<HTML>Ryan, In  reality, the piano did need a tuning, but considering the piano= 's age and what it had been through, it was in remarkable shape.  The c= omment I made below was an exaggeration, to be sure, put in for effect. &nbs= p; I would never take money for doing nothing, as I may have implied. &nbsp= ;When a customer pays me for an appointment, they get an hour and a half's w= orth of work(usually more). Dave Stahl In a message dated 9/17/04 7:03:41 PM Pacific Daylight Time, pianorye@ya= hoo.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-= LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Piannaman@aol.com= wrote: the bloody thing was so close to being in tune I almost felt bad= ly taking the money--well, not really.. I would feel bad.  Ethically I think we are required to give the cl= ient something for their money. If I come to a piano that just needs a "touc= h-up" tuning I look forward to doing other work to improve the piano: a quic= k hammer reshaping or some light voicing can do wonders. I have come to pianos that have tuning records indicating regular tuning= for many years and am surprised to find the piano barely out of tune but wi= th voicing that was really horrible and excessive lost motion, hammers needi= ng filing  etc. You are giving your client a poor value if you charge them for service t= hat negligibly improves the performance of the piano, i.e. tuning a piano th= at is already very close. Put yourself in the client's shoes. When they pay for "tuning" what they= want is for the piano to be more fun to play: They are paying for musical e= njoyment. What do other technicians out there do when they have scheduled an hour = and a half for a tuning appointment and find the piano barely off? </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>