Here mate, can you take a look at my...

If it's a job I've done before I don't mind, it's mainly cleaning people's cars which I don't mind for a bit of money.

Although last time I spent an afternoon doing my neighbours car, and she's elderly, came out with 50p for, and I quote "a can of coke and a mars bar".

I was in the motortrade for some years so I don't have a problem taking on any type of job
But I don't do any private jobs "as I know them as"
Il do stuff for family and close friends but no one else
I mite help with some advice or check there oil level but that's it

My reasons are
People!!!
Everyone what's something for nothing
And your always going to get that complaining customer who recons his gearbox is no good now ever since you replaced his fan belt
And he expects you to fix for free

I only do it for mates with a skill to trade for my time. Not an outright "yes I will doX if you do Y for me..." more a case if when I need something I ask, but remember the favour too and expect the same. I dislike folk who ask for something for free and expect it.

A good example is a close friend of my past (still friends now, just not as close) wanted some wiring dome on her house. I agreed, and drove all the way to Glasgow to do it for free because of all the times she has been there in the past for me. She still insisted on buying me dinner and paying for my fuel. I had to make a return trip a few weeks later to fit her new shower. Absolutely no question of her paying me for my time. She has done more than enough for me in the past.

Likewise a good friend drove up to help me with my Volksrod from Yarmouth. He did that for his reasons (he was one of my engineers when I was offshore). He now has a big favour chalked up that I will be called onto repay one day.

But, what I object to, is the notion of mates rates. "You are a friend so I will work for less for you" - why should that be the done thing? That's taking the gents agreement and removing one side of it. Why is it OK to pay a friend less? If"mates rates" meant paying them more is they are mates you would think that strange...

Quid pro quo is the way forward. Would your neighbours give their time to save you loads of cash?

Last time I did any mechanical work for anyone, it was my best mates mum, she's not driven in 10 years so her fella bought her a 106 to ease her into it and asked me to do all the fluids and a good service. Did it all ok then flushed the coolant, which turned out to be full of radweld, which then in turn a couple of days later meant knackered head gasket (no temp guage) he wasn't curse word at me at all, but it's put me right off doing anything like that again because the car was scrapped essentially because I serviced it. Still feel guilty now.

I avoid it if I can, nightmare.

if you successfully fix it there seems to be this weird thing that happens, where anything that happens there after is your responsibility/fault.

I've had this fixing bikes for people. for instance my neighbour sent his employee to me, as he knew I was a bit handy with stuff. she came to me as her brakes on her bike stopped working, she left it outside in the rain and they seized.

I freed it all off and gave it some oil in the right places, told her to look after it and keep it indoors. she didn't pay me anything for this.

month later this rusty heap comes back, she said they stopped working again - "I think it was something you did to them"


I wanted to strangle her.

I have lots of these stories from helping people out and they do this. one makes my blood boil and I nearly walloped the bloke over it.


also at work, some people in my office seem to think I am able to diagnose a fault on their car and fix it in the car park with no tools and within a few mins...

I don't do anything on other peoples cars, just my own,

Same as my normal job as an electrician, people's expect me to spend my whole weekend sorting out their houses for about 10 quid.

Everyone expects something for nothing.

ive no problem doing stuff for people, give them a price and thats it really.

I'm mostly self taught though my grandfather and father to some extent kickstarted tge interest, Ive worked in cycle shops and more recently cycle hire so i always have my hand on a spanner (or allen key!) i did work on hgv's for a while too, a mate got me work at the same place as him as they needed a hand and he knew i knew which end of a spanner was which, i learnt a lot about trucks quicky but i got back on the bikes after being laid off there.

since then though cars is just a hobby, an all consuming one maybe!

it actually tends to be my mate dan that finds the odd jobs for us to do, he's certainly more a people person than i am and also works for the local council!

i always offer to help someone do bits on their cars rather than actually do it for them incase something goes wrong, there are a couple of people i will do things for as they have or would do things for me if i need it. like so many other people on this forum i get near strangers asking for help when they want to save money and expect me to give up my time to save them money, even worse is the fact i own a large van which i use for earning money and the amount of people who want me to move things for pennies on my weekends is unreal, they then get offended if i point out they get time and a half for ovetime so thats what i expect if i do overtime.

Also reminds me of when I sold a car to a mate.

EML light was on when he collected it, I knew the fault and told him he could still take it and I'd fix it the day after, no issues.

Week later the light comes back on, for a different fault, it took a few days before I realised that he didn't know it was a generic light and was expecting me to fix the problem as to him it was "obviously" the same one.

Never sell a car to someone I know again.