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I've been burned! VENT
You know, I just have to say that being generous gets you bupkiss! People are so ignorant! I don't often dwell on stuff like this, but there are a few occassions where the burn is so bad that it makes you think twice about helping anyone else.
A few years ago (against my better judgement) we lent our truck to my BIL as he was moving his stuff out of his house after his divorce. It didn't feel right from the start but he was in a tough spot and promised that I could pick up the truck at his house the next day afterwork (they planned to move him during the day). Cool. I just asked that, b/c the truck was only a few months old, they make sure that things were wrapped in blankets, etc to avoid dents and scratches to the truck, and I didn't want them to put anything in the cab of the truck. They agree. I show up after work the next day and they have barely started moving things! Ugh. So I reluctantly agree to let them use it into the evening (uh, yeh, I am driving his new girlfriend's car yeesh) and he says he'll drop it off at our condo when they're done. MIDNIGHT he drops the truck off and the first words out of his mouth are, "Uh yeh, so I'll pay you for the damage". WTF?! We go out and look, the box is totally f-ed up! Scratches, gouges, dents. Ridiculous. The cab was full of dog hair cause that's where he put the cushions from his sofa. Yuck. We get an assessmentof the damage from a body shop...cost is over $1200! OMG! So we tell him and he says that, in his opinion, the damage is only about $200, so that's all he can give us. Whatev. We ended up buying a box liner for $500 and just covering the mess up, and it took 2 years to get the $200 from him! Since then we have refused all requests for our truck to move things, haul things, etc. Sorry, been burned.
A few months ago, my GF and her DH (my DH's cousn believe it or not) bought a new home that desperately needed to be painted. They were pretty bummed about not being able to afford a professonal painter and they had never painted in their lives. So, good ol' Mel stepped up. I brought over 2 power rollers (one of them was brand new in the box), brushes, everything they needed to paint their house...and then DH and I spent the ENTIRE weekend helping them paint! By Sunday I was so tired that I needed to get home, before I left I explained to my friend how to clean everything, including the power rollers, and even opened the instruction manual to the page that walked them through how to do it. Today I emailed her asking if I could pick up the paint supples on Friday. She then makes some comment about having to clean everything. WHAT?! She didn't clean anything! I basically told her that she had to replace it all. She destroyed over $800 worth of stuff!
No more. I am not helping people anymore. No one ever does this kind of stuff for me, never. It sucks. Worst part is that these folks never think they're in the wrong. They behave like I did something wrong. Ugh!
Re: I've been burned! VENT
DH always gets burned like that. He's always willing to help his friends fixing their cars, house repairs, whatever. He has these two "friends" that NEVER return the favour. You'd think he would learn his lesson with these guys but it's not in his nature to say no. And the one guy owes him money for car parts from over two years ago. He needs new friends.
OMG I would be totally pissed too. I can't believe how easy it is for people to not accept responsibility for their actions. If someone loans us something, we are sure to take extra care with it because it's not ours.
You should ask to borrow something of theirs and bring it back to them all messed up and just say "sorry - it was an accident, but I guess this makes it even".
Ugh, sure makes you think twice about helping people out eh?
Sorry you have to go through this (and that it's on such expensive items too!)