# Stupidest Thing You've Been Asked to do For Free



## thehockeydman (Dec 19, 2012)

A while back I took over a remodel-gone-wrong on a 100 year old house. Job was to demo and replace the existing inside walls and subfloor. After the demo was done, HO asked if I could install new floor joists on the 2nd floor (balloon framed house). My answer, of course.

When I told him it would require a change order, he looked at me like I was from another planet. Apparently I was quite unreasonable for expected to get paid for rejoisting the floor :whistling.

So what's the craziest thing you've been asked to do for free?


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

Provide a generator for a neighbor during a power outage.

After all, I'm an electrician. And electricians are supposed to supply electricity, aren't they?


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

480sparky said:


> After all, I'm an electrician. And electricians are supposed to supply electricity, aren't they?


Funny, I thought electricity came from the POCO. In lieu of that, an electrician would be the last guy I'd call.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

Tinstaafl said:


> Funny, I thought electricity came from the POCO. In lieu of that, an electrician would be the last guy I'd call.


During a power outage, my neighbor decided he was entitled to use my genny. _So_ entitled, he never bothered to ask. Just shut it down, unplugged me and started wheeling it to his place.

Serious. I ain't kidding.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

480sparky said:


> During a power outage, my neighbor decided he was entitled to use my genny. _So_ entitled, he never bothered to ask. Just shut it down, unplugged me and started wheeling it to his place.
> 
> Serious. I ain't kidding.


I would have loved to witnessed that conversation.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

I'd be inclined to make that guy an ex-neighbor. Not saying I'd carry through, but I'd certainly be inclined.


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

Inner10 said:


> I would have loved to witnessed that conversation.



Me: "What the f*($ do you think you're doing?"

Him: "I need electricity!"

Me: "Get your own f*($ing generator. Take one more step, and I'm calling the law."

Him: "But, I need this to keep the food in my fridge from spoiling. You're an electrician, aren't you?"

Me: "Yes I am. But I don't _supply_ electricity. That's Mid-Am's job. Call them. And again, take one more step and I'm calling the law."

Him: "But, you have a generator, and I need it............"

Me: "So I take it you don't mind me _shooting _at you..... like I would at a criminal?"



That pretty much ended the discussion.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

480sparky said:


> Me: "What the f*($ do you think you're doing?"
> 
> Him: "I need electricity!"
> 
> ...


I don't understand WTF he was thinking.

I would have walked into his house and started taking things.


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## EricBrancard (Jun 8, 2012)

480sparky said:


> Me: "What the f*($ do you think you're doing?"
> 
> Him: "I need electricity!"
> 
> ...


Wow. I don't even know what to say.


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## Metro M & L (Jun 3, 2009)

Lets paint different colored stripes all over this 20000 square foot office! Why would it cost more, youre just painting the wall right?


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## AustinDB (Sep 11, 2006)

give up all the personal property and take on all the debt from an ex.

not what you were talking about?


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## Yianno (Dec 11, 2014)

Set up a home entertainment system onto of a electric fireplace mantle that I put together. The home entertainment system and the cable box was more important to get into place then getting the fireplace installed. Apparently it's part of the installation of the fireplace, I'm pretty sure they seen it somewhere in the manual lol.

Throw away a metal gazebo structure that I demolished for a client that didn't want it anymore. Apparently I was supposed to sell it and get big money for it according to the homeowner. 

Probably the best one is today. One company I sub for send me a work order: Paint bedroom, install 2 rows of tiles I'm shower surround, caulk shower surround, bolt exterior stair case into house, remove manufacture weatherstripping and install new on exterior door. Ok no problem I can take care of this easy. Get there customer put some additions on to this. List of additions: 2 x kitchen backsplash, bathroom backsplash, tile the tub surround and ceiling, paint the closet of the bedroom. Customer wanted all this done in one day with one man for practically nothing. I painted the bedroom including closet pink and purple, tiled the tub surround and bathroom backsplash and bolted the stairs and the customer feels ripped off. Customer paid 10 hours labor to the guy I get the work order from, so that 300 dollars plus tax and I get 25 of that per hour. I know this customer got a lot for free especially! As we all know what he paid for the everything I did today only really covered the painting portion and not even the painting portion. On top of that he complained and I got the talking down too. I know it's not a free thing but it's pretty much for free. Ps I was also talking to the homeowner and he wanted to remove a landing to take a couch in the basement and I told him if you wanna do it tell the company you wanna add it on your getting a good price and he's starts questioning me like if I'm serious. Told him straight up what he paid didn't cover everything if he called anyone else I'm and he didn't even believe it. 
Ps I know I gotta find better companies to sub for, cause this is the second one that it's all lonely bins


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

I don't even know where to start on this.....


