So I have a new home and I’m getting rid of some stuff I don’t need anymore. One item is (or was) a perfectly good 27" TV that I offered around my office, free for the taking on the condition that whoever wanted it had to haul it out themselves and it had to be taken by this weekend, to make room for some new furniture that I’m waiting to pick up (as soon as I have room to put it somewhere). It’s fairly hefty and clumsy, I’d guess somewhere in the 80-100 pound neighborhood.
One of my co-workers accepts and comes by with her 12 year old son to pick it up tonight. I actually backed off on my hauling demand and offered to help them carry it to their car, but she insisted they could handle it.
5 seconds later it was all over. Within monents she’s shouting her son’s name like he was doing something wrong, when all he did was pick up his side and hold it. She, however, lost her grip completely, and tried to swing the TV back over to put it down on the end table they picked it up from. The end table was in a corner – she bashed the TV into two walls, putting deep blacked-streaked gouges in both, then dropped one side so the TV fell directly onto its screen. The tube shattered, scattering glass all over my bedroom and bed. And the end table is ruined because it’s all scratched up from the tube.
And she yelled at her son like it was all his fault. I stopped that. “I saw what happened. He didn’t do anything wrong at all. YOU fucked up”. Then I apologized to the kid for my language.
The black streaks won’t clean off, and she scrubbed so hard trying that she took off more paint. The walls are slightly textured and she scrubbed the streaked areas so hard she scrubbed off the texture. The gouges need to be spackled and sanded, and the whole room needs to be repainted. I’m not quite sure how painting over the texture will work – it’s kind of a pebbly paint look – and I’m somewhat worried that the whole room will need to be sanded down before it’s repainted.
I’ve added the end table to my “get rid of” list, and I hope I don’t slash open any arteries tossing and turning in my sleep tonight.
Remind me not to do any more favors for people.
On the brighter side, my co-worker feels absolutely shitty about it. Which she should, and I’m going to try and have her buy me a new end table.
The CRT is the capacitor in itself. Once damaged to the point of implosion, it’s just a mess of glass and phosphor. Electrical hazard is negated, other than remaining components on the chassis.
Accidents happen, but those who cause 'em still offer to make good on the damage. My next-door neighbor borrowed my brand new mower–and hit a steel utility thingy that was buried in the grass. It was purely accidental but it still did a number on the mower. And yes, she offered to the point of demanding to pay for the repairs. I wouldn’t accept it because she’s on a fixed income, not to mention I think the world of her.
It would be shitty to think you were getting a new (used) TV and then screw up and break it…
But it would also be shitty to try to clean out your house like a nice guy, giving your extra stuff away, only to get a boatload of cleanup and repairs.
I think a new end table is reasonable. Now if he were asking for a new TV table…
It really can’t be replaced. It was the only piece of furniture I have from my parent’s house - my dad died about 3 years ago and my mom about 8 years before that. My sister has a matching table and I had been thinking about giving it to her so she’s have a matched pair.
It might be salvageable if the top was sanded down and the whole thing repainted/restained. Maybe my sister would want to do that, which probably would mean repainting/restaiining the other one to keep them a match. I don’t have the space in my little condo to take on a project like that, nor the inclination, but she has a full basement with a worksop put in by the previous owner.
So I suppose there is not much point to charging her for a replacement table, as I don’t know what the market value of a 40 year old end table would be. I’m just extra pissed-off about the whole thing.
On the plus side I haven’t picked up any glass slivers as far as I can tell. But I’m not walking barefoot on the carpeting yet. I’ll need to run a vaccuum over it another time or two before I’m ready to try that.
It’s the yelling at her son when she was the one who fucked up that bothers me. Her unreasonableness was only Boyo’s problem for a little while, but this poor kid has to live with her all the time.
Sorry about your end table, Boyo. And your walls, and your bed and carpet. No one was hurt, I take it?