You can't pick your relatives

[sofadoc]

We've all got a story about doing work for friends and relatives (and what a bad idea it is).
Today my brother in-law, who works for a Police dept. in a nearby town, asked me to make cushions for their SWAT team van.
He wanted FOUR 4' X 2' X 4" seat cushions and FOUR 4' X 2' X 3" back cushions in black vinyl with a dense foam.
He's helped me out before, so I threw out a "token" amount of $200, just to cover some of my expenses.
He muttered that he thought I would've at least given him a tiny discount. He said that he had really "gone out on a limb" to get his superiors to throw the work my way. And now he's going to look bad when he brings that price back to them.

I told him that I would be happy to donate them to the Police dept. as a "family favor".
He said "Oh no! I don't want you to do that. I want you to make a little money on the job".

The nicest thing I can say about my brother in-law......is that he has a great sister.

[MinUph]

LOL

[JuneC]

$200 would just maybe cover the cost of your materials!  Barely.  He really thinks that $25 a cushion is full retail?  Wow. ???

June

[Mojo]

One of life's injustices is not being able to choose your own relatives. :)

Chris

[kodydog]

Let me guess, its a rush job.

Why are my relatives so ignorant and I'm so incredibly smart?  :D

[byhammerandhand]

You probably sucked up all the smarts.

I'm wondering if the best way to do this is to write up a full-price estimate, then indicate "friends and family discount."

Some people say either charge full price or do it for free.

Let me guess, its a rush job.

Why are my relatives so ignorant and I'm so incredibly smart?  :D

[gene]

Go to your local drug dealer. Tell him that you are making cushions for the police swat team's van.

Tell him you want to put drugs inside the cushions to drive the drug sniffing dogs crazy. I bet you will get a really BIG discount from your local drug dealer. And he's probably not even your brother-in-law.

(insert irritating smiley face here)

gene

[sofadoc]

Why are my relatives so ignorant and I'm so incredibly smart?

You would think that your friends and relatives would at least have a slightly better concept of the value of your work than the general public. But NO-O-O-O-O-O!

Even if you do the job for free, they're gonna think you cut some corners somewhere.

I think the best course of action is to make up any excuse (lie) necessary to avoid working for relatives.

[timtheboatguy]

The Army doesn't use cushions in tha back of their trucks, tell them swat boys to toughen up!  8)

[byhammerandhand]

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
― George Carlin

Let me guess, its a rush job.

Why are my relatives so ignorant and I'm so incredibly smart?  :D

[Mojo]

The Army doesn't use cushions in tha back of their trucks, tell them swat boys to toughen up!  8)

Hell the Marines don't even have trucks. They make you walk or run to your destination.:)

Chris

[Mike]

Hell i used to walk 4 miles to sholl uphill ;) in the snow

[timtheboatguy]

Hell i used to walk 4 miles to sholl uphill ;) in the snow

And that was after milking the cows, feeding the chickens and splitting fire wood!

[mike802]

Your brother in law sounds like the majority of my customers.  What I do is make out a full retail estimate and remove a standard family discount, so they can see just what they are getting.  My family discount is 30%,  I have it in quick books so all I have to do is install it after the sub total, that way no one can complain that they didn't get as good a discount as someone else.

[Grebo]

My OH has no belief in what I do, it's ok to do it for paying customers but when it's stuff for us, it's always check this first, do that, no don't do it leave it  >:(
I think he was genuinely surprised when I repaired our "brand new" pop up trailer tent , which he ripped  ::) so well that you couldn't see the repair nor did it leak a drop even in torrential rain last year.

I think I should have given him the bill.

:-X

Suzi