You borrow a laptop and it breaks...how do you handle it?

[mitchelt]

I friend asks me if he can borrow my laptop because his wife broke hers and she needs something to use.

3 months later they return it and say the DC plug in the laptop broke. When I tell them the laptop was fine they say it never worked from day one and he could not find my phone number to tell me. We are on Facebook, his wife is friends with mine and we live 5 minutes away.

I tell him I think he should fix it and that is what a responsible person and man would do. He refuses (his wife shoots her mouth off also) because he feels it could have broken if I used it also. I tell him I find his decision very dissapoinitng and that he has ended our friendship.

 

[nickbits]

Small claims court.

 

[nageov3t]

if, within a couple days, the laptop experienced an issue (eg: the plug broke), I would have let the owner know and ask if this was a known-issue.

after three months of use, I'd offer to pay for a replacement part... and how were they using a laptop for 3 months with a broken plug anyways?

a grey area might be parts that might have failed regardless of who was using it, like a hard drive or ram stick that could have already been failing when you loaned it out.

 

[FoBoT]

yeah, that is why you don't lend stuff. unless you don't really care what happens to it
sorry dude

just sneak over to his house one day while they are away and p00p in his mum's fishtank, that'll teach him a lesson he'll never forget

 

[dabuddha]

Small claims court.

This. The friendship is already over thanks to the asshat, sue the fucker.

 

[alent1234]

is it the cord or inside the laptop? i had a cord break on me one time and HP replaced it

 

[gsaldivar]

yeah, that is why you don't lend stuff. unless you don't really care what happens to itl

This.

Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

 

[mitchelt]

is it the cord or inside the laptop? i had a cord break on me one time and HP replaced it

It's the plug inside the laptop.

 

[TechBoyJK]

they waited 3 months?

 

[lxskllr]

I'd fix it, or get you another machine. Of course, I wouldn't borrow anything that wasn't already a junker. Just let it go. You know what kind of people they are now, and you can conduct future business accordingly.

 

[mitchelt]

I hear what you guys are saying about lending stuff out, it is a hard lesson to learn but I don't want to become a person that is not willing to help others and will not let this change me.

I found a local shop that will fix it for $80...not too bad. Silly he did not get this done for so little money.

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

I know it is silly to end a friendship over $80...but it is really the point of it. Your friend is a shitty friend if he can't pay to fix it... better off without him.

 

[highland145]

My bro borrowed a friend's F350 to pull his trailer to a race. Tranny died. My bro paid for the repairs. A bit over the top? Maybe but it was in his possession.

Your "friend" is a punk.

 

[CraKaJaX]

He couldn't find your number to tell you... but they live 5 minutes away? Sounds like a shitty friend to me.

 

[terry107]

He couldn't find your number to tell you... but they live 5 minutes away? Sounds like a shitty friend to me.

This. Even if it was an existing issue that happened to go out on my watch (e.g., ram stick), I would still offer to pay half.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Murder him. Copulate with his wife over his corpse.

 

[rsutoratosu]

windows ? pull the laptop drive, scan the event logs, see if it was in use for the past 3 month, if it was that means the plug isn't broken day 1, sue them

 

[mitchelt]

Thanks for the comments...some of them were very funny!

SaDiZTiKStyLeZ...I think you suggestion was the funniest "Murder him. Copulate with his wife over his corpse."

 

[mitchelt]

windows ? pull the laptop drive, scan the event logs, see if it was in use for the past 3 month, if it was that means the plug isn't broken day 1, sue them

It would be kind of funny to drag him down to court for $80-$100 and see his face when he got served.

 

[rsutoratosu]

or you can get an undelete program, scan the drive and see wtf they were doing and then sue them

 

[MichaelD]

I'd fix it, or get you another machine. Of course, I wouldn't borrow anything that wasn't already a junker. Just let it go. You know what kind of people they are now, and you can conduct future business accordingly.

This. For an $80 fix it's not worth fussing over. Get it fixed and keep your property at home from now on. Oh, and don't ever speak to that irresponsible, ill-mannered douchebag again.

 

[rivan]

Look at the bright side - all it cost you to find out your friend is a dbag is a broken laptop. It wasn't your car, or your life, or something really important.

 

[Joseph F]

I borked my friends motherboard while installing a cooler on it, and I got him a better one as a replacement. (Albeit, it was a full-ATX board, and he only had a Micro-ATX case. (He didn't mind, though, as it was a badass EVGA 750i SLI FTW, or some shit like that)

 

[clamum]

Sounds pretty shady of a friend. I wouldn't take him to court or anything, so I guess I'd be out $80, but I'd probably just ignore the "friend" from now on.

 

[werepossum]

I'd fix it, or get you another machine. Of course, I wouldn't borrow anything that wasn't already a junker. Just let it go. You know what kind of people they are now, and you can conduct future business accordingly.

This, exactly. When you borrow something you have the obligation to repair or replace it if it breaks while you are using it.

Look on the bright side; this is a fairly inexpensive lesson to learn what kind of people they are. They could have at least told you they will honor the debt but don't have the money at the moment. Instead, they took the offensive and were, well, offensive.