amazing.  It was a pretty tough-to-tune LaPetite Kimball baby grand, however NOT untuneable in any way. Pins were very "Kimball-esque"- tight and consistent.    Would you have charged these folks for the pitch raise, having already paid for something they obviously "didn't get"?</FONT></P> <P><FONT face=Arial size=2>les bartlett</FONT> <BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>houston</FONT> <BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=2>--<BR>No virus found in this outgoing message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.11/721 - Release Date: 03/13/2007 4:51 PM<BR></FONT>  </P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>