Would you do a last minute tuning for a former client who dumped you for a lower priced tuner?

I would do it...but I would give no quarter. Full price, charge for every repair and adjustment. Get what you can, because you may never see them again! But you have to do what feels right to you.

No, but I hold grudges.

I'm also not a self-employed technician... in which case my opinion might well differ as my income would be on the line.

I probably would not. I've done that before when their "tooner" was on vacation, busting myself to squeeze them in just to have them call back the other guy when they were available again. No thanks....

Showing goodwill, even and perhaps especially to those who are not the most deserving of it, is a good thing.

Having said that, if I were were really too busy or if I for some reason would hold a grudge, I would refer the client to a colleague. So I guess it would be a case by case decision.

By the way, he didn't dump you because he was client #17 on the day you did 17 tunings was he???

I am referring to this thread where you wrote

If it was reasonably convenient for me, yes I would. But, I would not reschedule one of my own clients. After all, handling the emergency is now the other tuner's responsibility. Do not penalize one of your own loyal clients. I did this once for a church at Christmastime, and I regret it.

Edit: The client who graciously consented to be bumped was... well... far more gracious.

It is unlikely they would want to schedule since I'm not available at the last minute unless a client pays a $50 rush fee.

Maybe this is easy for me to say since I'm not in that business, but......I don't see why you shouldn't do it.

First of all, because.....it seems petty to even think of not doing it. Like, why not? Hurt feelings? Or because you think it's stupid or unfair or something to try to save money? Most of us make decisions on saving money all the time, it's completely reasonable, and if someone leaves us for that reason, we should understand that.

I don't see what you gain by not doing it, except seeming vindictive, which of course isn't any gain at all. And on the other hand, if you do the tuning, you are:

-- Getting some business
-- Showing class
-- Helping your reputation
-- Maybe getting the client back

Even if you don't get him back, you'll gain good will, which will hold you in good stead in many ways, including that this guy might recommend other people to you -- who knows, he might have friends who have more money than he does.

Not to mention that you'll probably feel better if you put aside any ill feelings than if you don't.


He didn't ask if he should do that.
I agree that he shouldn't, but it doesn't sound like he meant doing it would involve busting himself.

I agree that there is no reason to be vindictive. My rates have steadily increased over the years and I'm sure I have lost a few clients along the way. However, I would be happy to have them back if they decided that they preferred my services after all. There would be no hard feelings. We don't own our clients.

Certainly my most loyal clients would be more likely to get a last minute "squeeze in" but I'm willing to work overtime for just about anyone if they are willing to pay me for it.

I think you should go and do the job. I am sure you will be able to get an explanation from them why did they change you, and then analyze if they have had right at some point. If they were right, it can help you improve your way of doing the job, if they were wrong, you still get the money for that last job, and you get the benefits from both cases.

If at all possible, absolutely. After all, what is to be gained by being spiteful? Nothing. But what is to be gained by doing the tuning? Money in your pocket, a good night's sleep, and a customer who can say "He didn't have to do this, but he helped me out."

I would do it if I could. I think reputation is number one in this business. Most customers do not know the difference between a good and a so-so tuning. They are more interested in who they are letting into their homes. I think a little bad mouthing even from someone that everyone knows is a jerk can hurt business a great deal. Likewise, if someone writes a bad check or refuses to pay for an essential repair, I have decided to just let it go. Not that I would be available to tune for them again until payment is made, but I would not take any action or even talk about it.

So what DID you do? The "last minute" must have passed by now! Ot was it a hypothetical question?

Mark,

I'm stating from past experience with just this very thing happening over many years of tuning full time.. If a person needs the work in this case, then by all means, take it. If not and I do not, then that leaves some of us the option of saying no.

My experience is this. First and foremost, if they dropped me for a less expensive tuner then, WHY are they calling now? That would be my very first question. Do you have a new music director? Is it because they really want you back? If so, that's an entirely different matter. Or, is this the more likely scenario? Their current technician is not available?

Whenever this has happened to me in the past, it was due to a couple of different reasons. Either their current tuner was sick, or was on vacation, or simply could not do it. When I did accept these jobs, I accepted the job with the idea of doing good will and hoping to get the client back. What I found, was that the next year, and the year after that, whenever this person was on vacation, they continued calling last minute for emergencies. Why? Because I did it.

And, yes, I am totally with Ryan on that one. Charge more. I have charged an additional emergency fee for many years. "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine." Any other company, especially working after hours, charges an emergency service call fee on top of their regular fees along with a higher hourly rate.

Oh and, I found out later that they never had any intentions of taking me back in the first place but, called ( I asked) because their tuner was on vacation and I, had serviced the piano in the past. Therefore, why should I accept it next time? That's where I was coming from with my answer.

At this point in my career, I have way more than enough work to say no and if I did accept it, it would be cramming my schedule that much more full.

I'm having surgery this afternoon so, I'm a bit ornery so bear with me.....

If you do get the chance to tune the piano you now have the chance to analyze the quality of the work and if it is substandard and you can do a better job let your work be the example of better quality. There are plenty of bargain tuners to choose from but you can't fake good workmanship. Don't be bothered by bad feelings. Your in business aren't you? Keep your price where you want it and hopefully it will reflect better on you for providing a musical instrument instead of a good deal.

17 pianos in one day? Really?

Well, as business people we all provide a level of service that each of us is comfortable with providing.

The service policies we have collectively will have similar points to others (competitors) policies and also certain differences.

Now if a client chooses to use another service than mine based on price as the only requirement, I am fine with that.

