Sure, we work for free

[The Wanderer]

I recieved a call this morning from a woman who goes into detail about her bad tenant who is in her rental property (don't you hate it when people start telling you the whole story, and don't give you time to interrupt even though you know its likely that you can't help them?). Her whole story ends with a question about the exact notice procedure for termination of a month-to month rental agreement. I ask her which property she owns and she says its in a different county. When I ask if we manage it (I know we don't), she says no. I try to sell her on our property management services, but she is not interested, she just wants her question answered. I then tell her that I'm not allowed to answer her question. This is actually true for two reasons. First, my employer does not want us to answer these questions for non-clients as we can still be held legally responsible for the outcome of the answer. Second, (the one which is more important to me) our knowledge of these laws is what our income is based on. If we and every other property management firm gave out free advice about what to do and how to handle situations, then we'd go out of business.

I told the woman that I am sorry, but she would need to contact her property management firm or her attorney. She then gets mad at me, and takes this condescending tone telling me that "I should know this stuff and if I want to survive in business, I should "open the book and learn the laws" (her words). I inform her that I do know the laws but I can't answer her becasue of the legality issue (that I mentioned above). She says "its not a legal question" (WTF?). She tried the silent treatment for a moment and then I just said "Thank You" and hung the phone up.

I didn't mention the second reason to her, but when people do this, I am always tempted to ask them if they work for free. It seems that most people do not understand that if a business makes its money primarily off of know how, then it wont give that away for nothing. Anyone else work somewhere where you don't sell a physical product, but you do sell know-how?

[KaeZoo]

Anyone else work somewhere where you don't sell a physical product, but you do sell know-how?

I work in car audio/security installation. We get quite a few people who want wire colors, hookup directions, or troubleshooting services over the phone. I'm actually more accomodating than many of my co-workers, but there's no way I'm going to look up vehicle wiring information for someone who's just trying to avoid paying me for an install.

[One-Fang]

IT support. But being that it's in-house rather than open to the public, I guess we don't get that very often. We're also pretty acommodating of home PCs for staff members. We'll take a look.

[Jester]

I have posted here before about being a magician...I don't mind doing a few tricks here and there if I am out and about (and hey, that IS how you hook clients, after all), but I DO hate when people keep saying "do another one, do another one" when they are not paying me, booking me, or even buying me drinks. Don't get me wrong, the vast, vast majority of people are cool, but some are downright assholes about this and about "you HAVE to teach me how to do that." No. No I don't.

[AFpheonix]

My husband gets that a lot, as he is a computer technician with the company that drives around in the little black and white beetles to people's houses or businesses to fix computers and set up networks.
A lot of people don't understand that they're not only paying for the product to get the job done, but also in his expertise in setting up said product and troubleshooting all their little computer problems. Sigh....

We also get that to an extent, in that there's a minimum dispensing fee on our prescriptions. Regardless of how cheap the medicine is, it's going to cost $11.99 at the very least. That cost covers our overhead and also pays the salaries of all the people back there, of which the primary employees, the pharmacists, have either batchelors' degrees or doctorates in their fields. A lot of the techs like me have their batchelors, too. That's a lot of highly educated people to take advantage of to take good care of customers' health and needs, and people don't always seem to get that.

[Gurndigarn]

I didn't mention the second reason to her, but when people do this, I am always tempted to ask them if they work for free. It seems that most people do not understand that if a business makes its money primarily off of know how, then it wont give that away for nothing. Anyone else work somewhere where you don't sell a physical product, but you do sell know-how?

If you get it a lot, try saying something like "Well, if you don't want our management services, I can answer your question for a one-time consultation fee of $Big.bux." And when the inevitable protest comes in, say "Ma'am, if you want our expertise, you have to pay for it."

They won't like it; they'll probably curse you out-- but they'll get off the phone quickly.

[trunks2k]

I don't sell know-how, but I think I should. I usually give out free computer help to my immediate friends and family. Occasionally it gets a bit annoying when I'm helping somebody with a problem when I'd much rather be doing something else - my mom in particular has a habit of calling me when I'm just about to sit and watch a show I've been waiting to see. Overall, I normally don't mind too much giving out a bit of help. But the other day I get a call from a friend saying that I should expect a call from her friend so I can help the guy with a problem he's having with his computer. His issue being that when he tries to play some online game, he can't connect to the game server. So not only am I now suddenly giving free help to people I don't know, it's about things that I'm not familiar with; all I could be of help with is general networking stuff in this case as I'm not much of a gamer. So the guy calls me Saturday morning at like 10AM, when I had been out until 3AM and had planned on not waking up until noon (I love weekends).

