"Hey user my dad needs help setting up his computer"

>"Hey user my dad needs help setting up his computer"
>Gives my number to him without me knowing
>Think you're doing a nice thing and helping someone with their computer
>You're now their 24/7 free technical support

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I always tell them that I'll be billing my average hourly rate. At first they are OK because they think it's something like $10/hr but then I tell them that it's more around $480/hr because I run my own business and every hour I put into it makes that much.
That's usually the end of the discussion.

Yeah, whenever I bring up any kind of money they bounce and then I'm somehow an asshole for not working for free.

My cousin kept asking me for help with his laptop. He was very rude about it every time, would look over my shoulder and try to tell me what to do. So one day I just wiped his drive and installed Arch. Fuck him. He never called me again.

Some snobby rich woman I was helping a few years back had Quicken 99' on her computer. She refused to upgrade or use anything else and she was rude as shit. She sat next to me for the whole time "what's it doing now?" "Are you fixing it?" "What's that?" "Don't install anything on my computer without explaining it to me!"

Once I started telling randoms I charge $300 minimum for service calls, I stopped getting calls.

>How about I give you less than half of what you're asking?
>This other place does it cheaper though!
>Give me a friend/family discount since I know you through this person.
>At that price I might as well do it myself.

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>Alright, then hire people at the discount price and call me when you want it done properly

>Old woman tries to haggle me on price
>Give her the above line
>She ends up calling Geek Squad
>They charge her over $300 to install a new router/modem and hook it up
>It doesn't work and they couldn't figure out why
>They never called the ISP to activate it

It happens to everyone in every useful industry.

I've worked in general construction, IT, and now currently a journeyman electrician.

>Construction

Hey user, will you spend the next 3 months of your life 16 hours a day remodeling my entire house with zero help for free because we are friends? Ill buy the materials.

>IT

OP's situation

>Electrician

Hey user! Will you design and install the electrical for my illegal weed farm? Will you run extra circuits for my bitcoin miners? Can you fix the electrical in my crack house that is a potential fire hazard, the other electrician said he'd need to rip everything out and charge me a lot of money.

>Construction
I helped someone re-do their entire roof. I got the "I'll give ya some cash when I get my next check."

He either never got his next check or I ruined a good pair of shoes helping someone build a dangerously slanted roof for free. Had no clue wtf I was doing and hit my thumb a few times trying to install those top wedge pieces.

Got a nice leg workout though since I had to backwards crawl up the roof since it was too slick and steep to stand on.

I do some tech support stuff for direct family and friends for free obviously, and they respect me enough not to abuse it.

For everyone else I just tell them my hourly consulting rates and ask them if their problems are really worth my time or if they are just being lazy.

This. Im a journeyman plumber and this shit happens on a daily basis. I use to help friends and some family, not anymore. I charge them the same as much everybody else or they can fuck off.

>"will you replace this water heater thats a bomb with another bomb? The handyman said he would happily blow my house up for $50."

>"Hey, since you're my friend will you do $8,000 in free back breaking labor on my remodel thats going to take 6 months? Yeah, you will have to dig yourself a tunnel under the house to reach everything. Also, use your own material because you've got extra on hand. Its obviously feel from the sky since you have it. DONT WORRY BRO, Im not asking you to do all this for fee, I will buy pizza and beer"

You have good family and friends. I guess I don't really have "friends", I just have acquaintances who are my friends when it's beneficial for them.

I cannot count the number of times I've been in a crawl space or helped people in shady construction and all I got was a couple of tall beers from gas stations.

>But I bought you lunch

People are the worst.

If theres water under the house, RUN, dont walk away, RUN away. General user safety tip. Water under the house increases the chance of electrical shock astronomically. Wires can droop down into the water on older houses. I had a good friend literally boiled to death under a house. Dont die for lunch my anons.

>I guess I don't really have "friends", I just have acquaintances who are my friends when it's beneficial for them.
I feel sorry for you user. Everyone deserves friends.
Cut those acquaintances out of your life, you dont need people like that.

I don't do it anymore. I just flat out say no to that shit. Not that I didn't appreciate the $1 Steel Reserve cans.

>new coworker keeps doing a bunch of work for free
>ask him who the hell he's doing that for
>it's goddamn twitch streamer girls
>you_cannot_be_fucking_serious.jpeg
>tells me they return the favour by supporting him with hosts and shit but it's clear he just does because he's desperate for that puss
>his dream is to become a fulltime streamer
>check his stream and he has about 7 people watching him
>literally just playing some shitty moba in silence while a camera is pointed at his face

I lost every last shred of respect for this guy. learn from my mistakes and never ask any questions that might reveal your coworkers real character. just don't.

>not already running a side business where you do geek squad shit for money
I do the same shit as you OP except I make $50-$200 a visit which happens a couple times a month or so. Step the fuck up.

>free
Why didn't you charge him?
Are you a cuck or something?

That's fucking tragic. I don't get how some guys sink that low.

I don't get the fascination with giving people on the internet money for their existence. Twitch culture is so fucking weird. I get why lonely men do it. Pretty girls will always have a step ahead no matter what they do but I see streams and people just randomly drop like $1,000. To each their own I guess.

Desperation. Most of those guys don't honestly think they'll ever have a shot. They're soyboys and people who put random women they've never met on a pedestal. More than likely raised by single mothers.

>sorry, I don't do windows
>sorry, I don't do apples

it's like that cleaner fish that hangs on to a shark. the girl gets attention and services, while the beta orbiter gets a few nice words from her now and then.