Posted by Andy Turner on 8/29/10

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A family member who needed money, offered to do my father's
genealogy for $15/hr. Motivated to help her financially (I
only have a very mild interest in genealogy), we agreed she
should do the report. I did not set a $ limit as I knew
average reports run about $1,000 and even if she spent 100
hours(which in my mind w/b extreme) on the report, it w/b
$1,500 as a high number. Plus she is my cousin and I
trusted her to not take advantage of my offer.
After several months she sent me an enormous box with 5
giant binders it, with her hours carefully itemized on a
handwritten invoice for $9,000.
Obviously in retrospect I should have set a limit. I feel
though this is unfair as I did not want or ask for
a 'massive' (her own words on the invoice) report, and
would be more than happy to send it all back to her. I
(rather generously) offered a compromise payment of $5k but
she still wants $9k.
Additionally this cousin's mother just said the cousin was
desperate for money, which I believe as I had recently
loaned her $2,400 of which she still owes $1,800.
When there is just a verbal agreement with no specific
paramenters given and she did 'deliver' her product, isn't
there still a concept of 'normal
fulfillment/expectations'? If a service goes overboard,
are customers expected to fully pay?
Thank you for your time.
Sadly it's hurting our family relations. I want to do the
right thing.

geneology report , 8/29/10, by Andy Turner.

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