ECU Monitor Enthusiast

iTrader: (1)

Due to a very recent situation that has happened when helping out a friend, it has reminded me
of all the other times I have helped a mate/friend out free of charge
or as a personal favour
and ended up being sh*t on or paying out money at my own expense.

I should add that it is not always the fault of the so called mate that things
turn to crap but
that is not much consolation.
A few of these situations are explained below......


About 3 years ago......
A friend wants to buy a Saff Cossy and asks me to recomend a car.
We end up travelling miles to garage selling such a car and all looks well
and the deal is done. The car comes with no service history so I
recomend a full service plus a cam belt change.
The friend asks me to do it and I say Ok, I will do it at the weekend
once the parts have arrived.
Then on the day before I am due to do the work on the car,
I get a phone call, the car has stopped working and makes a horrible
noise when attempting to start it.
When I get a chance to look at the car, Oh sheeeeeiiiitttttttttt.
The cam belt has snapped and probally belt all the valves.
I took the head off and discovered some valve heads had snapped off and
holed 2 of the pistons. The car needed a total engine rebuild plus a new
cylinder head.
At the time I felt like this was my fault and I got the engine rebuilt at my
expense but the friend who's car it was offered me half the cash and
I accepted this. We are still good friends !!!


Another friend of a friend wants to buy a cossie and again wanted me to help him buy the right one.
We found and absolute mint car and I made it clear after my previous experience that I could not
guarantee this car in any way which he accepted.
The car was bought and I did not hear anything from him for over 6 months.
Then one day I get a phone call that his car is miss firing and could I possibly help him out.
I fixed the problem and ask for no money to do this. Big mistake.
After several FOC repair jobs on the car (Parts not included) he
regularly expects me to do work on his car FOC and NEVER even
offers to pay me for my time even though he is not my mate.
He called me the other day and asked for help again on another
MINOR problem and I told him that I was busy when in reallity I was
fed up with him. So rather than go to someone else to get his car
fixed, he waited for me to be available.
I then repaired his car again FOC and told him that in future I would
have to charge him for my time.
When he heard this, I get verbal abuse thrown at me about how it
was my responsibility as I recomended the car.
I cant repeat here what I said back to him !


A mate wants a part for his car on the cheap as he knows I deal with the
company that makes this part.
So I say yes, I can get this part at trade price as you are a mate.
The time for the part to be delivered arrives and I call him and say
that I will sort this out for him next day and that he should wait for
a phone call so I can arrange a meeting to pick the part up.
The next day arrives and I have about 8 missed calls on my mobile
(and no answer phone messages from him) as I have been very busy
travelling most of the day.
Then, I get a call from my business partner who he does not know saying that my mate had
called him about this part.
Off course, my business partner has no knoledge about this and calls to tells me and then suggests I am trying to fiddle him out of his share.
I was so unhappy to put it mildly.
I had nothing to hide from my business partner but the fact that my mate had gone
behind my back and could not wait for the agreed arrangments really
made me angry.
The result, I made him wait a little longer and have not spoken to him
again since and probally wont until I get an apology.
Trouble is, the so called mate thinks he has done nothing wrong !


There are MANY other such situations that I could put here but I wont bore
you with anymore details.
Will I ever learn - probally not !

Anonymous

You are too nice......Do you have any more ecu connectors to SELL me this time

Tabz @ S.M.Auto's

iTrader: (1)

I know exacly what ur talking about. Do what what i done F**K UM OFF.
They aint real friends.

foreigneRS

they're not mates, they're fucking leeches. better off without folk like that.

sad to hear it. look out for yourself more mate.

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

your too nice mate, too trusting.

ive been fukked over before, not good.

in future, treat em as payng customers!

Nath

All I can say is you must be fecking mad.......

If he dont like paying for your services and knowledge then tell him to buy some lego, build a bridge and get the feck over it. As everyone else will want payment, whether it be mates rates or whatever.

I'd like to see him pull that stunt in a petrol station or supermarket. He's obviusly not a mate if he's throwing that kind of shit around and taking blatant liberties of your good nature.


Tell him to feck off!!!

McPikie

A shining example of someone who puts friends before himself. Shame your so-called friends don't take that into account fella.

It's the way of the world tho I am afraid. People will always take the piss if they know they can get away with it.

jasonp

I dont do "favour" jobs any more for mates. So many times ive been fooked over its untrue. I made a new front door and frame for a mate and said id fit it if he did some work for me, fair do's i thought. Done the job and i wanted the favour a few weeks ago lol fooker doesnt even answer his front door to me now

Never aagain unless i get money.

