<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16608" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 bgColor=#ffffff leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7> <DIV>I give discounts to churches because I am interested in cultivating their business. I have allot of church work which I like and in the end my hourly rate stays about the same even though cost per piano is discounted. This is because of pianos in good condition, frequent service and multiple pianos in one service call. </DIV> <DIV>Brother D.A. You got me so motivated to be all I can be I'm afraid to let myself out of the house for fear I might hurt somebody. I wish I could take a month off and come drive you around and carry your tools. You and Ed Sutton and a whole bunch more of you crocodiles out there.</DIV> <DIV>Fenton (just starting to learn something about pianos after 30 years) Murray, RPT</DIV> <DIV>BTW I made a couple jigs this week, one for back check installation from John Hartman's plans, one for knuckle moving from pictures of Roland Kaplan's jig. It's grand theft to get all this.</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=Erwinspiano@aol.com href="mailto:Erwinspiano@aol.com">Erwinspiano@aol.com</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> Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:34 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Valuing ourselves</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV>  Wim</DIV> <DIV>  Well put. </DIV> <DIV>  Dale</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Schools and churches are notorious to ask for discounts. I give them a discount when I'm asked to tune more than one piano in the same building. But certainly not just because they want me to tune the same piano every month, or so. <BR><BR>One way to get around the question of a discount, is when an administrator, or church secretary, asks for a discount, just because it's a church, is to ask if they work at a discount. <BR><BR>Also, when I'm asked if I give church discounts, I tell them that I tune the pianos at my church as part of my tithing, and that I can't afford to give to other churches, too. That usually satisfy them.<BR><BR><BR> <DIV style="CLEAR: both">Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT<BR>Piano Tuner/Technician<BR>Honolulu, HI<BR>Author of <BR>The Business of Piano Tuning<BR>available from Potter Press<BR>www.pianotuning.com</DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR> <DIV><FONT style="FONT: 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF; COLOR: black"> <HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"> The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. <A title=http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565 href="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" target=_blank>AOL Music takes you there.</A></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>