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Is is customary to tip piano tuners after they've worked on your home/studio piano? Or do they expect you to write a check for the exact amount they tell you?

You can find a lot of comments with the search tool. I think it basically boils down to: tips are not expected, but generally appreciated. In rare, I think, cases, a tip may be seen as insulting...I don't feel that way!!

It's not customary.

If the tech is self-employed, as a good many of us are, then it isn't customary. IF the tech is working for or contracting for a store, a tip is not expected, but it won't offend anyone, either.

This is a good question, cause I tipped my tech $30 but just wrote a check with the extra $30 added on, but now I'm thinking I should have written him a check for the amound he required, then just given him $30 cash. That way he wouldn't have to claim the check tip, right!

Oh, and I gave him a piece of homemade cherry pie too!

We are legally obliged to declare cash as well as checks, and tips as well as what we charge. I always do, but I cannot speak for others.

Tips are always appreciated, but never expected. Now and then someone will tip me. I tell them, it is not necessary, but if they insist, I extend my thanks. Like BDB says we are legally required to declare payment no matter what form it may be in. I have always felt it is not worth it to play number games with Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam always wins every argument.

Diane

Quote - "Oh, and I gave him a piece of homemade cherry pie too!"


Can I come and tune your piano too?

'Cherry pie? WOW! Uncle Sam can't claim any part of that. 'Brilliant, and thoughtful.

Diane won't let Dave or I come and tune her piano! We might DING it! hehehe! No tips for us Dave! Except for, STAY AWAY YOU TWO!

I'd do just about anything for cherry pie...my fav!!!!!! Since Dave and Jerry are tuning the piano...can I mow the yard!!!! I'll make sure they EARN their cherry pie...hehehee

Such a shame that techs/tuners have to declare tips because that is a gift, not money for a services. Thinking this thru, gifts should not need to be taxed.

And it just so happened that I had made homemade cherry pie that day. Another day he might have gotten cinnamin buns! But he definitely deserved pie that day cause he fixed the hinge on my piano bench, and didn't charge me for it.

So that's why I gave him a tip, because he didn't charge me for fixing the hinge on the bench. He should just take the $30 as a gift.

Tips should not be taxed!

And Dave and Jerry, you guys still haven't come over for the drink I offered you both a while back! I'm harmless! . . . maybe!

Drinks? Did I hear drinks? Ummm, Diane, umm, just exactly what might be IN these drinks??????????? Dave, you're closer than I am! You do the taste test and give the all clear okay?

I should've been a piano tuner! ..have you been in a bakery lately? cakes & pies are outrageous!
you don't know what you missed!

Diane, don't bother with these slugs. I'm MUCH better looking and have a fatal weakness for cherry pie. And I'll bring the wine too. Red or White?

Gift tax is paid by the donor, not the recipient.

If you do tip, whatever you do, don't leave the tip on the lyre!!!

--Cy--


P.S. (Sorry for the PianoWorld in-joke)

Jerry, I may be closer, but Western Canada is a tad too far for me to go for a piece of cherry pie...or a "special" beverage. Sam, don't talk about "fatal weakness" around Diane....

:t:

Dave, that was your number "442" post. Quite a "pitch" I'd say. My first car was an Olds 442 with a 455 engine...... Whoa that baby would go. What a fun that car was! 4 speed. What's that got to do with tipping??? nnnnnnothin...

Jerry,

A 442 with a 455, eh? But was it tuned to 440?

Don't tip on they lyre...good one, Cy!

Here ya go, Jerry:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VqWi_adOQLA&feature=related

BTW, I noticed in the PTG Directory that came the other day that "one a' them Groots" was in either the 35-year or 40-year anniversary section. Your cousin? Richard, Robert? Can't recall right now. Please convey my congratulations, and thanks. It's the folks that are committed that make it a great organization!

WOW, THANKS JDelmore! Cool site!!!!

My dad was an RPT and whatever else they called it before RPT for something like 55 or 60 some years before he retired.

My cousin Richard is the one in the book that you're talking about the 35 year mark.

Me? I'm the baby. I cheated! hehehe... I worked under my dads RPT status for as long as possible. Until that is, he MADE me take the exams in 1980 so he could retire! The meany!

Dave, I do not speak with "forked" tongue. I kept my car well "tuned." Not a bad sales "pitch" huh?

I got a $10 cash tip today along with the check. That's for fun, she said.

Should I have told her she would have to pay the gift tax on it before I could take it?

As I recall, the gift has to be over $12,000 a year before the gift tax is assessed, and even then, the excess can be considered part of an inheritance. If your estate is under a couple of million, that is the way to go.

Politicians made a big fuss about the inheritance tax, but it does not affect most people.

Once in a while I'll get a tip. I have a few tuning clients who make me lunch, or take me out to lunch. I think I get more baked goods than tips. That's fine with me...I remember the food more than I do the money.

Speaking of food...A few months ago, I was finishing the tuning and repair on this woman's spinet. We got talking about colleges, and I mentioned how hard it must be for young people to afford to go to college these days. The woman launched into a 10-minute racist explanation of why black people (her words) all get to attend college for free. She went on and on, and the comments got worse and worse. Up until then, I had thought she was a nice person.

Oh, the food...just as I was getting ready to leave, she handed me a package containing a freshly-made small apple pie. I said thank you and got out of there as fast as I could. The pie ended up in the garbage, and she is the only the second person on my "Never Tune There Again" list.

Sam,
Let's go with Red! So maybe I'll just through some steaks on the barbeque and mix up a caesar salad to go with the wine! Then later we'll have cherry pie and some specialty coffee!

Hey Jerry and Dave maybe Sam could give you some tips on how to treat a woman and her piano! You both must have missed that class!

I dunno, Diane...if he really knew how to treat a lady and her cherry pie, he'd bring some Quady Essencia Orange Muscat...

Thanks, Diane. I'm taking notes from Sam.

I'd definitely go with red. I'd prefer a good Piano Noir...

Diane, you sound like my kinda teacher but, just to be on the safe side? Sam and Dave can still be the taste testers.

Sam and Dave...aren't they the "soul" singers from years ago. Diane, a good Piano Noir might be a little too much for those "old guys." hehe

Hold on I'm Coming(Sam & Dave)

"I'm a Soul Man...." When I work on Korean pianos, I'm a "Seoul Man."

Sam, I guess we're lumped together.

Say, didn't you used to work with Ella Fitzgerald? Sam 'n Ella? Great dinner music!

"Hold on, I'm leavin'"

Sam 'n' Ella is what you'll get after eating at Diane's if you ding her piano!!

Hahahaha, good one Anne!