<DIV>Understood : ) </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I felt compelled to comment because there are tuners out there who will take people's money to tune a piano that is already in very good tune and ignore the rest of the piano. Piannaman@aol.com wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">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 comment I made below was an exaggeration, to be sure, put in for effect.   I would never take money for doing nothing, as I may have implied.  When a customer pays me for an appointment, they get an hour and a half's worth of work(usually more). Dave Stahl In a message dated 9/17/04 7:03:41 PM Pacific Daylight Time, pianorye@yahoo.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" TYPE="CITE">Piannaman@aol.com wrote: the bloody thing was so close to being in tune I almost felt badly taking the money--well, not really.. I would feel bad.  Ethically I think we are required to give the client something for their money. If I come to a piano that just needs a "touch-up" tuning I look forward to doing other work to improve the piano: a quick 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 with voicing that was really horrible and excessive lost motion, hammers needing filing  etc. You are giving your client a poor value if you charge them for service that negligibly improves the performance of the piano, i.e. tuning a piano that 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 enjoyment. 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> </BLOCKQUOTE> Ryan Sowers, RPT Puget Sound Chapter Pianova Piano Service Olympia, WA <hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!? <a href="http://vote.yahoo.com">vote.yahoo.com</a> - Register online to vote today!