piano tuning- fickle church accounts

[Joe And Penny Goss]

Hi Conrad,
What is the date?
Joe Goss RPT
Mother Goose Tools
imatunr at srvinet.com
www.mothergoosetools.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Conrad Hoffsommer" <hoffsoco at luther.edu>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 7:29 AM
Subject: RE : piano tuning- fickle church accounts


At 08:47 AM 11/1/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Reminds me of one thing:  They only value your work as much as they pay
>for it. I don't think it's a good idea to give either your work or supply
>instruments at no cost. There should always be a fee. You can discount it
>if you want, but if you give it away, customers will think it's not worth
much.
>
>My 2 canadian pennies,
>
>Marcel Carey, RPT
>Sherbrooke, QC



I concur and add my old 2¢.

I, too, used to do pro bono work at my own church and gave discounts to
churchs, generally. Confusion grew on all sides as to what my rates
actually were.

I recall being almost at the point of eliminating discounts just on the
theory that I didn't do any less work at the churches, and frequently
more!  One thing which finally pushed me over was getting to a church
organist's home to tune her piano and seeing a check for the discounted
church amount waiting on the piano (she wasn't home).

I obviously hadn't indicated the discount on the church invoice, and she
saw it... and assumed...

Conrad