What is homey business, or why it's bad to treat friends differently than clients. 

I hear ya! In 2009 my ex-girlfriend's sister's computer crashed and she asked me to retrieve her files from the hard drive. She's a complete narcissist and basically didn't want to lose he photos. Not a big deal but by the time I'd removed the HDD, attached it to my computer and copied files to my own USB thumb drive (she didn't provide any media to copy them to), I had spent at the minimum a couple of hours. Because of that, and the fact that I was unemployed, had moved out of my own house back to my parent's place so I could rent my home out to pay my mortgage (recession) and I had provided the 8GB memory stick at the time...I charged her 40euros. Not a huge amount. She called me and was in shock at the price...I explained that I was giving her my own USB stick, etc...she questioned the price of the USB stick and said she would buy her own because she could get one cheaper ......I was so annoyed, I gave the computer back to my ex-gf and told her to tell her sister to keep her money and the USB drive...but never ask me to do anything again. My mistake was when I was working, I could afford to fix their computer for free. But just once I absolutely NEEDED to charge some money...I was totally broke....she questioned me like I was trying to trick her out of money...she had no problems paying into the nightclubs several night a weekend though!

This side of the pond we call it "mates rates". My advice for people helping friends/family/homies: charge either zero - zilch - nada - or full commercial rates. Do not do an in-between "mates-rates" as that can and does often end in a world of hurt and both parties believing they're getting screwed. If you do it 100% for free, you control the situation and can walk away (in my world, from the clusterfuck that the free website project has become).

I used to do tattoos (professional, licensed, in a shop). I knew a LOT of people, and would even have strangers bother me when I wasn't at work, about doing a tattoo for them. One guy even stopped by my house to ask about a tattoo, because he saw my car in the driveway. People always wanted to buddy up to me, go out drinking, hang out... until I quit. Those "friends" were nowhere to be found after that. Even six years later, people I haven't spoken to since then will randomly contact me about getting a tattoo, and when I say, "No, I don't do them anymore" I never hear from them again. People are shit.

Ugh, I wish a teenage me had watched this a decade ago. I was the "You know a lot about computers, right?" kid in the family/friend-group. We're not talking component level repair here, just I had a linux distro on the flashdrive and didn't brick computers from basic registry edits. So I'd fix whatever, I'd save shitty photos of their dogs, I'd help them pick out computer parts. Sometimes these adware infested machines would take 8 hours of picking through individual fucking files because they wouldn't consent to wiping the shitty thing and all I got nothing out of it, sometimes they'd give me 5 bucks and act like it was a favor. Not a problem I thought. I didn't do it for money, I just did it to give them a hand and fuck around with computers. But ten years later, ten FUCKING years later, I still have people complaining to me about their broken computer that I fixed in '07 and somehow insinuating that I'm obligated to come fix their core 2 duo machine because I did it once before. There are people who lost the tech lottery after following my buying advice (IE: DOA components or early failures), who instead of RMAing the bitch, blamed me and bought a new one. Fuck that. If they at least paid me, I wouldn't have felt taken advantage of.

I have been taking PCs apart and rebuilding them for the last 20 years. Often friends will ask me to fix their computers. I made a deal that I will do it free for close personal friends, but friends of friends I will charge an hourly rate. Because it is a hobby and not a business, I wasn't worried about it. But the librarian at a school I taught at insisted on paying me when it was a very easy job and I said not to worry. She said that she insisted on paying me because then she would feel free to come back next time her computer went wrong! I respected that. Another staff member used to give me a whole box of vegetables in return for work on her computer. Another close friend, after doing around 10 minutes showing him how to basically turn his new laptop on and get it running, gave me a $20 note (when I would have done it for free). Another time he bought a $35 set of headphones for use with my computer. But with friends of friends I would say that my rate is so much per hour, and they accepted that and paid me. That was convenient for them because going to a shop to get the same thing done would have cost them twice what I was charging them. But I had one school student who used to continually telephone me and expect me to draw rabbits out of a hat to solve his computer issues over the phone, and it was usually at evening meal time when I was tired, and wanting to relax and watch the TV news. After a while of him doing that, I told him that I would have to charge him an hourly rate for working on his computer, and I never heard from him again!

i just like listening to computer repair commentary in the background and all a sudden this dude repairing my soul

This might be your most valuable video of them all. Applies to all industries and affects the people that we hold dearest. Thanks.

instead of sleeping I'm watching you're videos... you are so right...

