Wanting their money back

[Workhorse]

I did a favor three years ago for a friend and helped him out on his a/c. He had some company come out and condemn it and said it would cost few thousand for a realitivity cheap system. He called me and asked for me to look at it and all I found was a older unit (12 year old Ruud at that time) witrh some rust on the coil and a bad contactor. I replaced the contactor and added a Kickstart to the unit and all I charged him was what it cost me for the parts.

I get a call tonight and it was him asking for hismoney back. It seems three years later the capacitor went bad again and he had to call someone else out to fix it and they charged him for the part and labor and service call and after hours call. I just had to laugh and say sorry but I eating dinner right now, call me when you come back to reality.

[mattm]

Don't you know that friend favors carry lifetime warranties.

[usaf hvac retired]

Whats the old saying?
With friends like that, Who needs enemies?

[dec]

Well thats why you never want to get involved in installing used stuff.... its not worth it. If you had done it for nothing and given them the unit , they would still be calling you and asking what you are going to do about it or if you feel bad about it not holding up and are ready to find them another one and do it free again.

[Workhorse]

Originally posted by dec
Well thats why you never want to get involved in installing used stuff.... its not worth it. If you had done it for nothing and given them the unit , they would still be calling you and asking what you are going to do about it or if you feel bad about it not holding up and are ready to find them another one and do it free again.

I didn't replace his unit, the company that condemned it was trying to rip him off. All I did was repair the problem he had with his unit.

[a\c don]

So now its a 15 year old unit.

You gave him 3 more years out of it at minimal cost.

And now he wants his pittance of an expense back?

I would'nt have this individual as a friend or a customer.

Laugh it off and move on.

[Workhorse]

Exactly, laughed it off and moved on. He'll call again when something else breaks and I'll probably be a sucker and go help him. I do get fringe benifits with him, he's a golf pro in town and can get me on any course public or private year round.
I'll just remember next time to charge him not only for the parts but for my time and write it out there in no guarentee except that until he replaces it it will break again.

[hvacguy1075]

I would fire him as a customer and a friend.

[condenseddave]

Maybe get him a subscription to meds-on-line.com.

He either needs to take something for that train of thought, or start breaking the pills that he's already taking in half....

[slice]

TEll him That your golf swing has left you and you are slicing the ball again ( after he corrected it 6 months ago) and you want a refund of your lesson,

This he will the understand

[dhvac]

Wow now that takes the cake
I do give away some used parts things that are still good but I don’t want to stock new like control boards and anything that is unit specific

but I give it to customer they pay for labor and I tell them that there is no warranty (if it breaks in the same season I will cut the a heck of a break on a new one
They also have their choice of getting a brand new one but I will still lend them the used one till the new one comes in
I have never had a single person complain because there FREE part died on them
This guy is a real a$$ and you should tell him that jmho

[brian in mass]

I'm the biggest sucker around. I help people all the time for nothing or next to nothing. Friends and family I mean.

I'll tell ya, normaly friends understand the help, being it they are the same age and mentality......which is usually true being it they are your friends.

But family.....WOW......

I've done alot of work for my wife's family. She has 9 uncles and aunts.

I can't believe some of the stuff that happens. I've done whole systems by myself, moved condensers, added ducts and lines, small service work.....etc.

Nobody wants to pay family ! They all expect everything for nothing. They almost assume it. It always starts out as a small job that they might give me money for, and ends up a huge thing for next to nothing if anything at all.

The last job....getting mad just thinking of this......for an uncle was a whole 5-ton air handler in an attic by myself. Complete system.

I did a really nice job too. Thing works about as perfect as you can get.

When it was all done, I came back to his house to grab the leftover stuff that was there. Stuff like insulation, couple of open boxes of flex, open bag of ties, the norm. When I get there noone was home. I get a phone call from my supplier about anhour later. He wasn't pleased. It seems that her uncle decided to take all the stuff that was lying in the garage and return it to my supply house !!!! He seen the sticker on something and found out where the place was. My supply house took some of the un opened stuff back reluctantly, and sent him on his way. They called me and said they did it because of me and they wern't happy at all. I explained what happened and they understood and even laughed about it.

Now, monthes later, he comes up to me at a family party and gives me a check. I look at it and ask what it was for. He says it was the $ he got back from the stock he returned. I assume he did it because I wasn't shy about voicing my opinion of what he did. But when I looked at the amount, it wasn't even all of the $ !

I wish I never started doing work for family. Now they all expect it, and none of them want to pay.

Wait untill the next one gets my full price !

[Diceman]

What a goof.

[scruit]

I do automotive work for friends/family, and I only ever charge the part cost. Nobody ever came back and wanted their money back...

I once did a full engine replacement in a friend's car (just charged her parts) and it turns out I routed a coolant hose too close to the engine. It rubbed a hole about 6mo later and left her stranded. She had it towed to a dealer and they fixed it - she was out abotu $200 for the tow/work. When I offered to pay he half the cost of the tow/work she turned that down, reminding me how much money she saved on having me do the engine work (about $2k).

[secorp]

I now have only one friend, any more than that just costs to much time and money. thats one friend plus the imediate family members....and all there freaking G.D. friends. they all have no problem calling on a Sunday night, crud never breaks during a week day, that is unless it is during a holiday period.

[midhvac]

Once I replaced a condenser fan motor for a "friend". Like you, I only charged him my cost for the motor and no labor. He never thanked me and wrote me an insufficient funds check. I finally ended up having to pay to have the check put in for collection but I got paid.

A year later he called one evening while I was eating dinner and said that the a/c had gone out again. It was hotter than hell outside. I asked him if he was perspiring heavily, and he confirmed that he was. I replied "GOOD!!", hung up on him and proceeded to finish my dinner before it got cold

I wasn't a bit concerned with my actions harming our
"friendship."

[Diceman]

Seems there are a lot of goofs out there.

[The Penguin]

Yep there is and it boils down to no respect for the blue collar worker we get no thanks for our work It is assumed that we are too stupid to do office work thus blue collar work and as any one can do it it must be so simple to do therfore no respect for us

[Collin]

We're going over to a friends place for dinner Sunday night. My buddie is from Europe so that means lots of food, beer, wine and after dinner Jagermeister.
In return I will clean the glass on his fireplaces.
Fair trade.