To think she could have said 'just keep the money'?

[JMSA]

Properties to let, in the city where I live, are snapped up extremely quickly. You need to be really on the ball in order to land one.
A lady posted on a local Facebook group begging someone to do a viewing for her. She is overseas at the moment, but will be coming here to live soon. She was desperate; the letting agent was willing to allow someone else to view it in her place, but it had to be viewed before they'd accept her application. Seriously, the private let situation here is crazy ... not to mention extortionate.
I offered to do it for her. We had some chat over FB Messenger, and we discussed what I should look out for and the questions she wanted me to ask. This all took time, but that's absolutely fine. We had agreed that £20 was a fair amount for me to be paid for this viewing, and she made a bank transfer (at my request).
The viewing was meant to be tomorrow and I've just heard from her that it's cancelled, as someone else got in there first. I offered to hold onto the money - it had taken a while to come through - in case any other properties came up that she'd like me to view.
She replied no, that she's going to wait until she gets here to do more viewings, and has asked for her £20 back. It's annoying because I had budgeted for something with it. Am I right in thinking that she's a tight arse?

Don't be so bloody ridiculous, the person offered money when she asked - then failed to mention it again until @JMSA bought it up
You want a service then you pay for it , it was out of @JMSA control
Would you book a cleaner/plumber/electrician decide to cancel then not pay them a token amount for the time they have already given to quote & give up their time?
just cringe are you 6 ?

@JMSA have you listened to the people who think it could be a scam. If you are going to the bank to ask about transferring the money ask them.

Sorry, but asking someone to internationally transfer £20 is ridiculous.

Probably the OP shouldn’t have gotten involved in the whole debacle in the first place. As I said upthread, you either do something like this out of the goodness of your heart - or you don’t do it at all.

It’s the international bank transfers back and forth that are adding ridiculous layers of time and hassle - for both parties! - to this.

Its not a friend you realise? Its some rando on facebook asking for a service. Do you do services for randoms on facebook you dont know for free?

See my post directly above yours.

No worries. Also, my bank charges £20 for intl transfers too.

I work freelance OP and deciding what is paid for and when can be a bit of a nightmare. She is being a bit tight, yes, but it occurs to me that she may also have paid a transfer fee, so she may be well and truly out of pocket when you didn't have to do the work the payment was for. The other stuff around is unfortunately just stuff you have to factor in. If you do a lot of freelance work, you just adjust your hourly rate accordingly so that overall you are covered for the time spent trying to drum up business.

When you find out the transfer fee, you won't be paying her back anything. Or at best she will be getting about 5 pounds of her 20 pounds. So really the whole debate is irrelevant.

OP YANBU. I think if she wanted her money to be ‘refundable’ ie no risk of downside for her if it doesn’t go ahead, then, the reward should be greater for you… because you’re taking time to speak to her, get prepped by her, plan routes etc, plus keep time available on the day, and maybe for nothing…
I think for only £20 I would expect that she’s paying you for the prep and to keep the day free regardless of whether it goes ahead.

I only thought about transfer fees on reading this thread. I've never before transferred money to an overseas account (and not EU).
She certainly didn't mention having incurred any.

OP, I don't understand why you are unwilling to even consider that this might be a scam. In fact, you seem adamant that it isn't. It really has all the hallmarks. Do you even know that this person actually exists? Or where "overseas" they are? I would be really cautious about having any more contact at all. Do you even know that the property really had gone?

We've agreed that I'll give her the cash when she's next in my city (August).

Ynbu. You were basically doing a total stranger a big favour for £20. I think she's really rude for asking for it back. You've already wasted time and effort. I'd give her it back because she asked for it but I would not have asked for it back if I had been her. And £20 was a total bargain!

Thank you. I wouldn't have the brass neck to ask her to meet me for it either, but hey, we're all different! Can't believe the time and headspace I've wasted on this ... never again!

I'd send £10 back, deduct the time spent messaging and organising etc.

I'd rather not have the embarrassment of that, especially as we're now meeting in the flesh
But I won't be doing this again.

This is one of those MN dissonance threads, where doing anyone a favour is viewed as a sign of weakness and OP is getting grief for wanting £20 for a flat viewing for a stranger

Can you please enlighten us to what the scam is then? At the moment, OP has 20 quid of the 'scammer's' money. I mean, i guess they could come back with "if you transfer me 500 quid for my flight to the UK I'll come and collect the 20 quid personally to save myself the transfer fee then reimburse you" but that seems unlikely...

She would have paid transfer fees if the money was transferred from a foreign or off shore Bank. When I transfer money from Asia it’s about 35 pounds. Some of it from the remitter some from the beneficiary. Whether I pay for the beneficiaries part of the transfer fees depends on the circumstances. If I transfer from an offshore account it’s about 20 pounds.

You’re being the bigger person. Well done.

Not @JMSA problem @CrazyArmadilloLady , the person wanting her to view should have weighed that up before they offered to pay

it didn’t go ahead and £20 is a lot of money for anyone at the moment so I wouldn’t have dared expect to keep it if it didn’t happen. I would have offered to send it back straight away.

I don’t think you should pay it back - you didn’t cancel it and you had already agreed to keep that time free so couldn’t book to do anything else. £20 to have someone view and possibly secure a home is stupidly cheap, she was getting an absolute bargain.

It’s a £20 admin fee isn’t it? How long have you spent talking to her? £20 is actually an extremely small amount of money for viewing a property when you think about it. If she was that desperate she should have offered £50, which seems about right.

I’m not sure why the transfer fee has anything to do with this. It isn’t relevant and nothing to do with the OP.

I really wouldn’t meet this woman….she sounds a bit insane.