Absolutely agreed. Friends should support, not take advantage of, and homey business has the unfortunate effect of tempting both parties.

Louis you hit the nail on the head. I no longer do homey business for these reasons. Also it sucks hard when you give a relative a discount and they refer you someone you don't know who expects the same discount. This is why I quote no less than $30/hr for any services I provide, family or not. :P

In my time as a tech guy working with the general public, there are a few things I've learned. Most people in the public are very ignorant, and if anything at all doesn't work IT'S YOUR FAULT! I constantly had people accuse me of breaking their stuff just because I asked them to power cycle their phone or modem. The best was one guy who blamed me for breaking his garage door opener after power cycling his modem. He told me it was working before he started talking to me, and now it magically doesn't work. I couldn't argue with his logic on that one. haha

I basically had the best case scenario with this. Friend who I did some renovation for his store would always throw in some stuff (game repair store) that had just been sitting and was in good assumption that wasn't going to get sold anyway. Great guy and still support his business today

Data loss is always a bummer. I have a family I do General up keep for. They have some 3 terabytes of videos and photos from their three sons. They got one of the crypto viruses. And their mom's heart sank when I told her all of it was screwed. Lucky they had listened to get a Cloud automatic backup service through carbonite and recovered 99% of it. I always stress backing up things to anyone for these reasons.

It's that stupid "You were the last to touch it, so therefore it is your fault." =w=

Man did you nail it! You also mentioned something that people find difficult to learn... there is a difference between friends and acquaintances. A person who you have known for a short period of time may actually be a better friend than someone that you've known a lifetime. Perhaps when a mess walks in the door, the thing to do is tell them you are backed up with work but you will put your best man on it....and that customer should call your store in a few days for an update. That way you have a buffer in place for the inherent poop storm to come.

This person you knew and 12 of his friends disliked this video. Homey business, great words man!

Homey business has screwed me over more times than I can count and it wasn't even my business! Got involved in stuff we shouldn't have and I end up looking like an incompetent twit. I make a point of not asking nor accepting discounts from friends or family.

We pick and choose our friends. The unfortunate thing is that many times you don’t fully know your friends until you both go through enough experiences together. Whether it’s a simple transaction, helping them move, driving them to the airport, going on trips with them, having them watch your kids, house sitting, or simply lending them money, you’ll eventually get to see a side of your friends that you didn’t see before. Hopefully that side you see is one of a thoughtful, considerate, and understanding friend, but unfortunately, it’s quite common to see a side that doesn’t resonate well with the friendship. It happens and you learn. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Thanks Luis, right at this moment I have a "friend" waiting for a service at a discounted rate. I've been putting it off for days just because I know it's a favour and not for a regular customer. I'll get it done right, and right away and in the future treat everyone like a customer

i have been working with customer's for a long long time. homey business was always a part of it and all these things you said are so spot on. its great advice

I had a friend who asked me to film a video for a 100 dollars. I usually charge 300 dollars minimum. I wrote back and said I need to charge 400 for my time, and for the cost of the camera, and software, plus additional videos clips from my own personal library. Usually you need to explain to people why you charge what you charge. Even for your friends. My friend agreed to the price and they understood the value they were getting in return

I'm not a technician, just an amateur, and I've had that feeling about hard drives before. Been right every time, too.

