I want my money back now!!

[steelaworkn]

Well that's what a so called friend said afterwards. See, my buddy sold a workstation to a "friend". We stipped the OS and cleaned the HD out and sold it to this "friend" for 200 bucks. They called back and said all they were getting was a black screen and would not pay until it was fixed.

The deal was that they bought the computer, a flat screen monitor, keyboard and mouse for 200 bucks. This computer also came with all the cords and a DVD-RW drive. Great deal for 200 bucks. The HD was 40 gig...still a good deal for a work station. Not a super powerhouse but sitll had over 700 megs of ram. A good deal and would have run any operating system.

Well, they whined it it no OS so we drove out to there place and I spent 3 hours putting F10 on it. This was before F11 came out. I even gave them a Mandriva disc if the F10 set-up caused problems.

The F10 was working great. All they had left to do was to set up their e-mail accounts on Kontact. Piece of cake. They wait all summer long to call to complain. They are now demanding a full refund.

We should have just told them to put XP on there.

I never realized how dumb people can get or how lazy they are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to install a MS OS. Fedora 10 is leagues above XP on every account. They didn't call for help or anything. They just waited 3 months to complain.

Bet you guys never have any of this trouble. I should just buy the computer back for myself. Does anyone want an IBM workstation for a server? 200 bucks plus shipping. :D

[scottro]

It's sad when you need written agreements with "friends."

Hindsight is easy. :) You should have

gotten a written agreement.

Given them a limit to ask for their money back if they weren't happy.

Now--would I have done either of these things? Of course not. Neither would most of us who don't do it as a business, until we've been bitten the way you were.

[Dan]

Hmmm.

Methinks another option is to check the uptime and usage. If it got used at all ... charge them a standard rate fee for both the initial service call (with mileage) and give them an estimate for the second one to re-install Windows (Again, include mileage.) ... including the full retail purchase price of the Windows OS.

I suspect it won't be long before you quit getting nagged about it.

Will you lose the "friend?" Probably. But, to be blunt, do you really need those kinds of friends anyway? Sounds to me like one part "friend", ten parts spoiled brat/leech.

Oh! By the way. Cash up front!

Credit is for people who qualify. This clod doesn't ... no matter what his D&B says.

[Iron_Mike]

That's why you should never sell stuff to friends if you want to remain friends.

[zackf]

Will you lose the "friend?" Probably. But, to be blunt, do you really need those kinds of friends anyway? Sounds to me like one part "friend", ten parts spoiled brat/leech.


Well put....well put.

[troyatlarge]

Hey - there is what, something like 500 to 600 thousand people a month losing their jobs here in the U.S.A. right now - I don't no the case, but maybe your friend is effected by that sort of thing, or some other life crises, and is taking it out in exactly the way of 'give me money now". The thing you sold them, if it is like you say, and works perfectly fine, is a fine system and $200 is not that bad of price at all. I would tend to let them keep it unless maybe they really are hurting and just being emotional about it - then maybe I would offer them $50 or $100 or something like that - but that's me. Of course if your being the used car salesmen, that's a different story.

[steelaworkn]

Oh well. Live and learn. I didn't loose any money, just time.

[beaker_]

He go more than he paid for and you can bet they'd call 1-800-I'm-Telling-M$ if you had installed windows. May not be the same but a nice thing about friends owing you money is that you seldom see them again. Just break out a service report when you deal with them again, they all understand that language.