This takes me back. Way back in like 2004-2006 or so I was working a computer repair desk at a big retailer and did a ton of side business. The side business honestly paid more than my job did.
I would travel around NYC fixing things for mostly clueless people. People attempting to screw me on payment was common. The frequent move was to offer drugs or sex in lieu of payment after the work was done. The only sane response to this though was to tell them to just pay what they could afford and then get out of there as fast as possible.
I had a few rich and famous clients. It was a fun time, but I got tired of taking long, extended train rides after a full day of work only to do more work and have a long train ride home.
Indeed. A friend of mine did work in a small town hard-hit by the changing economy, and multiple times had offers of sex (more commonly oral sex) in lieu of payment (or partial payment). If you're not picky then some of these people have a lot of experience and are good at what they do. But if toothless/meth-toothed people, usually not recently showered, and sometimes with a fair amount of extra weight is something that will be a problem for you, then it's not going to be as appealing as it initially sounds. On the (maybe) plus side they won't make you wear a condom. On the negative side, they didn't make anybody else either...
Much better (IMHO) to put in the time and effort to cultivate a loving long-term relationship with a good partner.
Uhm if you're fixing PCs as I did you don't end up working for meth-toothed people :P
Maybe not the most attractive people no, but regular middle-class people at the very least. Especially when you were fixing macs which were even more premium priced here in Europe back then than they are now. I fixed all sorts of stuff but I would not have marginalised clients.
I guess it's also why I didn't get such offers :P I didn't charge a lot so people could pay my fees easily.
In fact I think sensitivity to paying money (or receiving financial incentives) is more of a US thing. Only last month I spoke to a fairly rich American guy because a friend asked me about a problem he was having with his WiFi. I gave him some advice and he offered me money to come to his place and sort it out myself. I said no, because I already have a day job (enterprise architect) and I just don't want the responsibility. Once I start taking money it comes with expectations to show up if something goes wrong. So I help friends for free but that's it (and he was only a friend of a friend). I don't mind giving some advice but actually going there and taking care of his stuff is a bridge too far. I have zero entrepreneurial spirit anyway, I'm a typical "salaried employee" and happy with that.
The guy was a bit offended, he said that in the US everyone would be eager to do some work for money on the side and here he's always having issues getting IT help. His way of finding such help is apparently talking to friends and offering them money then. It surprised me a bit. I don't think many people here would be too eager to do that.
Comment OP here. Most of the people who were my clients were artist types who moved to the public transportation fringes of Brooklyn where rent was the cheapest (at that time). They were barely skating by and usually had pretty roachy apartments.
A large percentage of these folks were very into drug use... in a way that it hindered achieving the goals that they moved to NY to accomplish.
I took on these clients specifically because my store was going to fleece them and not fix their problems whereas I could and reasonably quickly. As broke creatives with broken computers their lives were likely to spiral into a dark place otherwise.
I dealt with way more desperate situations than middle-class people with regular computer problems. This was the "I pirated Adobe Creative Suite and have a deadline but the virus has taken over my computer" era.
Ahh I see. When I was young, Holland was in a very different place. Much less income equality so almost everyone was middle class and pretty respectable.
> he offered me money to come to his place and sort it out myself
This reminds me of a personal experience I had.
Many years ago I was a graduate student at a US university (I'm not from the US).
There's this study room that I used to study from. There was this much older (??) woman who sometimes studied from there. One day out of the blue she asked me if I was good with statistics. I was, and clarified a couple of quick questions that she had.
Then she started trying to set up an appointment with me for a specific day, for two hours, and asked me how much she would have to pay me to teach her statistics.
Wtf?! I was so taken aback I didn't even know what to say. I declined, and just left.
It was weird to me for several reasons: this was the first time somebody straight up offered me money to teach them something. The way she asked me was uncomfortably formal, and if my statistics tutoring doesn't satisfy her then who knows she might sue me. And I'm not even sure if it would have been legal for me to accept money in exchange for this ad hoc service, as I'm not a US citizen.
In my home country (relatively big country in south Asia), if a fellow student has difficulties with certain topics, people (well, friends or friend of a friend) who have a better idea with the subject try to help them out, for free. There is not even a question, or even a thought about monetary reward, from any of the parties involved.
Maybe that's why there's a lot of entrepreneurship in America? If so, then this particular exchange just felt so odd.
> he said that in the US everyone would be eager to do some work for money on the side and here he's always having issues getting IT help
Well that’s just bollocks. Perhaps young teenagers are typically okay with earning a bit or forced by their parents to help but it certainly is not the cultural norm that grown ass salaried professionals jump at the chance to earn $50 sorting their neighbors WiFi out.
He just thought he’d found another sucker and was annoyed when you turned out to have a backbone, because you are absolutely right this guy would become what is often called in the trades a ‘sinsya’.
‘Sinsya’ fixed my printer my WiFi doesn’t work as well. Did you break it?
‘Sinsya’ fixed my WiFi my washing machine doesn’t do the hot cycle properly. You were messing with the ‘wires’ weren’t you?
Etc etc fucking etc.
If he called a professional company to help he’d have no issues ‘here’ but he’d also have to pay the going rate.
What he means is back home he has a network large enough to exploit and doesn’t have to worry about learning how to do it or pay a professional.
> A friend of mine did work in a small town hard-hit by the changing economy, and multiple times had offers of sex (more commonly oral sex) in lieu of payment (or partial payment).
There was a thing that made the news maybe ten years ago in Washington, maybe a little more. Woman offering "a year of oral sex" for a truck. "No funny stuff, no relationship, nothing else. You give me the truck, we meet once a day, I give you oral. On day 365 I give you oral and you give me the title."
I would travel around NYC fixing things for mostly clueless people. People attempting to screw me on payment was common. The frequent move was to offer drugs or sex in lieu of payment after the work was done. The only sane response to this though was to tell them to just pay what they could afford and then get out of there as fast as possible.
I had a few rich and famous clients. It was a fun time, but I got tired of taking long, extended train rides after a full day of work only to do more work and have a long train ride home.