My 17 Year Old Daughter's Car Broke Down

Greetings Group,

I have a plea for help and have posted this at another forum.

What a mess it was! My 17 year old college daughter was stranded in the middle of nowhere, late at night, miles from home and not a phone within 5 miles.

When she finally did call home she was exhausted, crying and scared to death.

"Dad, my car started smoking and then it locked up and I almost got hit by a BIG truck. My car won't start, I've got class tomorrow and I have to go to work the next day. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?"

After calming her down, and finding out where she was broke down, I made the long drive north.

It was very dark when I got there and quite desolet. Kind of scary. The first thing I did when I got there, was give my daughter the biggest hug she ever got. Then I went to looking under the hood.

After looking under the hood with my mini mag light, there was fluid everywhere. So I knew right then, that her car could not be fixed by me, but needed to go to a mechanic's $$$hop.

Closing the hood, I got out the tow strap and began the long tow home. TWO HOURS later, we pull into the driveway.

The next morning I got back under the hood to take a closer look. I still could not determine what needed to be repaired. All I knew was that my daughter's repair bill was going to be high.

I made some calls to local mechanics I know personally. I wished I hadn't. "Woody, you are looking at close to $600.

Being that my daughter goes to college twice a week and works part time 4 days a week, her vehicle being broke down has brought her to the point of quitting.

Do you remember those days?

I've told her that this problem can and will be solved and not to give up. I told her I would go online and sell items on ebay or craigslist to try and help her out.

After much brain storming and trying to figure out what I could sell, I realized that I could offer my home study course to help offset my daughter's car repair bill.

So I appeal to the Seeds of Wisdom group for help. If you would like to help a 17 year old college kid, who works part time to pay her tutition, books, car insurance and car payment, get her transportation up and running, so she can keep going to school and working, I will exchange your $20 donation for a copy of my home study course.

Just go to Paypal and send the $20 to [email protected] and mark it as "Donation For Car Repair".

When we receive an email from Paypal, I will email you later in the day with the home study course attached in a pdf formatted file.

Thanks for all your help.
Woody Quiñones

Woody, $600 is not that large of an amount, why not just pay her bill to repair car and set her up on a payment plan to pay you back?

[Ankesh]

Why? Whats the purpose?

It maybe that you just tried a tactic some marketers use - give any Reason to discount a product and sell it. But the reason was just not good enough.

There were some instant red flags raised that made your reason not powerful enough.

Giving a discount on your product to help your daughter out:

1. de-values your product (especially when just recently you asked for $50 to just review it) (also what about people who paid you $200 to buy the course?)

2. doesn't teach your daughter anything at all (because it is your product and you are doing all the work)

3. You can yourself give the money to your daughter - why ask 30 people to pay $20?

These are all the objections that came to my mind.

--

Ok I think your post was a tactic. But I'm not 100% sure now that I read your post again. (The objections did come to my mind - whether it was a tactic or not...)

Is it a tactic or a real plea for help?

I just cringed when I read that.

It's obvious that this wasn't about a "lesson" for Woody's daughter.

I'm sure he thought long and hard about posting this but sometimes people take desperate measures when they don't have cash available and need it badly as I'm sure the case is here.

Who of us hasn't been there?

Still, I think it was the wrong approach, especially after doing everyone a "favor" a couple weeks ago by offering his course for $50.

Some people here that bought it are going to be pissed! Just as I'm sure the people who spent $200 were pissed when it was offered for $50 which I assumed was just another "I need some cash badly" attempt.

I'm not trying to be hard on Woody here, but if I were him, I'd be asking the powers that be to remove this post to avoid future embarrasment like on http://www.friendsinbusiness.com/boa.../120242#120242

Just some advice for Woody....

If a $600 situation puts your life in a bind, it might be time to start looking in a new direction and for a new business.

Again, not trying to be hard on you, just realistic.

Jim

The different mechanics I spoke to all told me that the cost of the repairs could be around $600 or more. Being that she has a little car and the engine sits sideways, her vehicle cannot be worked on easily. ( Special Note to self. Do not buy a Hyundai )

Not knowing how much more I decided to put up my home study course and take a loss to help her get back on the road quickly.

I don't have to offer the study course. It's just the quickest thing that came to mind that I could sell to help her out. That was my only intention. You can read more into it if you want. I do not care.

As for my daughter being out late, she was on her way home from school when she broke down. She carries a full class load and works part time and has no more hours in the day to do anything else.

Woody Quinones

Woody,

I don't think I "read more into it" I think your situation is quite obvious.

No way of saying it without sounding like a jerk so I'll just go ahead and be the jerk....

If you had the money to fix the car, you would have never made that offer.

Nothing wrong with not having the cash - we've all been there.

But you made it sound like this was about helping your daughter and not about helping you. You need to get the car fixed, not her.

Also, you mentioned that $20 was selling your book "at a loss" ?!?!?! Huh?

It's an ebook - ANY money you get for it is pure profit.

What you actually ended up doing here was to devalue it by a substantial amount.

Do you honestly think that anyone who reads your post will ever consider buying it for $200 now? Or even the $50 that you had it at last week?

