cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your light

[carrot]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

On my last hiking trip I brought a headlamp for myself plus three extra. Each of my friends used the other headlamps and I still had 3 CR123-powered flashlights left over that we did not need to use. Seeing each of my headlamps in action helped me to better compare them and I was surprised with the results I found. I will note that unless they are experienced hikers, friends who go with you will very often forget or omit a light source.

 

[bodhran]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

The only person I trust with my lights is my granddaughter at 2 1/2 years. Not only does she appreciate a quality light, but she takes better care of them than many adults I know..*s*

 

[Kingfisher]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

Hope you get your stuff back in the same condition it was lent out.....

 

[Stress_Test]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

Man, tell those guys that unless they bring lights on the next trip, you're going to make them use THIS instead...

 

[radioactive_man]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

This is the reason I just ordered a bucketful of fauxtons.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

Just learn to tell folks that certain lights you don't loan out

 

[leeholaaho]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

ROFLMAO to the flame on a stick

 

[Monocrom]

Re: coworkers and other aquaintances WHO act as if they have a right to borrow your l

I carry a cheap, 1/2watt, 2AA, Cabela's LED light in my BOB. In an emergecy, I can loan that light out to a friend who's with me. For others, there's the "give them a cheap coin-cell LED the first time they ask" approach. They get to keep it, with the understanding that since they now have their own light, there's never going to be a reason to ask to borrow your's.

Another tactic is to let them know you collect flashlights, and the one you're carring is worth X-amount of dollars. They can borrow it. But if it gets damaged or scratched, they're going to have to compensate you for it. That'll generally turn off enough folks that they won't ever ask again.

 

[DM51]

Re: cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your l

Merging 2 similar threads...

 

[Chongker]

Re: cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your l

While I do agree that I would never just lend out my lights to an acquaintance I don't know well (too much risk), I'd also argue that lending your lights to friends you trust can be great fun. Recently had a midnight climb up Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh with my girlfriend and a couple of other friends, and of course I had to be the one to provide lighting for the night

The gf had already seen quite a bit and things were getting old for her, but it was a good laugh seeing my other 2 friends marvel at how bright the lights they got were! (they didn't even get any of my big guns ). It was nice seeing them used and put me back into perspective on things, that my lights really are quite amazing tools (saw past their shortcomings which I was too quick to focus on before). Everything came back safely and all I had to do was charge up the spent batteries by the end of the night.

That said, I recently got back my warm white Preon II (one of my favourite edc's) from being on loan for a week with a good friend. She'd used cheap alkaline's in them and they leaked, so it's out of commission for now :sigh:.

I guess I'll only loan out things if I can keep an eye on them, or if the receiving party has the knowledge and respect necessary to take care of other people's possessions. Not gonna end up a complete grinch just yet! :nana:

 

[Chris_Himself]

Re: cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your l

All the people I know, know that I collect really expensive (to them at least) knives and tools, and while I don't care if the stuff gets dinged up due to all it it being for hard-use anyway, they still respect that I had to work hard to have those things.

I don't loan stuff out to acquaintances PERIOD. I mean on a loan basis, not a "dude lemme check under my desk" type deal.

 

[Monocrom]

Re: cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your l

. . . I recently got back my warm white Preon II (one of my favourite edc's) from being on loan for a week with a good friend. She'd used cheap alkaline's in them and they leaked, so it's out of commission for now :sigh:.

I guess I'll only loan out things if I can keep an eye on them, or if the receiving party has the knowledge and respect necessary to take care of other people's possessions. Not gonna end up a complete grinch just yet! :nana:

Did she at least offer to replace it? Or, even scrap it out to try and salvage it? Try to make it up to you in some way at least? Perfect example of what I'm talking about.

The Cabela's light I mentioned above is decent, but cheap; and I don't care about it at all. Bought it back when I didn't know any better. Someone borrows that and breaks it, I'm not gonna care. Carrying around a cheap coin-cell light not only gives you an extra light you can use in an emergency, but gives you the perfect thing to lend to someone else who will either damage it or "forget" to return it.