Now im doing up houses ive also learnt friends and work dont mix they either do half the job of after they done it the try to double the price

McPikie

Go and rip it off............... it's your door, lol

R4N SS

iTrader: (6)

as said before they are just using you.

proper friends dont do that - i always offer my mates favours if they do me a favour.

As they old sayin goes - a favour for a favour.

But friends and business do not mix at all.

D19 STE

Alright mate can you do me a service FOC sorry had too, but seriously doing jobs for frends and family can work out to be a desaster only true good frends would not expect anything FOC without helping you back out somehow or offering to pay

Anonymous

U

CraigN

i have had this dood

mainly fixing peoples PC's

i work for a very large company and ppl in the office bring in there home laptops etc for me to look at

and with mates

now i do nothing

i dont like working on other ppls cars as u feel bad if stuff goes wrong and pcs are similar

if ppl want work doing i charge Ł20 for the first hour and Ł12.75 for each hour after that

i offer manufacturers warranty on all parts etc and replace them if faulty but i am in a financial position to do so having been paid for the job

i recently rebuilt DanP's pc on here FOC for a mate like buttold him im deleting all his data etc and starting a fresh

not in the same league but still getting shit for nothing

i myself never expect anything free of charge unless it is offered in which case im well gratefull and would buy the beers

Nikki

Ya poor git,,,some people do take the pish!! See theres times when I need things done to my car,,,that I just can't do, so I'll ask one of my mates or my brother and theres only a couple I'll trust with the car, don't like too many peeps dipping in there,,,,lol!!

I've sorted my brother out with More then enough parts over the months (ay chicken,,,,alll FOC to him) for work his done on my car and ya know if I need something done,,,ok he'll moan for abit,,,but then again he'll do it in the end!

Got another mate Glen who comes on here, his the best He works on my car and gets all messy and stuff,,,,,I polsih his and give her a full valet something for me something back for him!!

Or like a ickle while ago I wanted my turbo timer etc fitted,,,,I'm a bird I'm fooking crap with wiring, he had a crap starter motor!!

He done my turbo timer,,,,I fitted his starter motor!!

Its always about a ickle give and take ay peeps!!

Too much taking can proper piss the other person off,,,tis not nice, ya wouldn't want it done to you ay!!

Some peeps don't understand this huni and well I duno how they think this is right,,,,but hey they do!!

A mate of mine got another mate to fit his new suspension ages ago now as his only young and didn't know alot,,,,so another mate fitted it for him!!
Months down the line,,,,he finds out its actually been fitted totally wrong and fooked the gaz shock etc etc,,,,well he don't go to the other lad and ask for money and stuff,,,,,they is still friends, no quible argrument or nothing,,,,,now if ya ask me thats how friends should be with one another,,,,not "expect" the other one to pay for it!!

Another mate brought another mates cossie,,,run for him fine, like a dream,,,other mate thats now got it has spent loads on it,,,don't run right, hunts,,,engine out,,,this,,,that,,,new one of them,,,fooking fortune,,,again,,,,no well you sold it to me its your fault rollox,,,,ya buy em off ya own back,,,,,not who goes to look at the car with ya!!

Huni,,,,,,get some new Mates



x x x

neilm

Hmm... seems all these favours you are doing people is having an affect on your proper business Simon..... and things arent getting done as quickly as they could be....

paulp

I said i would fit my cousins stereo for her,she came round a 7pm on a saturday night,i only thought it would take 10 mins.took me nearly three hours as i had to rewire it and had to take half the bloody dash out just to get the old stereo out. by then it was too late to go out and she gave me a tenner for it.All my family say i shouldnt have took the tenner ,but no one knew jack about cars and what i had to do. bloody jap cars they are put together too well

furry

know how you feel buddy, did a favor someone last year, had to charge him but only 50% of what i should have charged him if i'd gone by company rules, recko'd i'd ripped him off and ended up with threats to my person and his mates outside my house late at night waiting for me to come home. he took us to court over it!!, he never showed case awarded to us inc costs which we declinded ( didn't wanna rub salt in wound)

some people just expect ya to do things for free all the time, but when it comes to you needing summit there no where to be seen!!!

Glenn5

Cheer up m8 have another mac-ds ive got a few minor jobs needed doing and i'll pay you 4 your expertese its so hard nowadays 2 find any body trust worthy to work on your pride and joy.