This is absolutely necessary advice. Always look at business as business. Don't treat anyone differently because of who they are, who they know, or because they're your friend. Just be polite, professional, and fair to everyone. If you want to give someone a discount, give them that discount AFTER you've done the work. And if someone ASKS for a discount because they're your friend...... They aren't your friend

this is so true its the expectation of thought from people if you do someone a favour like bring them to work for a month then say you can't do it anymore your the worst in the world but if you never brought them to work and then one day you bring at random your amazing the best person ever with 3% the effort....the world and how it works its maddening

Great therapy session. This video is so true. Give friends a break & nine times out of ten they will try to take advantage of you from them on, always giving a pity story as to why you should basically just do it for free. Like you don't have bills, or need to eat or have a mortgage. Great advice overall in general. Right up front tell people you love/like the most that they will be treated like everyone else.

I had a few clients who had failed hard drives which contained their only copies of personal photos. It really sucks having to tell them all their files are most likely gone, and pro data recovery places estimate $400-500 with no guarantees it will work. (obv $0 if it doesnt) now I'm considering making a 3rd backup of personal photos and stuff. I owned dozens of internal and external drives and they last anywhere from 6 months to over 6 years. easily the least reliable PC component in my experience.

lost a good friend because of homey business, and that was the last time I treated someone not like a normal costumer. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, and indeed with the company's of my friends I always pay full price or even too much to show support in the hope that they will grow with no other incentive than to see them succeed. Keep it up louis!

This is a painful lesson to learn, but hopefully everyone learns it.

for services not at all or free the only ways to go with "friends" ... you are so right ... treat everyone the same, any discount, is a discount on respect

You’re a good person sir. Thank you so much for everything you have done in support of honesty and consumer rights. Thanks again.

*I have one friend that I'm doing free services for and that's the only person who I'm happy to do it for, but he is a car mechanic, do I have to say more? We often discuss the problems with buddy fees/favours.*

As a software developer I decided to do projects from relatives and friends awhile after I started. I used to give them a really good deal but they kept asking for more and more features while barely paying half the price that we agreed on. It's like when you are doing them a favor they think You are being stupid and they can take more from You

Exactly! The fastest way to have a friendship be wrecked by business is by looking at them as an easy job. The lines of what’s appropriate become very blurred. I did my cousins wedding 3 weeks ago, I still charged him but had I not, I would be feeling the temptation to slack off. My cousin has a certain expectation as to what I will deliver. Bring family will not be my excuse. So I gave him the best job I could and he tipped me.

As a creative guy, that whole very nicely worded bit about us creative people basically being fuck-ups had me wearing a shit-eating grin because it's just so true. I've lost most of my early recorded work as a musician because I didn't bother to back any of it up. I'm trying to laugh at it instead of being bummed out, and this helped a little bit.

Solid advice from experience. The friend zone situation with potential data loss or failure of hardware, etc. combined with the additional financial aspect can be a recipe for bad news. Just a very in depth and informative video regarding these situations. No homie business!

I watch the boring ads just to give something back... As always, great videos!

I agree, because what happens is that when you give one friend a good deal, they tell other friends, and usually they add that "Larry can get you a good deal". Death by associating hookups. Then even saying this, it is often true that you usually don't feel obligated to finish whatever it is for friends, when, with a stranger, you are pressured to finish the process faster. Very good insight. Now, I also feel it can backfire the other way, meaning you might finish the process faster with friends, but I guess it all depends on the situation.

You have no idea how useful this is for my business, I've lived the experience you are explaining time and time again just because of me being an idiot

I think next time someone asks me to repair something for them for cheap I'm just going to post this video to my Facebook

Very very sound advice, totally on point. I did this mistake A LOT, until i figured out that homey business needs to be avoided in any case

