What is your personal Time Worth helping others?

[Rusty Heap]

On a Facebook group a stranger (a 45 year old trucker) reached out and asked if anyone could help him with several wiring issues on his car. I'm a EE and have been wiring car stereos for 45 some-odd years so I said sure bring it out to my place. I spent 3 solid hours of troubleshooting and cleaning stuff up his mess best I could.

then he says "Oh, I didn't bring any cash", can I Venmo or Paypal you later. (at this point RED Flags went up) Sure paypal me $100 which IMHO was a deal at only $35 an hour for isolating circuits and measuring current draws and such.

Nope, a $100 was too rich for his blood and after a week of hounding sent me $50 which is less than frickenn minimum wage.

SO, "What is your time worth helping a stranger out in your area of expertise?"

I've been steaming on this for about 10 days. I have his apartment address, facebook ID, and (like this post) I'm going to tell the story to the world about his punkk asss actions.


What would you do or say? Karma is going to bite him and I'm greasing the skids.

[Rusty Heap]

And yes, this was his wiring............Run Forest Run, I tried my best to save the patient.

[Arizona_928]

I don’t like to make other people’s problems my problem… Especially strangers

[Rot 911]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

I don’t like to make other people’s problems my problem… Especially strangers

I agree. Did you discuss getting paid for your services before you started? Or were you just hoping that he would be a decent individual that would pay you for your time?

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

On a Facebook group a stranger (a 45 year old trucker) reached out and asked if anyone could help him with several wiring issues on his car...

At this stage I'd just let it slide. Live and learn.

[Zeke]

Not clear. If you told him $35/hr and he stayed while you worked, he should have said something before it got to 100 bucks. If not, well, just one of those deals.

I will say something like sounds like you need the money more than I. Don't come around again. I'm generally happy with that. I've done that many times with penny pinchers.

[stevej37]

Hopefully he doesn't show up with buckets of pennies.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

No good deed goes unpunished

[look 171]

I don't help strangers and if I do, I don't expect pay but that's just me. If someone here needs help, I am more then happy to do it, spend few hours of my time shooting the breeze and fix the problem.

Long ago before the kids came along, I helped this really nice older lady with her plumbing issues couple blocks down from us. She would stop on her walk to talk with my wife when she was out messing with her flowers in the yard. A regulator was installed, problem gone. Maybe 15 years later, some dude called in panic saying he was water all over the kitchen and that he's my neighbor. I am trying to think who the hell this is so I ask how he got my number? He said never mind that, can you come now to help. I said no and we were having dinner and if I go, it will have be in an hour or two if I go at all. He finally said this lady had given him my number. Now he almost demanded that I go there to help. I told him my fee was 350 jsut to show up and I would walk him through on the phone how to shut off the water from the angle stops under the sink. it would take 15 seconds to perform the task. His reply was no, that's your job and he will pay and that he has a good job. Ooook. I walked down there and sees his poor young wife drenched, on all fours with a bunch of wet towels trying to get at the water. The weld on the faucet gave way and it made the water show at the Bellagio look tame. I reached under the sink and shut off the valves. He said thank God, that's it? Yep, I will take a check. He handed it to me and ask now what. I told him find a plumber, you need a new faucet. He kept pushing that I change it and wanted to pay me more money. I had to tell him for the third time that's not what we do. Handed it the check back to him and said good luck. I don't need the money, neighbors don't take neighbor's money. I said don't call me next time, and walked home. Felt pretty good. I think this guy was a young TV writer. He took my dinner time away from my kids and wife.

[pwd72s]

I'm constantly amazed over how many people there are with absolutely no basic hand skills...Maybe
I mean basic knowledge. How the hell could somebody not know about faucet shut off valves???

[rwest]

You got to let it go, your sanity is worth more than $50. Mark it up as a learning experience.

[A930Rocket]

Unless it’s been arranged to be paid, I don’t expect anything when helping someone. And I never exchange help for money with friends.

Originally Posted by pwd72s

I'm constantly amazed over how many people there are with absolutely no basic hand skills...Maybe
I mean basic knowledge. How the hell could somebody not know about faucet shut off valves???

As a homebuilder, when I do a final walk-through and orientation, before closing, I point out every shut off valve to every fixture and the main to the house.

That, and tell them, unless they are buying brand new washers and dryers, to replace the waterlines. Several times, I’ve seen people move in, and the washing machine waterline gets disturbed it sprays water everywhere.

[LWJ]

I am more than happy to help lots of people. But, I only go forward if I like them, if they are grateful. And I have zero expectation for cash. I offered to make dinner and service my buddy’s mountain bike just today.

People like us are not common. We need to help out the helpless folks.

[porsche930dude]

Anything over about 50 bucks is alot to ask of somebody if its unexpected. I do small engine repair out of my garage for all the neighbors. I make sure they know what its going to cost if its going to be more than 50. If its up around 100 or more which is very rare then I very much make sure they know and I can tell its a struggle for them to pony up. And I live in a good neighborhood these are not poor people.

[unclebilly]

Was it understood you would be expecting to be paid for this?

I graciously help strangers all the time with no expectation of payment - it’s called being a decent person or in Adam Grant’s terms, a ‘giver’.

If you expected to be paid, and paid fairly, you are being a matcher, and there is nothing wrong with this.

If your rate was understood ahead of time and he’s lowballing you, he’s a taker. If he thought you were helping him probono and offered $50, he may be a matcher…

Was payment discussed up front? That’s the crux of the issue here.

[DerkPerk]

The only time I offer up my time outside of work is in scenarios I’m not expecting payment. Saves both parties sour grapes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JackDidley]

Always negotiate price up front. Guy probably expected you were just being a nice guy.

[Baz]

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1000764-no-more-freebies-bending-over-backwards-thats.html

[masraum]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

At this stage I'd just let it slide. Live and learn.

Exactly. Consider this an educational moment.

Don't help strangers, and if you do and you get anything for it, consider yourself lucky.

[Crowbob]

This happened to me twice. Probably not uncommon.

Just out of college I was managing one of thirteen pizza joints that was trying to become a franchise chain. I did the hiring, firing, training and worked my dragon jeans off for low-end salary as is usual in low-end restaurants.. Anyways, I’d get the assistant manager operating and the employees functioning and the company would steal my people for a different and usually struggling store.

Nope.

Then, many years later, word eventually got out that I knew what I was doing while working in a cube farm. I was spending half my day problem-solving, training informally and answering questions for the rookies while doing my own job.

Nope, again.

Since then, I’ve consistently relied, as needed, on the most reliable and efficient concept in the pursuit of a happy life that can be distilled down to one word: No.