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Best Results From Bartering Computer Services?
silicon not in the v writes "Last night I was over at some friends' house. They had cable modem with no firewall and tons of spyware, etc. on their system. They complained about all the popups and how bad it was that they were afraid to let their kids on the computer, so I set them up with ZoneAlarm, Ad Aware, and Firefox to get it cleaned up. In return, the husband, who is a chiropractor, gave my wife and I a free adjustment. What other interesting services or benefits have people been able to get by bartering IT/programming services?"
Better watch out for the IRS. You have to claim barter on your taxes!
In return for my services in fixing friends and family's PCs and printers I have recieved:
Beer
Free labor on replacement of my water heater.
Free server hosting
A kitchen faucet (a nice lifetime warranty Moen one, but not the kitchen sink to go with it)
Discounted closing on my home mortgage
Supper
More Beer
Lots more food, including gift certificates to nice restaurants
Duris MUD - The best pkill MUD. Ever.
I have one of those shirts, but oddly enough everytime i wear it, I actually get more requests from people to fix their computer problems..
I've had waitress's ask me computer questions while I was waiting for food to arrive because of that shirt. All it does is tip people off that you know about computers.
I have one, it was bought for me. Many people who know me, know I've no problem at all if people ask if I can help, nearly every one has offered me something in return. (A couple bucks, a 6 of beer, a pizza, some home-made cookies...).
But there are too many people out there who -DEMAND- that you help them, and not only have no intention of saying thanks, or even "Hey, what do I owe you?" but "You get paid for this? All you did was press keys."
You're right. I've had total strangers in the grocery store, read my shirt, and you can -see- the "Maybe he can help me/No wait, he looks like he'll tear my arms off..." conflict. The ones that I see, I -do- offer my services to...
I get paid quite well in my 9-5 to repair computers, servers, you name it. When I am home, the last thing I need is to hunt down nine hundred copies of "Gator" and so forth because they clicked "Yes" on every gaim window and so forth.
The chiropractor in the above, wouldn't crack and pop my back into place for free... He, like I, have bills to pay, food to eat, beer to aquire... For friends and family, always free. Total strangers owe me guinness and a promise to never, ever, click "Yes" on those "trust content from...." boxes.
God can 'save' you
Moderation: -1 Fairy tale
-Colin
People like people who like them. This shirt says that the world pisses me off, and you're part of that world. Therefore, i'm pissed off at idiots like you who can't tell that my time is too precious to spend fixing your broken PC.
If you're too busy to fix someone's PC just tell them so, nicely.
That's respecting yourself, AND others. (ok that sounds like an after school special but it's true).
Photos.