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## txgencon (Jan 4, 2011)

480sparky said:


> Provide a generator for a neighbor during a power outage.
> 
> After all, I'm an electrician. And electricians are supposed to supply electricity, aren't they?


Several times.


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## tedanderson (May 19, 2010)

Inner10 said:


> Me: "Get your own f*($ing generator. Take one more step, and I'm calling the law."
> Him: "But, I need this to keep the food in my fridge from spoiling. You're an electrician, aren't you?"


He probably walked away thinking to himself, "What's wrong with that guy? All I needed was his generator. I don't see why he needs one being that he's an electrician and all..."


I don't know where to start either.. but I will list the last 3 most obscene things-

#1. Being asked to help someone move (for free) but none of their stuff was packed. To add insult to injury, they could have afforded professional movers but their excuse was that the Christmas holidays were coming up and money was tight. 

#2. Being asked to laminate a countertop, to buy a router from home depot to trim the edges, and then to take it back after I was finished so that they wouldn't be stuck with something that they would never use again.

#3. Being asked to remove a malfunctioning TV from someone's wall and shipping it back to the manufacturer under my authorized vendor credentials because it was still under warranty and the hack that originally sold it to them was nowhere to be found. Their logic- "If we bought the TV from your company, you would have had to do this for free ANYWAY. I don't see how that makes any difference."


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## Chopsaw Chick (May 6, 2011)

I sold a lady a new house and she called back about a month later to report that the furnace vent under the kitchen sink was blowing like crazy. She said if you put a crumpled piece of paper in front of it, the paper will blow across the kitchen! (And it was a big kitchen!) I decided to check it out before calling my HVAC guy. 

Come to find out, the homeowner bought a bunch of those filters you put in furnace vents and put one in EVERY SINGLE VENT in the house!!! (Except for the vent under the kitchen sink, of course!) So I fixed it, for free, 'cause I'm nice like that. . .


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## barry1219 (Oct 8, 2011)

480sparky said:


> Me: "What the f*($ do you think you're doing?"
> 
> Him: "I need electricity!"
> 
> ...


We have hurricanes down here and several times I have put a generator in the front yard and allowed my neighbors to run an extension cord to keep their fridge running. Don't really know what I would do if they felt like they could just come and take it though. 
I did have a neighbor on a the 1st house I bought that told me the guy I bought the house from allowed him to hook up to my irrigation system/well pump with a hose bib for his irrigation. I said that deal was over. For 2 weeks I came home to see the guys hose hooked up to my pump. I disconnected every morning and he would hook it back up. I bought a hose bib lock ( didn't even know they existed till then) and installed a fence between us. Problem solved.


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## jlsconstruction (Apr 26, 2011)

barry1219 said:


> We have hurricanes down here and several times I have put a generator in the front yard and allowed my neighbors to run an extension cord to keep their fridge running. Don't really know what I would do if they felt like they could just come and take it though.
> 
> I did have a neighbor on a the 1st house I bought that told me the guy I bought the house from allowed him to hook up to my irrigation system/well pump with a hose bib for his irrigation. I said that deal was over. For 2 weeks I came home to see the guys hose hooked up to my pump. I disconnected every morning and he would hook it back up. I bought a hose bib lock ( didn't even know they existed till then) and installed a fence between us. Problem solved.



I would have cut the hose at the property line


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## brhokel606 (Mar 7, 2014)

480sparky said:


> During a power outage, my neighbor decided he was entitled to use my genny. _So_ entitled, he never bothered to ask. Just shut it down, unplugged me and started wheeling it to his place.
> 
> Serious. I ain't kidding.


I am not even sure what to say, how can people think like this? People never cease to shock me I guess. I honestly don't even think I could call my neighbor to even ask to borrow it, let alone just take it during a power outage.


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## NYgutterguy (Mar 3, 2014)

Customer said" since you have those really tall ladders here would you mind taking down that basket ball sized hornets nest thats formed at the peak" as they flew in and out...:blink:


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## spazman (Feb 16, 2012)

When you are done instead of putting the piano back where it was will you take down to the basement.


