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My cousin's constant calls for unpaid appliance fixes

She rings me up every few weeks with something like a dryer that won't heat... I've walked her through simple checks, but she just doesn't bother. It's starting to really wear on me, you know? How do you handle kin who think your trade skills come for no cost? I don't want to be mean, but I can't keep doing this...
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3 Comments
nancy_reed
nancy_reed26d ago
Watched my buddy finally snap when his uncle asked him to rewire a whole garage for free. He just said "My rate is sixty an hour, family discount is fifty" and handed over a card. The calls stopped pretty much that day.
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noahjenkins
My cousin's a plumber and he told me his family discount is just 10% off. He said it cut the "emergency" calls from relatives by like 80% in a month. People stop asking when they see a real number attached to the work.
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sarahmorgan
Charge for your family if you want, but that feels cold to me. My brother's an electrician and he helps me out, then I fix his car. We just trade favors like normal people. Guess some families work differently.
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