Post Interesting Tips (Extra Compensation) You've Received

[gikstar]

We've received fish from one of our clients, she an avid deep sea fisher-person.
Received a clients Gaming Dell XPS laptop, with the 250GB SSD drive we installed the prior year, when he purchased a Dell Precision laptop w/500Gb SSD drive from us. Client got tired of lugging that monstrous laptop & charger around and had no more use for it.

 

[Krynn72]

I once got a dollar bill folded into the shape of a t-shirt. The lady said she was giving me "the shirt off her back".

I didn't really know what to make of it. Just smiled and said thanks, haha.

 

[sapphirescales]

I normally just get cash tips. I recently had a woman with a bill of $227 give me 3 $100 bills and told me to keep the change. Not too shabby. But honestly I'd say 10% of my clients that pay in cash let me have it to the nearest $10. Like $243 they hand me $260 and say "just give me a 10 and we'll call it good." One year I got over $1k in tips like this. Had to figure out how to report that sucker on my taxes.

 

[TimM]

Lots of large residential/small farm properties where I work, so I've had raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, lemons, limes, tomatoes, a potted orchid, bunches of flowers, homemade wine, eggs, cake, honey, jam and marmalade. (The honey was magnificent. The lady who gave it to me had won second prize in the state wide apiarists competition with it).
On site I carry all my stuff in a backpack. It's pretty full with a laptop, charger, spare battery, assorted cables, portable hard drives, invoice book, folder of CD boot discs, USB sticks, a few tools and quite a few other bits and pieces.
On one job a couple of years back... late afternoon and the bloke whose computer I was fixing offered me a beer. I said thank you, but I've got another job to do before I head home, so I'll pass.
A while later and I decide it's time to clean out my bag... it tends to accumulate stuff like small broken parts, packing material from parts, bits of paper with old notes on them, and so on.
Right down the bottom was a can of beer... that I'd been lugging around for two or three weeks.

 

[JustInspired]

My name & website was included in the dedication page of the book "Overcoming Anxiety for Dummies"

That's pretty cool. Some nice ones here in this thread.

Let's see:
Old equipment/New equipment (mostly crap - some I have to decline! - some good and some REALLY good)

A kitten! (Seriously. When I lived in St Lucia, I left a client's house with an extra friend; Polly Puss. She lived a good long life)

Fruit and Vegetables (here I have a client who has a small farm and has the bestest fruit and veg - all organically grown and they love to share. I look forward to things breaking at that client's LOL)

Wine (more bottles than I can count)

Polish Vodka (I've got another client whose wife is Polish. He always gives me loads of little bottles of different flavoured vodkas when I visit.)

Chocolate (Some clients think I'd like a box of chocolates. I don't have the heart to tell them I don't really want them so I accept them and give them to Demelza House )

Exchange of services (things like double glazing, front door etc)

I'm sure there are other things but that's all I can think of at the moment.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Fresh caught lobsters
Fresh caught fish (I live in a historical seaside region)

Crate of those fancy steaks from the mid west
Bottles of wine

Some really cool rare Harley collectibles

Logo'd tee shirts and/or hats (logo'd with clients biz...like a yacht club or golf course or whatever)

Clients that know I'm into super hot pepper stuff....various hot sauces and super spicy snacks

A high end client in Manhattan....got invited to his "suite" at Yankee Stadium for a game....what an awesome spread that was, great party...great food and booze, and literally the best box suite in the stadium directly up behind home plate.

 

[cypress]

Fresh caught lobsters
Fresh caught fish (I live in a historical seaside region)

Crate of those fancy steaks from the mid west
Bottles of wine

Some really cool rare Harley collectibles

Logo'd tee shirts and/or hats (logo'd with clients biz...like a yacht club or golf course or whatever)

Clients that know I'm into super hot pepper stuff....various hot sauces and super spicy snacks

A high end client in Manhattan....got invited to his "suite" at Yankee Stadium for a game....what an awesome spread that was, great party...great food and booze, and literally the best box suite in the stadium directly up behind home plate.

Baseball games and steak. My life in a nutshell haha.

 

[unclemarv]

My most recent "tip"

 

[Ed_Zipper]

Fresh Creamed Herring.
Really Horrible Cookies four times from the same customer.
Various amounts of money.
A bottle of Crown Royal that was purchased 50 years earlier. The customer even knows I am sober, told me to sell it.

 

[SOHOtechRob]

My most recent "tip"

When you got a virus clean up at 3 and a game at 5.

 

[TechLady]

Cookies, and fresh fish caught by a client in Alaska (where she is from). I don't even like fish that much and this fish was completely amazing. Oh yes, and trinkets for my kids sometimes.

 

[skdmaster]

One client let me use his apartment for a Washington DC trip for a few days in the Georgetown area. Was nice having the metro right outside his building - he owns a block with about 300 apartments. Another client would tip me with a Canadian silver coin each visit.