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## Leo G (May 12, 2005)

Did you ask if you could just push it down the stairs?


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## Jeremiah2911 (Jan 2, 2014)

Leo G said:


> You should have told him that you would set it up for him, but he'd have to get rid of it. Take out the video camera and make yourself $10K by posting it on America's Funniest Videos.


Or blame it on your liability insurance.


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

480sparky said:


> Provide a generator for a neighbor during a power outage.
> 
> After all, I'm an electrician. And electricians are supposed to supply electricity, aren't they?


It is their right isnt it? :blink:


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

The most common for me is to go on a service call for an issue after another contractor has performed work there and will no longer return the call for a problem with their work. Then after showing up, assessing the problem they get angry of why i am charging them for the diagnoses. They give me attitude that they already paid for the work done and just want it to work. A couple times i have walked away in fear of not getting paid if i did the repair and left them to their misery. Sorry about your bad luck!

Most recently i have been back to turning wrench on the side "been busy but taking on more work to pay for another divorce" and i had a customer complain i somehow damaged their headlights when i pulled the codes for their SES light. Now these folks stood there and watched me plug in the scan tool, read/write down the codes and check live data to verify the issue of the code in question. Their complaint now is the headlights flicker at night and go dim when stepping on the brake. Now the code was for a bad O2 sensor so it had nothing to do with the headlights. I replaced the O2 after inspecting the harness and inspecting the old O2. In no way did i touch the headlights, the fuses/relays or the switch. As of now we are arguing over my responsibility of diagnosing/repairing the headlights. The issue the car came in originally for has been fixed and working properly. I will be damned if i am working on this issue for free. Good luck!!!!


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## abelizer (Oct 26, 2014)

I've had several people ask me if they can ad stuff to the dumpster in the driveway on a job site. I politely say "ask the homeowner, they probably won't mind" This angers them greatly and kind of amuses me.


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## tedanderson (May 19, 2010)

abelizer said:


> I've had several people ask me if they can ad stuff to the dumpster in the driveway on a job site.


That's a tough situation. Unless you can have the dumpster delivered and pulled the next morning, you might as well get one big enough for the entire neighborhood because if you tell them "no" they are going to use it anyway. If you fence it off, they'll just pile their trash in front of the fence. :no:

But as it relates to some of the stupidest things I've been asked to do for free, hauling other people's trash is one of them. 

When I moved into my house, the previous owner tried to save a few bucks by having the movers only do the furniture and he would move the small stuff in his car. It sounded good in theory but it was a total disaster when he realized how much "small stuff" he really had. No problem- I was already into another month on my apartment lease so I wasn't in a hurry.

A week later the guy gives me the all-clear to move in. We open the garage and we find a pile of stuff that's waist-high taking up more than half of the garage. :blink: I call the guy to tell him, "Hey man! You still have stuff over here!" He says, "Oh, don't worry about it. It's just trash. You can do whatever you want with it. I don't need it." 

NOOOOO!  In retrospect, I should have sued the guy. My movers were kind enough to carry it all away as a courtesy. I asked them to send me a bill but I never got one.


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## BamBamm5144 (Jul 12, 2008)

abelizer said:


> I've had several people ask me if they can ad stuff to the dumpster in the driveway on a job site. I politely say "ask the homeowner, they probably won't mind" This angers them greatly and kind of amuses me.


We used to get so much stuff tossed in the dumpster in the city that its one reason I got a dumpster.

I hate when I see mattresses thrown in the dumpster. I make sure to pull them out each day and set them where someone can see them and also make sure to have the dumpster picked up while I am there.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

tedanderson said:


> That's a tough situation. Unless you can have the dumpster delivered and pulled the next morning, you might as well get one big enough for the entire neighborhood because if you tell them "no" they are going to use it anyway. If you fence it off, they'll just pile their trash in front of the fence. :no:
> 
> But as it relates to some of the stupidest things I've been asked to do for free, hauling other people's trash is one of them.
> 
> ...


