Is there anything more frustrating than when someone assumes they can get something for free?

That’s what happened in this story about a man looking to sell office furniture.

Here’s what happened.

If you don’t buy it, you can’t have it free

Last month I closed my physical office, and everyone works from home now. Part of closing it was selling off everything in it.

The vendor has an office down the hall, and I chatted up one of their sales managers, vendor guy, and he expressed that they’re planning to expand and might want our space.

Sounds like a great opportunity. It would also save a lot of headaches related to moving if it’s just down the hall!

While the space is a deal with the building, maybe we can trade the furniture for the bill (it’s custom for the space and was a lot more expensive than the bill), and he seemed pretty excited about the idea.

The caveat is that you need to communicate.

Two weeks before the lease was up, I contacted vendor guy and asked him how it was coming along, he said it was being handled by other folk in his company

I told him to communicate that I needed an answer by the end of that week.

It would be less of a hassle to give it away for free, but maybe the decision was made on principle.

I didn’t get an answer, so I completely disassembled all the furniture.

It took me maybe five days, a giant reverse Ikea for a whole office full of custom furniture, and piled it all up in the center of the office.

The day before the lease was up, I turned in the keys and paid the waste contractor’s invoice.

So the vendor didn’t follow through or even communicate and now the building guy thinks they should by default get the furniture for free?

A full week later, I get a very polite email from building guy, asking whether I had the screws and parts to put it back together!

No, I explained, I brought them all home along with the connecting plates and smaller metal parts, and threw them away there.

I reminded him that I said if vendor guy didn’t buy it, I had no intention of giving him anything for free.

Entitled people need to be put in their place.

A couple days after that, vendor guy calls me asking about what we left in the space!

I explained that he had quite a bit of nerve asking me for anything beyond their bill.

That will learn them!

Looks like the waste contractor ended up having to do the work I paid them for after all.

Let’s see what people in the comments had to say.

I don’t understand why anyone would agree to get Ikea furniture already built for $12K…

Oooh, this is devious. I like it.

Something tells me this person needs a hobby. And maybe a therapist.

I’m not sure I’d be satisfied enough with this gesture to justify taking it apart and never being able to sell it.

Valid point. If you’re going to be petty, at least be efficient about it!

What I’ve learned today is that pettiness and principle come first, regardless of the labor involved.

No argument.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.