Not only did he wake me up, he was driving in his car, so he wasn't even at his fricken computer and he was giving me way too much information. Please people, give a VERY brief description of the problem, don't go explaining every detail. Extraneous info can cloud the issue. I'll ask for more detail if I need it. I'm not sure what the source of his problem actually was, but I guessed it was the built in windows firewall blocking the game. Only thing that really made sense.

*sigh* I think I should have a recording so that when I pick up the phone, it says something like "Assitance with computers will cost $50/hr - times are rounded up."

[Jester]

I think in this case it is your friend being an SC. Not only are they using you for free computer know how, they are not jacking you out to friends you don't even know for same, including giving said friends your number and carte blanche to call you at an unreasonable (for you) hour.

Someone calls me before I am ready to wake up, and I don't know them, they DAMN WELL better be offering me major buckage for my services. Otherwise, the best they can hope for is a polite hangup. Though the oddsmakers in Vegas would make that a low percentage....in all likelihood they would get the full on Furious Mr. Grumpy In The Morning treatment.

[Dips]

My husband gets this all the time. He's a numismatist. When people find out they think it's perfectly reasonable to offer him the "privilege" of going through their grandfather's moldy coin collection to find out how much it's worth. Of course, they never think he might not want to spend hours of his spare time doing appraisals for free with no benefit to himself whatsoever.

He's learned two ways to get out of giving away his labor for free. He recommends some good value books they can use to appraise their collection themselves (an added benefit is that they might find the whole process so fascinating that they take up the hobby) OR he tells the names of some stores they can go to and sell their collections for a fair price.

This reminds me of a pre-hack story. I'll post it in the "Annals" thread.

[dragonflygrrl]

I get this too. We sell cell phones for one of the big five carriers, but we are privately owned. The name of our store is different than the name of the carrier we sell. You would think this would be sufficient for people to realize we are a separate entity, but no. They bring in a phone for us to "look at," and say, "I got it at the store up at campus, but it's a pain to park there so I want you to fix it instead." Gee, thanks. I get to do unpaid labor for you in exchange for not getting your business or making any money off you in any way. That sounds fair to me. No, I don't mind making actual customers that are spending actual money wait so that I can show you how to use a phone you didn't buy here.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I have posted here before about being a magician...I don't mind doing a few tricks here and there if I am out and about (and hey, that IS how you hook clients, after all), but I DO hate when people keep saying "do another one, do another one" when they are not paying me, booking me, or even buying me drinks. Don't get me wrong, the vast, vast majority of people are cool, but some are downright assholes about this and about "you HAVE to teach me how to do that." No. No I don't.

Feh. Your non-customers come to me, after bothering you, to have their fortunes told, apparently. I get the same thing when I'm dukkering. Here's a prediction for someone, how about you will get run over by a cement truck if you don't tip the broad with the cards? How about that? You know that whole "cross my palm with silver yada yada yada" thing? It's more than just a great idea.

[The Wanderer]

Numismatist = Coin collecter/appraiser/hobbyist

Thank you Dips, I learned my new thing for the day!

My Dad is an auto mechanic and I told him about my experience last night, and he told me "its $1 for tightening the bolt, $99 to know which bolt to tighten". I thought that was good.

[Kusanagi]

Numismatist = Coin collecter/appraiser/hobbyist

Thank you Dips, I learned my new thing for the day!

My Dad is an auto mechanic and I told him about my experience last night, and he told me "its $1 for tightening the bolt, $99 to know which bolt to tighten". I thought that was good.

Sounds right. I just had a sensor go out on my car, and the dealer quoted me $130 to get it fixed. Bought a socket for $5, the part for $20, and spent 10 minutes changing it myself.

[Bliss]

There is only ONE way to get out of these tight spots... At a party or event, when someone asks you what you do for a living, answer them:

"I'm a proctologist", I swear they won't want a free examination in-place

[KnightsWhoSayNi]

But the other day I get a call from a friend saying that I should expect a call from her friend so I can help the guy with a problem he's having with his computer. His issue being that when he tries to play some online game, he can't connect to the game server. "

So your friend gave out your personal number to some guy you didn't know just so you could give him free assistance? Your friend sounds like a dick.