However, the client may find later on down the road that the level of service provided by the less costly technician might not include the level of service I provide, such as the small extras completed previous, during, or after tuning.

One of those extras that could be missing from the less costly technician may be the availability of service during an emergency. I am not willing to shoulder the responsibility for a client’s poor decision making.

This is a business I am running not a charitable society that rights all the wrongs in the piano service world.

More goodwill can be earned by doing a favor for someone that is NOT a regular customer.

It sounds like in such a situation you essentially start out with negative assumptions (from your particular experiences), and that they make you mad. I don't know how often those negative assumptions are right in general, but I'd guess not usually, and that you risk screwing yourself a bit by holding them.

The main thing that jumps out at me from what you're saying is, so what? So what if they only use you in certain instances? Why should that make you mad? And why do you assume that the reasons for switching to somebody else for most of their tunings is awful, or even objectionable? It sounds like you just don't have sympathy for some things which arguably one should. And remember, I'm not saying the tuner should go out of his way or give any kind of break to the client, just not flat-out decline to do the work even if you easily can.


Well maybe that's the whole thing.
Of course we wish you well -- hope it's successful and not too difficult to go through.

This makes me think of a story that I believe is true. Here is how I remember the person related it to me:

He needed new tires and there were 2 dealers on the opposite sides of the street that advertised that they would beat anyone else’s price. Having nothing better to do one day, he went back and forth between the dealers and each would beat the price that the other just gave. Finally one of them said, “No, I cannot beat that price, but here is $20 instead. Go get your tires from my competition.”

After getting the new tires installed at the other dealer he returned to the dealer that had been beat because he just plain enjoyed talking to the guy. The dealer noticed that the green tint was still on the white walls and had one of his own men wash it off, even though the tires had been bought from his competition and he lost $20 on the deal.

Now which of the two do you think gained more goodwill?

They both looked like idiots. One of them at least got a sale out of it. The customer will not return next time prepared to pay a fair price - he might return expecting more entertainment and a knock-down price.

But which one gained more goodwill?

The customer, upon returning, may find them closed and out of business, due to the race for the bottom line. Businesses have their retail products priced a certain way for a reason. That is to make enough money to keep the business open, pay the worker, and support the owner’s family; maybe even enough to realize a small profit.

When consumers constantly desire “a deal” from any retail business, they have to realize the advantage of having this service supplied as a local business. With owners constantly undercutting themselves can anyone expect retailers to remain open for long.... goodwill notwithstanding....

I very much agree with that, and try to follow it as much as I can, including that I don't necessarily bargain that hard even when I know I can. I bought a piano last year and even though I knew that it was very much a buyer's market, the first price that the salesman gave me sounded reasonable, plus I loved that particular piano, so I happily said yeah. And I try especially to be accepting and even generous with someone like a piano tech, who is providing a very skilled service that I value extremely highly. But, that said, it's human nature (and often necessity) that people will usually look for the best possible deal.

What you said is, of course, a big reason why so many 'mom and pop' shops have gone under, why the little old bookstores have a hard time holding up against places like Barnes & Noble and Borders.....never mind that Borders wound up not doing so well either.....

My family luckily is in a position to do what we can to support businesses and professionals like how you're talking about, and we think about it quite a bit.

Yes the Borders story; and the many others gone before……

So what happens is consumers decide by their purchasing habits which businesses remain open locally and which products they will have to purchase as imported products.

We are collectively witnessing the results of this over time in North America…

Regarding retailers prices; I always pay the fee without complaint. To complain about another’s fee for retail purchases, I should fully expect the complaint returned at some point to my own business.

That gets into a different subject.....and not to be xenophobic or anything, but.....

Ever tried to buy toys "made in America"?

Especially since those stories about the toxic materials in made-in-China toys, we've tried very hard about this -- and usually it's impossible. We were so thrown by it that for about 2 seconds we actually thought about starting a local business where we'd get local artists and others to make toys. What stopped us (besides that we realized we wouldn't have had any idea what we were doing) was that immediately we found out that an actual company with the exact name we thought of had recently gone out of business.....

There have not been many toys made locally for some time now; that’s humorous about the musing of a toy business….



I think we were going different directions on this part….I was thinking of the fact that consumers decide
the level of quality and who provides a particular service to them locally by how much they are willing to pay for said service.

Here is an example from a different angle;

There is a small ski town out this way called Whistler. 30 years ago this place was all pre-fab A frames with a small local population. Then during the 90’s the place exploded in high-end construction build-out; eventually the exploding taxes and mill rates forced out a lot of the long- timers there.

Now Whistler has no cheap housing of any sort and in order to receive services of all sorts they have to import someone from down the hill, being here in Vancouver. There are no trade’s people who live in Whistler much, most are an hour’s drive away.
So basically Whistler priced itself out of the market for service people to live there.

But the same thing could happen to any town where consumers always want the cheapest rate for services or goods of any type. What happens to the higher- end goods and the higher- end service people?

Anyways Mark, nice to chat, maybe we should give the OP the thread back...;)

^^ Well said all around. ^^

I took the job because I had the opening and was in the area that day anyway. I never considired declining the job unless they were looking for a deal or if I had to bump another client. It was a Valentines day musical program at a restaurant caterer. I walked in on the rehearsal, gave them time to finish even though they were pinching my time. I met the pianist who is also a piano teacher and she asked me for a stack of cards. The music director wants me to repair his dehydrated Grotrian. I charged the restaurant full price plus adjustments. The best revenge is to live well.