This video is five years old and probably no one will see this comment, but I'm lonely today so I will tell my little story because it feels like talking. My Dad opened his own mechanic shop a few years back. It's a very small operation. Just my dad really, sometimes a part-time guy will help, I pitch in and my brother does now too that he's older. We really struggled the first few years. One day my Dad closes the shop doors early and tells me to load up, we're going to go throw a chain on a car and bring it in. I'm pretty shocked. We are not a tow service. It says so clearly on our website and people still call us all the time for a tow. We don't have a tow truck, we're not set up for that, and if my Dad is the only one at the shop that day, him leaving to do a tow means the shop closes. But he tells me it's for this woman, Mrs. Wade, and now I get it. This lady is older than Moses. She taught my Dad in school, she taught my brother and I in school from elementary-high school, she gave us after-school music lessons for years. My Dad was such a punk to her when he was in school, but I know he has a soft spot for her. So we've known her for a while, and I think we all have a nice teacher who we remember fondly from our youth. So we get out to her house, and my mind is blown! This lady is like 85, she comes out the front door with HER MOM, who is still walking. The mom is over 100. They're old, their car is old af, and they have a fricken old horse in a paddock that looks like the grim reaper probably rides him to pick up passed souls. She tells us the horse is 45. FORTY-FIVE. She said, "I keep hoping the damn thing will die so I can quit feeding it." 😂😂😂 Anyway we bring the car in and fix it. My Dad adds up the bill and I see him just staring at it, agonizing over it. He keeps saying, "I know she can't pay that. I know she can't. I can't charge her that." Mind you, we're struggling ourselves. She never asked for special treatment or a discount. She obviously didn't use our website, so she didn't even know it was a favor to even tow it in. But my Dad knocked off over half the price. We lost money on the job, but he never told her that. She wouldn't have allowed it. When she paid, she says to me, "Oh and you helped too didn't you little Jess (I'm a grown woman lol) and she presses a silver dollar into my hand. 😭😭😭😭❤❤❤❤ The kicker is, a few weeks later we get this other guy in. He's driving probably the nicest car that has ever graced our concrete. He's wearing clothes and a watch that scream mOnEy. His bill is like $500. Not too bad for car repair, especially for him. But he's been an asshole from the get-go and now he really flips his shit. Yelling how the amount is ridiculous, he wants a discount because of this reason and that, we need to knock something off the total for him- on and on and on. My dad told him he would pay the full amount and if he didn't pay and left his car there another night, he would be charged a storage fee (which is not a real rule that we have, just something special for him 🙃). The kind of people you meet in customer service.... TLDR: Old lady who is poor never asks for a discount but we give her one. Rich asshole demands discount, gets told to fuck right off.

Worst experience I ever had as an IT professional was because my boss told his friend that we would fix his broken laptop. I was working at a var at the time and had a stack of tickets. Didn't realize his homie's ticket was supposed to go to the top of the stack... At least after he got done shouting at my I realized that I wanted to do more with my career than work for his outfit. Best job I ever quit.

0:36 _"i may cut u a deal"_ yep, thats mainly only thing wanted. for getting better in other areas, i choose s vender that provides those by default.

Got a mate who runs a business, another mate asks if I can get mates rates for them. A polite no saves one from being piggy-in-the-middle...

My boss has been a business owner for 50 plus years. He told me a long time ago that if the people are truly your friends then they will understand that what you are doing for them is how you make a living. If they care about you at all they will respect that and be glad to pay you. Especially knowing that they are getting treatment that is fair and honest and they are receiving quality work Well I wrote this at the beginning of the video. You ended up saying almost exactly the same thing towards the end.

Some real friends DO ask for discounts, because they simply don't get it. They don't get that "company money" is MY money. They don't understand that any discount would be direct GIFT out of my pocket. They think I "own" a business -- No, *I AM* the business.

When anyone comes into your business or calls your work line they are a customer. If a friend walks in or calls while you are working they are customers first, and friends second for that duration. Always have a special personal line for emergencies and other personal matters.