I went to a whole house "garage sale" that was full of old miscellaneous contractor stuff. A ton of it. What happened is the seller (retired contractor) kept saying it was valuable and he was he was going to take everything, but the agreement specified that he could leave whatever trash he wanted. Buyer got stuck with it, tried to sell over a couple weekends, but it was chaos. (I got some good stuff for next to nothing....that I'll probably never use  )


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## cwatbay (Mar 16, 2010)

We installed a high end Mobotix networked camera system and security lights at a surgeon's house in a ritzy neighborhood. He was a nice enough guy, but his wife was cheap as hell. 

While I was there adding another circuit to the service panel his wife wanted me to take a look at her clothes dryer to see about fixing it so she wouldn't have to call an appliance guy (or in her case, some moron from craigslist). 

Another time, at the same place, she asked me to trouble shoot their whole home sound system since it didn't work in most of the house. They had bought a bunch of stuff from Costco and the set up guys couldn't figure stuff out so (besides screwing up the connectors and HDMI ports on the back of the equipment) they just randomly connected cables up and left. 

Looking at the mass of old and new wiring, and the funky stuff they bought, I dodged the bullet by being sympathetic and stating that figuring this mess out would take several hours at $120.00 per hour.....she decided that someone from craigslist would be a better option.


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## darthdude (Dec 30, 2012)

Its just about always trash removal for me. "It's just a little stuff". Yeah right:no:. Moving something heavy is often a request too. "So I see you have a dolly there......." If it's a big enough project, or they are cool folks I'll help if it's a reasonable request/amount, or makes my job easier, otherwise, no.


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## EthanB (Sep 28, 2011)

A couple months ago, the husband of my wife's friend told me "I need to buy a bunch of beer and get you over here to build a shed with me.". Now, that alone wasn't going to happen but it got really comical when I figured out that this "shed" was actually a two car garage with a workshop in a wooded area. 

But he WAS going to pay me with beer so it wouldn't have been totally free. I told him that I'd think about it if there was a $1000 bill attached to every beer.


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## BamBamm5144 (Jul 12, 2008)

Here's one that I just got.

Did a roof replacement for a guy and invoiced him. Just got the check minus $1000 for as he writes "$1000 retainer in case of any damaged caused by future work"

Here's the best part, I've never bid on anymore work for the guy. It was just a simple roof replacement.


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## dom-mas (Nov 26, 2011)

I think he means he's keeping $1000 in case your work causes any future damage. He has no idea what he's doing but wants to sound like a lawyer or something. He's an idiot and he's grasping


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## 480sparky (Feb 1, 2009)

BamBamm5144 said:


> Here's one that I just got.
> 
> Did a roof replacement for a guy and invoiced him. Just got the check minus $1000 for as he writes "$1000 retainer in case of any damaged caused by future work"
> 
> Here's the best part, I've never bid on anymore work for the guy. It was just a simple roof replacement.



I had that happen at the end of a huge custom home build. Electrical was $23k. Last invoice was $6000. HO 'deducted' 5 of it as a retainer 'to ensure I return to install hall way light'.

This 'hallway light' was a simple $20 Home Depot special in the basement outside the mechanical room. That's all that was left to do. He thought $5000 was a reasonable amount to make sure I came back and installed one stupid little light.


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## rselectric1 (Sep 20, 2009)

480sparky said:


> I had that happen at the end of a huge custom home build. Electrical was $23k. Last invoice was $6000. HO 'deducted' 5 of it as a retainer 'to ensure I return to install hall way light'.
> 
> This 'hallway light' was a simple $20 Home Depot special in the basement outside the mechanical room. That's all that was left to do. He thought $5000 was a reasonable amount to make sure I came back and installed one stupid little light.


I'd be glad to handle the installation of that light for 5K if you are busy.


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## heavyD (Dec 20, 2014)

torch a pair of ugg boots that the lady of the house wears.


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## AmeliaP (Apr 22, 2007)

Oh helllllll no with the 'retainer' BS. What is that? Some website promote that on their 'tips for hiring contractors' article?


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## Yianno (Dec 11, 2014)

abelizer said:


> I've had several people ask me if they can ad stuff to the dumpster in the driveway on a job site. I politely say "ask the homeowner, they probably won't mind" This angers them greatly and kind of amuses me.


I get this one asked many times. I do offer a lot of times when I know there will be space. However, when I get asked it's never one or two bags it's everything from the past 20 years lol.


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## spazman (Feb 16, 2012)

heavyD said:


> torch a pair of ugg boots that the lady of the house wears.


You were going to charge for that? Sounds like fun to me. :laughing:


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