Friends generous offer to make invites not so generour
My friend suggested she made my wedding invitations to help me save some money. I was planning on buying them from Tesco’s for about £35 so said I would love her to make them to save me even more money. I bought all the materials, and she made 50 invites. She then rang me and said she had loads of cards and things left over, and did I want thank you cards. I said yes. I asked her loads of times to give me an idea of the cost, but she kept shrugging the question off. She then announced she was going to Australia for two years and I realised she might have lots of planning to do for that trip, so suggested, if she did not have time to make them, I could find the invitations somewhere else, however she would not hear of it. Once she had made all the cards, she said she could make £2.80 each at a craft fare, but as I am a friend, she will charge me £150 for the lot. I was shocked, as I had bought all the materials and felt like I was buying my own products back. She was, at that point, short of money so I believe she though she could make money off me. I could not say anything at the time as this conversation took place on New Years Eve, and it was inappropriate. The next thing I knew, she was heading to Australia earlier than planned, and the opportunity to discuss payment again did not come up. We had planned that I pay her in about July 2008, and so I acted like a coward and thought I could ignore the issue until about then, however she then asked for the money early. I could not afford it, and explained this to her, so she arranged to borrow the money off her mum – clearly if I had known she was doing this I would have stopped her, but the plan was made without my involvement. This happened in January, and last week she contacted me asking for the money. I then informed her that I felt £150 was too high for 100 cards. She is now very angry told me that it took her nearly a week to make all the cards, and that £150 is not too much to ask for a weeks work. The cards were not even finished; they were blank inside so I had to write in them all. I have spent time helping her in the past, am I wrong to think it is unfair to charge your friends for your time? I am very hurt, as I do not think she remembers she was doing me a favour. Am I wrong? What should I do? I do not want to lose a friendship, but I do not know whether this is the sort of person, I want to remain friends with. Help!
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