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 !