Klarinet Archive - Posting 000406.txt from 2002/02

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Servicing of instruments
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 22:03:11 -0500

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Hausmann" <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] Servicing of instruments

> At 11:13 AM 2/19/2002 +0000, Tony Wakefield wrote:
> >Hi Martin,
> >Can`t better Ian Black`s advice. Just to say that Dawkes have a minimum
> >charge (for Clarinets) of £12, which I think is far too steep. Someone
might
> >only want one pad fitted, or one spring, or a tenon re-corked. I believe
> >they say that they do have to give the instrument a checking over
> >afterwards. This may possibly be due to the possibility of an
inexperienced
> >customer asking for the <wrong> repair to be carried out, thus the shop
will
> >be trying to avoid the tricky situation whereby the customer accuses the
> >technician of not carrying out what work was asked for in the first
place?
>
> All too often, a customer will ask that a specific item be done (eg.,
> replace one pad), but the shop will discover other problems that prevent
> the instrument from playing properly. Do you do ONLY what was asked,
> risking a dissatisfied customer and bad word of mouth ("I took my clarinet
> to So-and-so's and when I got it back it still didn't work.") or do you DO
> the additional work to make it play properly, and risk a dissatisfied
> customer ("I took my clarinet to So-and-so's and they did a bunch of extra
> work I didn't ask for and overcharged me.")? Our tech prefers not to let
> an instrument leave the shop in a non-working condition.
>

At that point the tech should inform the customer of the problems and ask
the customer what he or she wants. It really isn't a good idea to
automatically perform unasked for work.

Dee Hays
Michigan

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