I offered to review it for you a couple of weeks ago when you were asking for reviews and I think you know that I had no intention of ever using it. My offer was to try to help you out and nothing other than that.

I tried to explain that to you but you insisted that if I wanted to review it for you that I should pay the $50 for it. WTF?

I was offering you a couple hours of my time (that doesn't come cheap BTW) for nothing in return and you thought I should pay you for the privledge?

It became real obvious to me at that point that it wasn't the review you were after, it was the $50

Same thing this time around.

I think you need a lesson in "values", both monitarely and personal.

Jim

Greetings James,

You missed the mark again.

My daughter, like most teenagers, expect their parents to hand over the dough. NOT ME! I do not believe you should give your children money. If you want it you must put forth some effort to earn it. Period!

For years I've been preaching to my children that when you have a financial situation staring you the face there are ways to overcome them by using the Internet. They never believed until today.

This situation was perfect for her to see how the Internet helped her generate money quickly to help her out of a bind. Ironically, she is majoring in business management.

For those of you that stepped up, your donation did more than help pay, it taught my daughter a valuable lesson. Now she is a believer in Internet commerce.

From the bottom of my heart I commend you for your generousity. If you haven't received your copy of my home study course keep watching your emails.

Woody Quiñones

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by ImpactYourArea.com

My daughter, like most teenagers, expect their parents to hand over the dough. NOT ME! I do not believe you should give your children money. If you want it you must put forth some effort to earn it. Period!

Thanks for adding "Period!" at the end of your paragraph. Unfortunately - you went against your beliefs and gave money to your daughter when she did no work.

As Jason posted - it would have been a better idea if you would have given Her a copy of your home study course and guide her make money using that idea.

You could have even documented the idea and what your daughter does and used it as a case study to sell more copies of your course in the future.

There are no downsides with that idea and a valuable lesson for your daughter.

Instead, by discounting - you potentially made a few people who paid more for your product angry / dis-satisfied and got people questioning your intent on 2 business forums that you frequent. Very relevant downsides imo.

He didn't miss the mark at all. You say that you don't believe that you should give your children money, but that's exactly what you did. I don't know how you wrote that sentence with a straight face. She put no effort in to earn it, so there was no "lesson learned".

Why not give her your course and really have her put the effort in to earn it?

Originally Posted by ImpactYourArea.com

Greetings James,

You missed the mark again.

My daughter, like most teenagers, expect their parents to hand over the dough. NOT ME! I do not believe you should give your children money. If you want it you must put forth some effort to earn it. Period!

For years I've been preaching to my children that when you have a financial situation staring you the face there are ways to overcome them by using the Internet. They never believed until today.

This situation was perfect for her to see how the Internet helped her generate money quickly to help her out of a bind. Ironically, she is majoring in business management.

For those of you that stepped up, your donation did more than help pay, it taught my daughter a valuable lesson. Now she is a believer in Internet commerce.

From the bottom of my heart I commend you for your generousity. If you haven't received your copy of my home study course keep watching your emails.

Woody Quiñones

Greetings Bill and Ankesh,

Both of you have suggested this:

Why not give her your course and really have her put the effort in to earn it?

We did discuss this and other options. But she carries a full class load and works part time and has no more hours in the day to do anything else. So she's between a rock and a hard place.

So do I become the hard nosed father that says, "Well you're going to have to figure this out on your own" or do I use the opportunity to show her how to sell products on the Internet to help out in time of need? I choose the latter.

Now I realize many think and have voiced that she has not learned a lesson. On the contrary, she now sees the Internet as a place to buy and sell her stuff. Prior to this she wouldn't even consider the Internet as an option.

I'm glad that I had something that I could use right away to help her out. Which brings me to another point that most of you missed out on. I've received some very nice emails from other parents who have been in the same situation with their children.

Most commented how they never considered using their own products to help out anyone who truly needs assistance.

Instead, by discounting - you potentially made a few people who paid more for your product angry / dis-satisfied and got people questioning your intent on 2 business forums that you frequent.

Now let's address this belief. New products come on the market every day at a set price. But like millions upon millions upon millions of products of the past they never stay at the opening price.

Very few actually go up in price due to their popularity or rareity, but the majority go down in price over time and eventually disappear off the market. The public domain is filled with writings that were at one time sold for a profit, but now are home to anyone for free.

The average consumer knows this about products and waits until a product's price comes down before they consider buying it. If you don't believe me ask your mothers, fathers and grandparents. I know of two individuals that wanted my course last year but did not buy. Both of them donated yesterday.

All of you know this, so don't let your greed glands kling to the notion that a product must stay at the same price forever. It's not realistic.

Also if this situation hadn't happened I would have never considered using my course to help anyone in a financial bind, let alone my daughter. The lesson I learned is sell your products for a profit, but more importantly don't let my zeal to make a profit cloud my judgement when someone needs help.

I do challenge everyone of you reading this, that when someone you know needs financial assistance show them how to buy and sell over the Internet. Even if it means you use your own product to teach them.

Woody Quiñones
ImpactYourArea.com
PS. We are still accepting donations. Just go to Paypal and send the $20 to [email protected] and mark it as "Donation For Car Repair". Later in the day my home study course will be emailed to you in a pdf. formatted file.