moving from a house of many years

Three Things To Know About Tipping Your Piano Movers

29 December 2015 by Siiri Salonen

When you're a piano owner and you're preparing for a move, one of the biggest things to think about is how you'll take care of this fragile musical instrument. It's generally inadvisable to attempt to move the piano on your own, as doing so can damage the instrument and could even lead to an injury for you. A better strategy is to hire a reputable piano moving company that can dispatch a team of professionals to care for your instrument while moving it from one location to another. Regardless of the cost of this worthwhile service, it's proper etiquette to think about tipping the crew once the piano is safely located in its new home. Here are three things to know about tipping.

It's Useful To Check The Company's Tipping Practices In Advance

Although many moving companies note on their websites that tipping is not expected by the crews and is entirely up to the discretion of the customer, there are other businesses that request customers do not tip. To lessen the risk of a potentially embarrassing situation, it's worthwhile to ask about tipping at the time you book the crew over the phone. Simply stating that you plan to tip an ensuring that doing so won't cause any trouble is all you need to ask.

Tip Each Mover, Instead Of The Crew As A Whole

Giving a collective tip to one crew member and asking him or her to distribute it among the other crew members isn't the best way to go about tipping. It's a better strategy to tip each piano mover separately -- typically paired with some words of appreciation for the mover's efforts to keep your instrument safe. While the amount that you decide to tip is at your discretion, a common suggestion is to give between $20 and $40 per member of the crew.

There Are Factors That Can Influence Your Tip

If you keep the range of $20 to $40 in mind, you can decide exactly how much you wish to tip each mover based on a variety of different factors. Think about the difficulty of moving the piano -- if it had to travel up or down a set of stairs, it's appropriate to increase the amount of your tip. Think, too, about the number of corners to navigate from the piano's location to the moving truck. You might also wish to consider the weather -- if it was overly hot, for example, tipping the crew a little extra is a nice way to express your thanks.  

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