We were taken to do this homey business with dog cages but if my dad hadn’t owned a liquor store, it would’ve been a total catastrophe with selling every crate we were buying from his friend. And we bought bulk. Although It was good money to resell, we had to control the prices to be similar to the listings our partners had so there was an agreement, you’d be making over $10,000 a month but you funnel that majority back into buying more crates It can be dangerous to mess up with a customer who’s not satisfied, it can be dangerous to not own a actual store to sell these, it can be dangerous to assume you’re not paying tax . Especially dangerous that your inventory won’t be stolen, there is plenty room for expansion, there is a lot of work to be put into it. And a lot of communication calling on the phone between each other . Really need to trust the person who’s inviting you to do this homey business.

once again, amen brother! don't let people tell you shit. what you said resonates with my experiences so much it's scary. god bless you man. take care...

Yes. sudden bad drives are crazy. you know suddenly there's a cloud hanging above you growing darker and darker.

Sound advice. Don't do business with anyone you are not willing to take to court, if required.

I have friends at a local Video Game shop that have given me deals plenty of times. However, I have also steered many people to them, and sometimes, I have taken games, game boxes, instructions, etc that I don't need and given to them without asking anything in return. I have also made absolutely sure that no matter what, when I was getting a Deal, that they were at least still making a decent amount off the transaction.

Much wisdom.

An old guy I knew (not even well..just through an acquaintance) asked me to help him with something on his computer. (I'd done him a favor previously) I told him I'm pretty busy and don't really have time. I was working full time. He was persistent and I told him ok I'd help but I'm not sure when I'd have the time. I said it could be several weeks, but I'd call him when I'm available. He agreed to wait. Keep in mind, it was a house call - I wasn't even making him bring it to me. A few days pass by and he calls me really irate demanding to know when I was going to come because I 'promised' I'd do it. I told him 'You know what. I'm too busy. Bring it to a computer repair store. Good bye' Maybe there was some issues with his memory or whatever but I don't get into this feeling guilty over something like this.

Treating logical thinking friends better and faster than other clients, without affecting the rest of the business or personal or mental health...Rockz :)

I am guilty of this!! I have had my business for 4 months now and I always am discounting my friends. I find it difficult not to, I almost feel guilty if I don't!! However, you are right, real friends should want to see friends succeed. Good point I will definitely use in the future. Any suggestions or advice on what to use for live boot CD to run GNU DDRescue- Parted Magic/Ubuntu/etc.????

I worked for a friend of mine in his bodyshop for a short time. A mutual redheaded friend needed her tail light and bumper changed. It turned into a nightmare job from hell. She believed she got screwed because her Mazda dealership told her they could have done it cheaper and they have the new bumper and tailight in stock. My friend had spent about 90 minutes on the phone trying to source the parts from multiple nissan dealers and other parts vendors. He was told the car is too rare and nothing is available. He was able to source used parts so he called her and she said ok and authorised the installation of used parts. The car was a 2005 high Mazda 8 sports car. It was rusted out, messy as fuck inside, high mileage, and needed a complete restoration. We had to paint the bumper cover to match the car. It didn't match perfectly of course. She bitched and bitched over the minutest of issues after paying half of what a dealership would have charged her, and it was done in 4 days. She didn't pick it up for a month it sat. My friend ended up paying her off ($600) just to keep her happy enough to end the endless text messages he was getting and to promise not to ever bring that car back. Funny how some friends are only friends when they need something from you.

'' I tell em to go screw themselves KINDLY'' hahahah i laughed so hard

Gidday Louis. Just sitting / lying here in bed early Saturday morning exploring the rabbit hole, aka: RU-vid. Stumbled across your channel a week or so back, like it, subscribed. Just felt I had to say thanks for all the info / entertainment and occasional reality check. Real world Jordon Peterson, Canadian I know but ment complimentarily, chuckle. Anyway, sound advice, thanks for sharing. Have a great weekend & make a million, in that order;) Kind regards Sean

Friends/family should realize a discount from a business owner is essentially giving money out of their own pocket for doing their job. Most people don't think about it, because they don't own a business, so a discount to them is taking money from "the man" (the company they work for). Imagine going to your friend's place of business, having them do a job for you, and then asking them to give you $10 from their wallet so that the service is cheaper. That is the difference between a business owner and an employee. Discount from your pay vs discount from your company's profits.

