People suck

[MadMike]

Not that this is news to anyone who frequents this place, but I just had to vent.

I briefly mentioned in another thread about how I fixed a computer that had been hit my lightning, which killed the dialup modem. Here's the full story:

I got a call from a close friend a few weeks ago, and she told me she had a friend who's computer had been hit by lightning, and could I come over and look at it for her?

Being the nice guy I am (OK, not always, but I do try to take care of my friends), I told her I'd come over. I spoke with her friend briefly, and she told me the computer itself worked fine, she just couldn't dial into the internet.

At this point, I was almost certain that the modem was dead, and I just happened to have a spare one lying around. I grabbed the modem and my tools and headed over.

My friend and her friend were both there, and we had a couple beers before I looked at the computer. I ran a few tests which seemed to determine that the modem was indeed dead. I swapped it out for the one I brought, and everything was up and running again. She was so happy I was able to fix it, as she hadn't been able to get online for weeks. She asked me how much she owed me, and I told her not to worry about it. My friend thanked me for doing that for her, as she didn't have a lot of money. I helped someone out, and I felt good about myself.

Fast-forward to yesterday. My son and I went back to my friend's house to do a little computer work for her, and she told me something rather disturbing about her friend.

Apparently, she decided she was going to pin the blame for the outage on her landlord, claiming some BS about mold in the apartment causing it. She wanted my friend to find out how much a modem cost, and asked her to have me sign a paper saying that mold in the apartment was to blame.

Well, there was no way in hell I was going to do that, and my friend wasn't about to ask me to. The only reason she even mentioned it was to let me know what had happened. She laughed when I told her that a dialup modem isn't worth much these days, and you can find them for under $20. I guess she should have tried her little scam ten years ago when the 56K modems went for $200 or more.

My friend and I were both very disappointed in her friend. I made a half-hour trip to her apartment to fix her computer, provided her with labor and a new part completely free of charge, and asked for absolutely nothing in return. Instead of being happy that her computer was working once again, she had to go and try to cash in on what had happened.

Like I said, people suck.

[Luna]

wow. That really does suck. The only experience I could relate that to is when I gave away things at old jobs to charity. A lot of times, those things would come back to my store to be returned for store credit. The things given to charity are marked or have something on them so you know they were donated and not bought, yet people always tried to cash in on it. Made me mad, and made me wonder if the people who were always hounding me to donate actually ever gave the stuff to charity as they told me. I'd bet they were keeping the stuff for themselves.

[tollbaby]

People do indeed suck.

I have a neighbor in my apartment block (8 apartment, 3-storey walkup) who drives a HUGE Ford pickup truck. I drive a teeny tiny Chevy Aveo. Guess who I get to park next to?

Anyway, one day my son wasn't being careful as he opened his door, and dinged the guy's door. Tiny 1/4 inch scratch. I didn't even notice it at the time. A few weeks later, the guy is waiting for me as I pull into my parking space. He points out the scratch and asks me what I'm going to do about it. He claims he's WATCHED me ding his door several times from his apartment (total bullshit) and that this is a leased truck, and he'll be charged for the damage, etc. As I had the kids with me, and this guy was pretty belligerent, I told him to get an estimate, and we'd talk. NOTE: I did not promise anything, nor did I say I would pay him.

So the guy gets an estimate for a TOTAL paint job, and slides it under my door. Total paint job, he claims, is necessary, since the clearcoat on his truck prevents him from being able to use touch-up paint to fix just the affected area. It's a leased truck, he repeats, and he expects me to pay for the damage, since he doesn't feel it's fair that he should have to pay for damage he didn't cause.

I'm freaking out by this point. TWICE this guy has ambushed me as I'm getting out of my car, screamed at me in front of my kids and the world at large, and he's threatening me with legal action. I don't know how many of you know how much repainting a big pickup would cost, but it's a lot... like over $1,000 a lot. For a tiny 1/4 inch scratch that I had to get within 6 inches of to see.

After my initial freak out, I called my mom, who leases all her vehicles, and asked her how much Ford was likely to charge the guy for this damage. She told me that leases generally have a "negligible damage" clause that states they won't charge for very minor damage.... so I called up the Ford dealership this guy leases from. Guess what? That tiny scratch is easily covered under the negligible damage clause, and the mechanic I spoke to said "why doesn't he just buy a $25 bottle of touch-up paint instead of repainting the whole truck" so I mentioned the clearcoat problem.... guy laughed at me! He said "that doesn't make a damn bit of difference, we carry paint for all our own vehicles. Unless he's got some irridescent custom paint job or something, touch-up paint is fine"...

So buddy tried to scam me out of over a thousand dollars, was COMPLETELY unwilling to discuss a compromise, and was becoming aggressive and threatening.

I wrote him a nice long letter detailing what the Ford guys had told me, repeating what HE had told me, and pointing out the difference between the two. I told him that if he brought the car back to Ford at the end of his lease and they tried to charge him for that particular scratch, then I'd consider buying him a bottle of touch-up paint, but otherwise, I considered the matter closed. I also enclosed a photo of the scratch he claimed I caused, and then photos of all the OTHER damage to his truck that he didn't try to blame me for, just to cover my ass.

Best part? Assface moved out yesterday YAY!!!!!

[Kilamon]

For a minute, I thought this letter was going to be like a Forum letter. I had a service call or two go that route, but I won't give details here.