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

I know exactly where you are coming from Si, I often do lots of work on "mates" cars. 95% of the time it is appreciated and I don't mind doing it as it is nice to help a mate out and save them a few hundred quid, but sometimes as you say, it backfires and people expect you to be availiable all the time 24/7, and don't appreciate that having worked hard all week, the last thing you want to do at the weekend is work on a poxy cossie for 6 hours in the freezing cold, pissing rain .

The worst experience of this is when I stripped my mates smashed cossie, ( in december in the snow outside) and the cheeky fooker complained that I had not done enough, even though he had been at work all day leaving me to rope my brother in as a second pair of hands
Then I lent him Ł100 to buy a 4 spoke Rs steering wheel, which wasn't a prob, the wheel was a bit worn but ok, and I said give me the cash when u get the chance- well, matey finds a MINT one on ebay, and asks me if I would want it instead of the Ł100 back, so I said ok, as long as it is 100% as I wasn't really after one. So a week later, I get presented with the FIRST wheel he got, after he recived the mint one and promptly bolted it onto his own car . I let it run cos i was too nice , but there you go.
Then, same mate blows up his cossie ( after being repeatedly told NOT to thrash it as it was running lean ) after I had spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get a RR session sorted, as it was the start of race season and everywhere was chokka, so I strip out the engine, take a week off work to build the new engine, get it all built bar a few parts we couldn't get untill saturday, so by sunday night it was all good to go, as it was bank holiday monday I planned he could help me put the engine back into the car, but he decides its more important he goes to alton fooking towers instead so I spend all of bank holiday monday trying to put the engine back in the car ( it was a 'mare, nothing would line up or go on ) - Not so much as a thankyou needless to say I don't work on his cars anymore
but its not all bad, Me and my mate Kursedman built his cossie engine, and when it made 370BHP on greens @Engine advantages it all seemed worth it

JC

i can sympathise with you,i have had a few so called mates spondge parts and services off me andnot put there hands in there pockets
i hate when so called mates spend fortunes with some one on there car but just coz your a cozzy spiecalist they can take the piss
or when some one buys a car off you and owes you money and then goes to halfords to buy a load of shit bits for there car that costs twice what they owe you
i have got people owing me money off bits for as long as 3 years ago
fuck them
my new one now is that is if any one asks for some thing on tick or for nothing ireply you can have the part for nothing if you pay my rent and electric etc
they soon get the message
i am to trusting and soft with people
some of my mates i whould do anthing i could to helpmy true mate but the numbers have dropped dramaticly
over and out

cfoster

i know exactly where you are all coming from. I think lending money to mates is one of the worst things you can do..

A few years back all the boys decided to arrange a fortnight in Ayia Napa (when it was the 'in' thing to do!). One of my mates couldn't really afford it so we said we'll all chip in about Ł80 each to help him out, on the agreement with him that he would pay one of us off each month. It worked out by Xmas that year we would all be paid off. Money was handed over, no problem.

Anyway, the first person got paid no problem, then the second, but as time wore on, he kept on 'accidentaly' forgetting to pay each person. Back then not a lot of my mates earnt a lot of money, so Ł80 to them was quite a substantial amount. Me and one other pushed and pushed him to pay the other chaps off. Eventually, after endless hassles/pisstakes that he's a tight arse etc, we all eventually got paid - I was the last to be paid. I got my money in Decemeber, BUT THE FOLLOWING FOOKIN YEAR!!! - not the year in which we agreed!! Since then, although he's a mate, no one EVER lends him money....

Chris

digita1dragon

PMSL you wouldent believe how ironic this thread is for me today! Rings so true!
Alot of us are too good natured i reckon!
ah well we're the ones that will be going to heaven eh

Joris_FRST

I have this with pc's too.

it got worse and worse that I was spending 2 nights a week with "friends" working on pc's for free.
I just said i wouldn't do it anymore.

A good mate asked if I would do it for his business, and offered to pay me an hour, we agreed. Worked 5 hours a couple of weeks ago, still didn't see any money

Got a txt from someone if I could have a look at their pc, even didn't reply on it, fuck them all. I have better things to do in my spare time.

MikeR

I always offer to do favours back and will always buy more then enough beers, my best mate rs graham on here drove all the way round to PE from Grays on a friday night during rush hour because there was a chance i would have to leave my car there top man thats friends for you,

But as for some of my other so called friends

Mike