the other thing on homie-business is if they are paying less than market price then they don't expect the industry standards on time ... like I used to have a basic computer maintenance/repair business (bread & butter was virus removal and driver config), it was purely evenings (5pm to 8pm and saturdays from 11:30am - 4pm) but when I would cut a discount for buddies i'd get phone calls at my regular job about their work on calls at stupid o'clock at night on a sunday when I got to catch a 7am bus to be at work for 9am... like no, i have clear business hours - contact me in them, and wasn't giving stupidly low ball pricing (no more than 15% discount, but it's lower than professional rates so they thought I woudn't be professional with them ... little did they know that calling me in the working day was interrupting me at my job [teaching basic it or doing it tech work for a non-profit] they got super-pissed because i'd just switch my phone off)

I ran into a similar problem, only the drive wasn't dead. They had asked me to get their personal photos off it; all they told me was that it had stopped working. I scan the drive, find several remnants of partitions, but one major problem. They had ran some restore CD that had completely imaged over all of their original data.

A customer is your best friend.

I think it's case-by-case. People have helped me when I needed discounts so I did the same for them and the same has happened in reverse. Yes, service usually takes longer but it also will strengthen the friendship - unless it harms your friendship, but you shouldn't value a friendship too much that can be ruined by some hypothetical honest mistake in gratis service anyway

Do something for cheap or free and you have set your own worth in the mind of the recipient. There is no way to make someone more resentful than to perform your occupational services for free.

Thanks for the real talk man. Great video! I appriciate it.

This is an old video and no one will probably never read this, but I write it anyway to get it off my chest. I've just gone through the exactly what you discus here. I have worked freelance software developer since 2003 and until approximately ten years ago 90% of the assignments were web development. Then it was still very common to be a full-stack web developer. For about three years ago I got a call from an old friend who asked if I could set up a website for her. I was literally shocked when she told me what her budget was, but she has been a good friend and she was there for me a period in my life when life was tough, so even though her budget was less than 10% of what I normally charged for a website like that, I said yes. To make a long story short I ended up doing a lot of work for free because I used an open source CMS and she had never time to sit down with me to learn how to use the CMS, so I ended up publish everything for her as well. I didn't even bother to suggest maintenance plan to keep the CMS updated. I just considered it as a payback for an old friend and I kept the CMS updated and published all all the content over a three years period, without charging a dime. It became really ugly and ended up that I told her that our friendship was over. I even blocked her from all social media which is something I have only done a couple of times since I joined Facebook back in 2007. I experienced a side of her that I couldn't imagine she had. Everything I said she flipped and turned used it against me. As a self employed you are very aware of that a happy customer is the best advertisement you can get so you will always go a long way to make sure the customer is happy. For her I went even further. I will never do a payed job for a friend again. I rather do it for free.

I used to work for a guy that treated people he knew, not necessarily a" friend", like they were the only people on earth (or in the store)... We had a setup of first-in, first-out rule, except his "friends" who we had to drop EVERYTHING were doing and fix theirs first and NOW. We kinda had it out one day, and I told him that if he closed down or sold, the only thing they his "friends" will ask is "WHERE am I supposed to go now?'... He sold a few months later, and I just happened to be standing nearby when one of his "friends" asked him where he was supposed to take his PC now? I laughed and got a better job that day... DON'T do "favours" for friends when in business, it WILL bite you in the azz every time.

I've messed up a once in a lifetime family reunion photo... Thanks to the old technology of that camera the filesystem was clunky, the download software was shit, the SD card was low capacity... I had to manually selectt all the files to download with a tick in the box, but scrolling was a nightmare in that hit, so I ended up being skipping the most important picture... yeah...

I work for a company that installs water meters and I have been called by customers saying my guy changed the meter and now her whole family plus her dogs are having head aches because of the signal it emits. I explained to her that the meter before also emited a signal And her WiFi antenna produces 100x more of a signal than her water meter. Also had a customer say a water meter change damaged the refrigerator. And another time a customer called and said her water was brown since the change......the water was brown because of a main break. But she insisted it was the meter.

