Buying a TV is an investment, but sometimes, even the best electronics become obsolete and tricky to repair.
When the next door neighbor decided to resurrect a family’s old TV, despite several warnings regarding its condition, it lead to a dramatic showdown that resulted in a flurry of accusations and one family member questioning their goodwill.
Read on for the whole story.
AITA for “scamming” my neighbor?
My parents and I bought a 60ish inch smart TV about 9 to 10 years ago.
It was on sale so we thought we’d splurge on a nice tv for our family room.
Well, 4 months ago it wouldn’t turn on.
We called a family friend who owns a business fixing electronics. We asked him what may be the issue and if we could fix it.
He said we could probably fix it based on the issues we described, but the parts may be hard to find bc the tv is an older model.
He also shared it would be expensive and may not be a permanent fix.
In his professional opinion, we should recycle the tv and buy a new one.
That’s what we did.
Now for the inciting incident.
We put the TV on the street on the specified recycling day for large appliances. Our neighbor knocked on the door asked what was wrong with it and if he could have it.
We explained to him the problems and what the repair man said.
They took the tv and said they could get someone to fix it.
Weeks later they asked for the contact for our repair man. He fixed the TV.
About a week ago, the TV broke and he went back to the repairman.
It was “fixed” but broke again yesterday.
The neighbor had a few choice words for the family.
Today he came banging on our door pissed, claiming we scammed him.
He spent almost $700 repairing the tv twice and claimed it was our fault.
He started cursing me out.
I calmly replied that we had explained the situation with the tv and he took it at his own risk.
But he kept screaming.
He demanded I pay back the money and take the TV back bc my family “intentionally scammed him”.
But they weren’t going to take the abuse.
Here’s where I may the AH: After a few minutes of being cursed at, I was over it.
I called him an idiot for wasting $700 on a tv that was broken in the first place.
He took the risk of taking the tv in for repairs and spent the money knowing it wasn’t a guarantee that the tv would be 100% fixed.
I told him if he ever came over and yelled at me/called me racial slurs again, I’ll call the police and report him for harassment.
It turns out the family wasn’t the only person who warned their neighbor about the TV’s condition.
After the incident, I called the repairman who fixed the tv and he said he told our neighbor all the details he told us.
He urged my neighbor to not spend any money repairing the tv.
I was talking to my friends and they all have mixed reactions.
Some think the neighbor has a point.
One specifically said I’m an AH bc I should’ve told my neighbor “No, the tv is trash” and I shouldn’t have escalated the situation when he came over.
He thinks it’s a little “scammerish” that we didn’t urge him to not take the tv and sending him to a repairman who is a family friend.
Which leaves the previous TV owner questioning whether they made the right decision.
Now I feel kind of bad that he spent all that money and I’m having second thoughts about how I interacted with him.
I’m thinking maybe I should’ve told him no in the first place so he could’ve avoided wasting his money.
My parents feel one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
AITA?
It’s good to think critically about your actions sometimes, but the author had only good intentions.
What did redditors think?
It’s not the author’s fault their neighbor chose to sink $700 into the TV.
This redditor urges the author to stand their ground.
They shouldn’t tolerate this mistreatment much longer before escalating.
He received multiple warnings.
Next time, this author will think twice before giving something away to a neighbor.
It turns out one man’s trash really is just trash.
If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.