<html> Hi Terry,               The short answer is no.  As a general rule of thumb, if the action or components are brought into the shop we will agree on a price to the customer with the tech involved, and work from there.  We get all kinds of pedal lyres and legs to repair and we don't know in advance what the labour is going to be.  Things like rebushing and keytops is straight forward. A complete rebuilding job, we like to deal with the customer directly, too many things can go wrong with the estimate. Regards Roger PS The key is building a good trusting relationship with the other tech, and do first class work.  He does not want to get caught with your mistakes. At 01:13 PM 8/30/01 -0400, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite cite>Hi Roger. I'm very interested in developing my shop work for the trade business. I understand the example below. Do you use the same system for a complete rebuild of the $10,000 to $25,000 nature? Does the referring tech get 20% of that work? Seems to me that $2,000 to $5,000 for the referral is steep. But of course that is the view from my vantage point (as the one that would be shelling out the referral fee). Seems to me there should be a formula for reduced percentage as total project budget goes up. What is your (or anyone else) take on that? Thanks. Terry Farrell  <blockquote> <dl> <dd>----- Original Message ----- <dd>From: <a href="mailto:baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca">jolly roger</a> <dd>To: <a href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a> <dd>Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 11:45 AM <dd>Subject: Re: referall fees; last gasp <blockquote type=cite cite> <dd>I believe the price the jobber charges the customer is none of our business.   <dd>If a jobber wants to give someone a break and not make anything on a job <dd>that's his prerogative, how can that be unethical? <dd>David Koelzer </blockquote> <dd>Hi David, <dd>              I thought we were talking about what a jobber charges a fellow piano tech.  Since we do quite a few jobs for piano techs in the area.   I sure as heck don't want them quoting below my customer quoted prices,  by passing their discount along to the consumer. <dd>It make's it look as if we are gouging, in the customers eyes, and we have had this happen. <dd>Here's the full story. We charge $250.Cnd  to recover a set of keys, we quote a customer.  Simple eh!   Piano tech comes into the shop with a set of keys about a month later, we complete the work bill the tech $250 less 20%. <dd>Run into the customer, who procedes to tell me that we over charge, she had got the job done by some one else for $200. <dd>Since we had done the work,  I was not too impressed.   The tech had just used his discount to under bid my self and others. <dd>Needless to say we now decline any business from him.   Since we spell this out to any tech coming into the shop, for jobs like this.   I consider the individual as being unethical.  <dd>By giving tech's in the area breaks like this, we get a lot of rebuilding referals.  I would also decline work from techs that would want to mark up our services by an unreasonable amount,. <dd>Just my thought's on the issue. <dd>Roger</blockquote> </dl> </html>