In matters of business, there’s only one friend. Money. Only legal tender.

Wow! That is an INGRATE to the next level! Louis, you could have earned more money by servicing the gadgets of regular paying customers.

The term is mates rates.

Ok now you're coming to real friends. Those get what they want, but they exchange. If there is a dispute, we can. We do. Because real friends sometimes touch each other limits really rough and fighting for defending these limits makes part of a tight relationship. But then, true friends forgive and understand. And remain friends, even better. See, sometimes friends fight intentionally for nothing because fighting is a relief. And if it is a fight for something, then it is for growth. Each of us need that!

I regret that I have only one thumb up to give.

This is GOLD. 👍🏽

I agree with you Louis, but it really is depend on the situation, being able to be flexible would be best imho

"This is the lesson that my employees, if they ever watch this video, are gonna kick me in the balls for posting, because they know I do it all the time" lmao

Not having some kind of cloud backup nowadays seems completely nuts...at least on phones. Sprint gives me unlimited online storage and it's almost a burden because every stupid little screenshot i take zhwoops right onto their backup server and cleaning it up would take fuckin hours. So now I'm using samsung backup as well but only for the important picture galleries on my phone.

I have lost tens of thousands in construction business from being a good friend to people I grew up with. All my fault, I wish I found this video 15 years ago.

I knew a guy who was a photographer and shot a friend's wedding FOR FREE. But then he kept prioritising editing and processing the photos. TWO YEARS later he still hadn't gotten around finishing the photos. Yeah nah. Not a good look, and positive results did NOT flow out of this situation for anyone involved

Or when you look at an iPhone and your gut tells you this thing is a dog and I don't want to touch it but you're stupid and do it anyway. Sure enough... It's dead Jim and somehow you're blamed. It's gotta be a 6th sense because those suckers bet devices sit on the intake que for hours while everyone tires to pretend they don't see it.

Actualy good advice here.

Some people also simply have to pin blame on another living person, whether it was electronics failing due to age, or for their own mishandling of it.

"Favor" should never be mixed with "business"

Why did Louis' comments round about 10:10 remind me of the "Dead Parrot" sketch from Monty Python?

Aside from business practices, I find it unusual how people (even those who are tech-conscious) neglect backing up their data, on even an OCCASIONAL basis! Your "homie" has two drives, one of them is supposed to be a backup, and they both are blown?! How does stuff like this happen? If I even get the paranoid suspicion that my data is in danger I would perform a backup of my most current files at the very least!

8:35 you meant ASD=Apple Service Diagnostic?

I still do homey business. Hard for me to not do it. :(

Exact reason why i stopped working on friends and families computers. I look like a prick for saying no but in the long run I'd rather that than what could potentially happen.

His drive may have continued to work in his machine, had it not been connected to yours, so it could *appear* as if it was your fault. I've had that happen... mount a sata drive in one caddy and it reads, but mount it in another and it asks me to format it. It's as if there's something wrong with the controller, where it can understand partitions it has written to, but they won't be read properly by other machines.

You sound so fucking right man !

friends ,family and money do not mix

the overhanging white cable clutters the background to the point of being a serious distraction

my friends are good bout this, when i was a script kiddy, i did the work for free no prob, now that i do it as a job, they pay, i give them the friend rate of whatever they can afford, i never do the work for free, theyve never not paid. anyone outside of my parents and my 2 friends get full price

I had done this very mistake... Just because they where friends and family.

hahaha Louis The Drive Killer .. here is my back-up drive.. this is dead too hahahahaha

Man you are so right.

so if it is your grandma or your mom is it different?

i would be worried if the person repairing my phone or laptop took a backup o f my device, unless he deletes it afterwards , which lets face it would jsut eventually take too much time. but yea, i'd be alright with my harddrive die, i would be not ok if he then afterwards said 'but i took a backup of it'