Gave a expensive TV to relatives

[Worriedmoma]

I gave a very expensive TV to relatives, with the pay what you can afford for it, didn't expect much gave me the 15 pounds for the new control I'd bought plus five pounds🤔😂😂,then not even a thanks for letting us have it highly disappointing and now thinking to cut thus family member out for such rude behaviour not even a thank you as they walk out the door😕
Both work full time and have a income but not even a bunch of flowers and a thank you not impressed!

I worked for Comet (showing my age) once upon a time in my student years, and learned that second-hand TVs are worth nothing, they are usually superseded within 6 months and old hat 2 years down the road. Easy enough to pick up a TV for free.

But.. it wasn’t a gift.

You sold it to them, for less than it was worth, but it was still a sale.

If they are both working, I’m not sure why you did that.

Did they actually want a new TV?

If you wanted a set amount you should have said, rather than moaning after the fact.

@MounjaroMounjaro
She asked them to give what they could afford. Maybe if they could have afforded a bunch of flowers they would have given her £30. Or should they have given her £10?

Edited to say £10 plus a bunch of flowers

Lesson learned, if you want a specific amount you need to ask for it.

But who pays over the odds for an old TV?

So when you said "pay what you can afford" you actually meant "pay me a specific price I have in my head but won't communicate, buy me flowers and thank me profusely for being so generous" ???

How "old" was this TV anyway?

TVs have a life span of 2 years really. Then the picture quality goes or they won't turn off or the sound gives out

And that's ignoring how outdated the software will be by then

What on earth are you doing to your TV? Our Smart TV is still working fine after 6 years.

Second hand TVs are given away frequently for free on our local neighbourhood pages. At £20 they've paid over the going rate for a second hand TV, and done you the favour of not having to take it to the tip or have it collected as a bulky item by the council. I hope you thanked them profusely for doing you such a favour.

We don't do anything to them

TVs, like all tech now, are built to start failing

Give stuff away to be nice and not for gratitude!

It would be easy to look up online the make /model and 2nd hand value. Your use of GIVE not BUY is key here.

If you did that it would clarify in your own mind how much of a favour it was.
You could also factor in the time/effort cost of finding a charity shop that would take it.. Or how much your council charges to collect large electronic items?

How far off the value would the £20 be then?

Often people give things to relatives as its an easy way to dispose of good condition but unwanted items... its easier than bothering to go through the motions of advertising and selling. Some relatives might think its sort of saying to them, I'm better off than you. Only you know what they are like.

The relatives also knew that you could afford to upgrade and didn't want the existing TV anymore.

"Give what you can afford" is a difficult thing to decide. In "market" terms, they weren't shopping for a TV, but you were offering one for them to take it off your hands as you didn't want to dispose of it yourself.. so they thought OK then..what's that worth to us. What can I afford to pay for something I wasn't particularly looking for? Not to forget the concept of mates rates either.

I agree they were rude not to even say thank you.
But They did give you £20, which you feel is insultingly low.. They must have said some words as they did this and been friendly? I take it they weren't actually uncivil to you when you gave it to them?

But expecting flowers when what you asked for was an unspecified amount of money and for them to take the TV off your hands so you could get rid of it is a bit of a muddled concept.

I think in your positioni I'd probably resolve not to give them things again if I wanted money for them or at least say its worth this, would you like to buy it... but at the end of the day, you've got rid of the old telly and have a lovely new one.. I'd let it go. Its not an important thing to hold on to.

Our telly is 10+ and absolutely fine.
People's glee at spending money unnecessarily never fails to amaze me.
Then they wear polyester and wonder why their clothes look shit after one wash.

NO- as others have said OP, its factual!

Yes, they should have thanked you, but they aren't the ones who were not clear about an actual price and then made an entire post about it. Its not THEM that are nasty!!!

Huh? Tv's last for a long time. I mean, smart tv's stop updating apps at some point and need to use chrome cast or hdmi cable but TV's last for years.

I’m really not sure what you wanted. Presumably you wanted rid of the old tv and so offered it to someone. They took it away.
Are you saying they didn’t even offer a quick ‘thanks mate’ or were you looking for a more grovelling thank you?

Everything starts failing from birth, from human beings to cars and tvs.

TVs don't fail after 2 years generally, because if they did manufacturers would be out of business as a lot of places like the EU have a 2 year warranty and MTFs are generally gaussian.

I've got 3x large screen tvs in my house and all are between 5-7 years old and the pictures and sound are fine. They aren't some crappy low budget brand that cost next to nothing though.

Well that was a stupid thing to do! Why say that if you didn’t mean it?

My son gave me his old TV. And his old tent this year. I said thank you at the time. Should I grovel, forever in his debt?
No.
Because he’s not nasty like that.

Expecting a bunch of flowers seems OTT to me.

I think a lot depends on how you presented this. eg did you say Ive bought a new tv for the lounge because I want 4K and have nowhere to put my 10y old HD TV which was state of the art and very expensive at the time, do you want it? In which case 20 quid and we'll save you a trip to the dump sounds about right. Or did you somehow have a still very new TV you didnt want anymore and asked them to buy it off you, in which case you should have said, do you want to buy my TV for £400? or whatever you expected.

Second hand TVs lose their value quicker than cars because, for AV enthusiasts, every years new models (rightly or wrongly) bring a new feature or tecchnology or slight picture/sound upgrade that they desire, but that most people would barely notice. What you consider a 'very expensive TV' is really unlikely to still be that unless it is literally last year's model top of the range Samsung or LG.

Incidentally the PP is right, none of the massive value loss affects functionality if you are buying expensive TVs. I bought the state of the art top of the range Samsung TV when we moved into this house 13 years ago, so paid multiple 1000s for it. Its not 4K so is literally worth zero now, less in fact as I'd have to pay the council to collect it, but its still going strong, albeit without the crazy picture quality people expect now and slightky fuzzy sound, but works great as a second TV in the playroom, gets used daily by kids who couldn't care less about pixel resolutions. I also bought another smaller Samsung TV a few years later for the dining room, also only HD not 4K, and that is also still used daily and worth zero. I replaced the main living room TV with the latest and greatest 4K Samsung TV (yes I like Samsung TVs 😄) and sized up but this time bought the 2024 flagship TV in the January sales. So paid £1500 odd rather than the £6/7000 odd (!) the upcoming 2025 replacement flagship model would have been. That's how much value TVs lose in one season, not even a whole year! But every year, audiophiles and AV nerds still buy them at full whack.

Long winded way of saying I seriously doubt your TV was worth as much as you think it was.

a few things wrong here. firstly, you said pay what you can afford, which they may have done. would you rather have had them grovelling and singing their praises of you?

What TV was it?

I bought my current TV in 2011. We use a fire stick for the apps like Netflix.

If you expected a certain amount, ask for that instead of of some bullshit pay what you want.

The cherry on top of this passive aggressiveness is expecting flowers. 😂😂

You need to set what price you want for something in future. “You need a new tv? I’m selling mine for £70 if you’re interested”.