When Free is Abused

Gimmie, Gimmie..

[Edge]

I just read an editorial within the Atlanta Constitution Journal about how the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is spending $560,000 a year giving TV and others free medical guidance. It seems that when a soap opera or other show wants information, they can call the CDC and a medical professional will ensure their medical facts are straight. I believe everybody knows that the CDC is supported by taxpayer’s money.

Politics aside, who should pay for this? You, me? What about the folks whom are making money from this service? the “for profit” TV shows? Now this hits a cord with me because I have an engineering site with about 10,000 pages of, well free engineering data. I get phone calls all the time from somebody whom wants me to guide them in an engineering or technical problem. When I first started my website, I was flattered and would help if could, however after seven years I simply do not have the time, money or patience to stop what I am doing and help a usually ungrateful caller. I even have a note on my contact page telling folks that they should visit my forum for technical questions and call for help.

How many others have a similar challenge with your visitors? Do you stop what you are doing and spend minutes, hours or maybe days helping somebody for free?

Additionally, I am amazed at how rude an individual can be when I don’t help. It seems that many feel that a personal and free technical consultation is part of the web service.

[Wlauzon]

We have been seeing more and more of that lately.

We are in the solar industry, which is 'hot' right now, and has attracted a lot of unqualified people.

One thing we did first was to take our 800 support number off of public display. That did not really slow it down much but at least we are not paying for the calls.

But at least we have the possibility of turning them into a customer, in your case not sure it does even that.

[stapel]

Edge said: I get phone calls all the time from somebody whom wants me to [help them for free].... I simply do not have the time....Additionally, I am amazed at how rude [these people are....]

I run an educational site, so naturally students e-mail me their homework on a fairly regular basis. I've even had people say stuff like "You need to show all the work, or I won't get full credit, and be sure to hurry, because my schoolbus is due in half an hour!"

I had never answer this sort of message in a manner rewarding to the jerks -- erm, correspondents. And I had frequently received hostile attacks in reply.

So I created a tutoring policy page. On this page, I outlined my hourly fees, required that people pre-pay, and stated my "no answers will be given" (anti-cheating) rules. Then, on my contact page, I noted that people using the form to submit homework questions would be assumed to be requesting my tutoring services, and I added a link leading to my tutoring policy.

This policy and statement cut the flow of the "do my homework NOW" form submissions to almost nothing. The few submissions I still receive are now greeted with a cheery e-mail reply, thanking the correspondent for "choosing tutoring through this site", directing the correspondent to the policy/payment page, stating that payment must be submitted and progress on the homework must be shown before help will be provided, and closing with a happy statement that "I look forward to working with you!"

They almost never reply to that.

You could try something similar, I suppose, with an "engineering consultation policy" page. Give your hourly rate, demand pre-payment for some set amount of time (say, five hours' work), and make clear that you are not liable for any damages, etc, since you are not present in the location of the engineering problem.

If (when) people demand help, direct them to this page, and watch them disappear. *wink*

Eliz.