<!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 6.00.6000.16705" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Terry,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>If you did substandard work, refund the money.  If you didn't, don't.  Easy as pie.  You performed a valid service, you should be compensated and should not feel guilty for that.  If you don't value your time, neither will your clients.  When you give a refund, you are validating your (former?) clients complaint that you are not qualified.  You are qualified, you did render top-notch service (above and beyond, I might add with the call-backs).  You really shouldn't allow yourself to be made to feel badly about this one.  I know some battles aren't worth fighting, and you have to make that call.  One thing to keep in mind, however, is that no matter what you do for this one, chances are pretty good she won't say good things about you.  Refusing a refund won't make that part of this situation any worse.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>Invite her to call another qualified technician.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2>William R. Monroe</FONT></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV><FONT face="Bookman Old Style" size=2></FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Wow. This is a first for me. This lady is nuts. I checked the piano out this past Sunday. It had a few unisons singing a bit (IMHO, not uncommon a week after doing a 25-cent pitch raise), but otherwise sounded fine (well, as "fine" as most any 1970 Baldwin console sounds). And I told her so. I checked octaves, thirds, fourths, etc., etc. and it's all in the ballpark.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>She plays a tune and stops and says "hear that? it's wrong"! Well, sure, anytime you play an E and an F# together it sounds pretty bad! But she'd play other things and stop and say "that's wrong". Sounded fine to me. I didn't know what to say really. We did talk about the possibility that she had just gotten used to how it sounded when it was way out of tune. She agreed to play it a bit more and see.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>So she calls me just now ranting and raving "it's all wrong, it's all wrong".  She says even her students are complaining. What the ........</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>She tells me that some times one song will sound fine, and then the next one sounds wrong.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Does the piano good. Of course not. It sounds like a crappy little Baldwin console that has sat too many years on the back porch (enclosed) of a home in Florida. But it sounds to be in as good a tune as any little piano like it.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>So I guess the next step is to simply tell her that I don't seem to be able to satisfy her piano service needs and that she might be more satisfied with someone else's services. But that leaves one question remaining - in her view I have not tuned her piano - in my view I have. I don't think I should be returning her $95 (yeah, yeah, I didn't charge her for the pitch raise....). But then again, I'm sure she's on some sort of fixed income, and I've really never had an unhappy customer before......</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>I don't think there is any real good resolution to this situation. Any great ideas? Just tell her to find someone else and leave it at that? Seems like the only thing that makes any sense to me - but I kinda hate taking her money also.....</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>Terry Farrell</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>