Nothing Is Free Anymore
So I am pretty sure I have ranted about this here before... Well maybe not, it might have been somewhere else... Anyways sometime earlier this year I had several “friends” come and ask me for help with various things... As a result I fell way behind on my writing here and on a few other sites... In one week I helped fix several computers, did some graphics stuff, fixed a few videos, and hunted down a bunch of different things across the internet... Out of all of it only one person even though to say thank you... That was the part that really set me off was I did all this stuff for several different people and none of them could even type two little words once it was done... Well I was not happy and the next time one of them asked me to do something I snapped and basically told them that I quit doing stuff for free that if they wanted something done I want some form of payment, whether it be paypal, amazon gift card, game from my steam wish list or whatever else they could think of... Well the one I told this to acted like it was the end of the world... How dare I ask for a little compensation for my time and skills... We were friends, meaning I should do it for free... I told them that if they didn't like it then learn to do it for themselves or find someone else to do for free (good luck)... Well they were not happy and told me that they didn't need my help and would find another friend to do it... Two weeks passed and guess what, they didn't find anyone else... So here they were again asking for my help, again I told them that I was tired of being used and that I require payment... They were not happy but eventually agreed to pay up... Since then the requests from my “friends” seem to have gone down quite a lot... Honestly I did not mind helping them out but my main issue was a few of them I wouldn't hear from unless they needed something, and when they did need something it wasn't a “do you have time?” or a “Could you please?” it was basically a “Hey I need [thing] by [date]... Then when it was done that was it for contact until next time they needed something... No Thank you, nothing... Now a few friends understand this and they don't have a problem with it, they say my prices are quite reasonable... Most of the games on my steam list are under $15... Honestly where are you going to find someone to look at your computer problem in exchange for a $5 video game?
Comments
DanieGirl8587 wrote on May 30, 2015, 8:35 PM
A lot of my friends are computer nerds (no offense at all to computer geniuses) and they don't mind helping me out for free. Granted I don't ask them all the time and I do thank them and in exchange buy them food or something.
1Serenafair wrote on May 30, 2015, 10:52 PM
I have some friends who I'll still help out for free as they actually want to hang out even when they don't have computer problems and when they do they actually take the time to at least say thank you.... I'm just a little frustrated that some "friends" view me as more of an IT department and less of a friend.
Hollyhocks100 wrote on May 31, 2015, 5:34 AM
I had friends like that and eventually the feeling USED by them really got to me and I cut myself free. A simple please and thank you would have been enough to keep me on board, but they seemed not to know either of these words.
1Serenafair wrote on May 31, 2015, 3:58 PM
Same here, a simple please and thank you would have went a long ways with me. I would have till helped them out for nothing. I threw out the thing about charging for work now and a good amount of the users cut themselves out of my life for me.