 

[Chongker]

Re: cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your l

Did she at least offer to replace it? Or, even scrap it out to try and salvage it? Try to make it up to you in some way at least? Perfect example of what I'm talking about.

The Cabela's light I mentioned above is decent, but cheap; and I don't care about it at all. Bought it back when I didn't know any better. Someone borrows that and breaks it, I'm not gonna care. Carrying around a cheap coin-cell light not only gives you an extra light you can use in an emergency, but gives you the perfect thing to lend to someone else who will either damage it or "forget" to return it.

Quite the contrary actually, she bought me a really nice dinner and got me a Leatherman multitool too (her bf had a Skeletool and she knew I wanted one as well). Ended up gifting her my old Fenix E20, some Eneloops and a cheap USB charger for them to use. Still doesn't fix my light, but it wasn't in the hands of someone random and it's something forgivable (and hopefully fixable, gonna get on that soon). But I do think I really need to start edcing a beater to loan out. Even the A3 on my keychain is probably too much to loan out. The free coin cell light from lighthound should do nicely =)


As for my main EDC (surefire LX2 at the moment), you can rip that out of my cold dead hands

 

[Monocrom]

Re: cow orkers & other acquaintances who act as if they have a right to borrow your l

Always good to hear true tales of folks doing the right thing after making a mistake.

(Yeah, I wouldn't loan out my iTP A3 EOS either. One of my too-many-to-count Lighthound coin-cell lights, that's a different story.)

 

[Burgess]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

I will note that unless they are experienced hikers,
friends who go with you will very often forget or omit a light source.

This is SO true, in so many situations !


People actually say:


" Gee . . . . i never THOUGHT about what would happen once it got DARK ! "


DUH ! ! !




_

 

[enomosiki]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

"You were ridiculing me before for spending so much money for good flashlights, yet you come crying to me when you need one the most. Get the hell out of my face."

 

[dudemar]

Re: coworkers and other aquaintances WHO act as if they have a right to borrow your l

In my case it's not so much when people want to borrow something, but I'm expected to hand over whatever I have in my possession NQA. It seems "Please" and "can/may I see..." is missing from the English lexicon, and has been replaced by "Aw cool!" or "lemme see that" followed by an open hand. Sometimes it's just a look, grunt then open hand. Sometimes it's just an open hand, or straight away grab whatever I'm holding.

Most people don't have any sense, period. I had a friend that epitomized this, and you can tell why we aren't friends anymore.

Under very limited circumstances I'll loan a light under three conditions. All three have to be met:

1. You're a girl
2. You're really cute
3. You have common sense to return the light in the condition it was received

Even when the first two conditions are met, it's usually the latter that falls short. :fail:


...on the other hand, I guess this is why crappy DX lights exist! What's worth $10 now probably couldn't be given away in a year. You lose it, so what.

 

[Ian2381]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

The most frustrating part of lending flashlights is when the person you lent your light lend it to others. This leads you to a hunt, tracing where your light is.

You guys are right, the best way to make sure your light will be returned is to tell the how much it cost. This sometimes leads to them asking for a cheaper light to borrow.

 

[Monocrom]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

I've never understood the mentality behind lending out something that was borrowed from someone else.

My take on it is, this is someone else's property. I'm responsible for it, for returning it in the same condition it was in when I borrowed it. Obviously I'm not going to lend it out to anyone.

Unfortunately, there are folks out there who don't have any respect for the property of others. (Not even bothering to get the item back for the owner, but having him hunt down the last person who had it; that's the cherry on top.)

 

[kaichu dento]

Re: Flashlight lending catastrophy...

Hey, one of the new guys in maintenance pulled out a flashlight today and said everyone he showed it to told him to talk to me about flashlights. Just as it came out of his pocket, I said "Hey, is the a 6P"? It's funny that I recognized it from all the pics here, since I've never seen one before in person! He really likes it and was pretty proud that it's one that his friend had carried during his service with a police force down south.

Maybe I'll ask if I can borrow it sometime!