Charlie wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Charlie wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Scott in SoCal wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Charlie wrote
Bill wrote

These self-centered "me" generation people are really something!

I did some free remodeling work for a young friend about 10
months ago. Prior to doing this work, my friend assured me he
would reimburse me for all the materials I needed buy to do the work...

When I was done with the work, I gave him a copy of all the
receipts for things I had purchased as well as an itemized list
and total amount he owed me. Again my labor was free.

So the months rolled by and not a single dime came my way. But in the mean time, my friend purchased all sorts
of expensive
"toys" for himself (he makes very good money). Like fancy
wheels/tires for his car (the old tires were fine), a new very
expensive entertainment system for his house, and on and on.

I kept reminding him of the money owed to me...

Well after 10 months of this, he finally mentioned something
about paying me. He said he would total up the receipts I gave
him. I again gave him a copy if the itemized list I have given
him 10 months prior. After a couple of weeks, he called me and said "You can come and get the money I owe you!"

I think I will try this with my electric bill. I'll call the
electric company and tell them I have the money for their bill and they can come and pick it up!

Geeze these people are really something!

The way I have solved that kind of problem is by giving
the guy a shopping list. "Any questions? Call me when
all the stuff is at your house and I'll be over"

Trouble is that plenty arent capable of using the list properly.

And its often a lot more trouble to make up a list that someone who doesnt
know anything about renovations can use than to get the stuff yourself.

Still sounds like a lot less trouble than Bill had getting reimbursed.

Sure, but it makes a lot more sense to get the cash upfront instead.

If you do that you are ignoring travel costs and time.

You'll waste more travel costs and time trying to make a list for someone who isnt capable of doing that work
themselves and who doesnt understand the list etc.

You'll save much more travel cost and time by requiring the cash upfront and doing the shopping yourself if you
decide that there is some risk of not getting paid.

Of course the right way to handle this, at least from my
prerspective, is to say, "Here's the list of what you need. Pick me up at the house and we will go get the stuff. Then
I will help you and show you how to do the job so the next time you will be smarter and know what to do."

There's plenty that will never be able to do it themselves.

Like my neighbour's elderly woman next door neighbour.
He just provided all the materials and did all the work and got
paid for it when it was done and he knew what the total was.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and
...." You know how it goes.

There's always going to be plenty that will never be viable fishers.

Some of the people I know are such incompetant butchers
that even if they can do it, it isnt a viable approach.

When I built my house from scratch quite literally, that triggered
a bit of rash of that amoungst the people I knew. One of them is
such a klutz that he did have the sense to take my advice and
get professionals to do much of the work I did myself, and decided
that he should be able to paint it and save some money. He quite
literally attempted to paint it with a broom and big bucket of paint.

He was the one who came within an ace of killing himself at work
when he had the 'brilliant' idea of cleaning out the room where the
big growth cabinets were by hosing out the place with all the
electrical stuff under the big growth cabinets still powered.

I used to cringe every time he changed a magtape on
the PDP9, he's such a mechanical incompetant/klutz.

I wouldnt hesitate to buy the materials for him, I have compete
confidence that I would get paid as soon as I wanted the money
and he's so hopeless with mechanical stuff that a list would be
useless and there is no point in having him along on the
shopping run, it would be a lot quicker to do it myself instead.