4/4/2022

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED (A Tale of Unfinished Business)  by Diane Hanley

Sardonic, grimly mocking, that says it all when I say, “No good deed goes unpunished“ to all those who hear my cynical statement!  I try to be a good person, one who helps others in need.  But in recent months, I have been rewarded with stress and possible financial loss, for more than one of my good deeds.  Here’s the story of just one of them….

It all started innocently when a friend, I shall call, Jinx, asked me to go with her to help  buy a car.  Simple enough.  I can haggle; I can wait out a sales manager; I can be smart and use Edwards or Bluebook or Carvanha to determine fair market value.  After all we were looking for a used car and Honda had several.  Jinx was used to Hondas.  She had a nice used 2013 Honda CRV, an SUV.  That is, she had it, until it was totaled, when Jinx rear ended another car.  Her insurance company claimed it a total loss, due to the bent frame, frontend damage, etc. 

We looked at all the used cars and drove the best one of their offerings.  Jinx could barely get in and out of the old Honda Civic and it had few safety features due to its age. She obviously needed “Brake Assist” and “Collision Warning and Detection.”  But all her insurance company had given her was $15,000.00.  With the recent expansion of dealer fees and the very low inventory of used cars, an older model now cost a lot more than it once did.  

The salesman suggested leasing a new car.  Jinx looked at their least expensive new Civic, but it did not have all the safety features.  We moved up again to a midstream model with safety features, but she fell into it and once again, could barely get out of it.  The salesman then suggested the smallest SUV, an HR-V model.  Jinx drove it and loved it.  I told her not to be so enthusiastic about it, but it was too late!  The salesman had the sales manager (which this Honda dealership was now calling, an Executive Director) come to talk to Jinx about leasing and how one can get more car, for less money!  Right!  And NO CAR at the end of the lease, without more money!  

Papers were deposited on the desk in front of us that explained everything, basically the dealer fees—way too many, the amount down (way too much), the payments (way too high), etc.  That is where I got to jump in.  We negotiated down the dealer fees radically and the monthly fees, but they wouldn’t budge on the money down.  I offered my friend a few thousand to lessen the upfront cost and give her more for the payments.   She was grateful!  Finally, with the terms reached, we waited. 

When the salesman and executive director returned, their faces looked glum.  What now?  More negotiating?  No, Jinx was NOT approved (as she found out later as rejection letters arrived in her mail from quite a few institutions).  Everyone looked at me.  How was my credit?  Good!  Would I lend my name which could come off at a later date — like when she proved herself or what?  I looked at Jinx.  She had tears in her eyes and, well, what could go wrong?  She promised an auto pay account at the credit union where she would deposit the balance of the insurance money.  I gave in.  I gave my name.

Speaking of names — the “No good deed goes unpunished.” saying has been credited to Billy Wilder, Claire Boothe Luce, Andrew Mellon and Oscar Wilde.  Its true origin has never been established, but it was used in Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.” So using it, put me in mighty good company! 

So what went wrong to make me feel that my good deed was, in fact, punished?  Well, my friend did all she promised with the money except, we found out, make it auto pay as she had told me she would do.  She paid the first month with a check on the 10th of the month, the second on-line on the 10th of the month, and then on the tenth of the third month she passed away in the hospital.  Yes, she left me with my name on the lease!

That wasn’t supposed to happen!  I had just seen her the Friday before, others were with her  at Church that Sunday and for brunch.  Wednesday she called 911 because she was having trouble breathing.  Jinx had COPD.  The hospital decided to calm her excited body and mind down with some medication that put her in a coma, basically.  Monday, they stopped that medication and she was supposed to wake up.  I went Tuesday and spent three hours with her.  Much of that time the kind young male nurse and I kept saying, “Jinx, wake up.  Come on wake up and talk to us.  It’s time to wake up, Jinx!”  The next day, Wednesday, they did a brain scan and found very little activity.  On Thursday they unhooked her from everything and she passed away peacefully, her one daughter told me, that afternoon.  This death was not supposed to happen!  She looked young; she was only 2 years older than I am!  Perhaps the hospital kept her on the medication too long.  I admit, I never mentioned that idea to any of her family, as who wants to blame in a time like that?

The car situation is still not settled.  Another payment will be due by April 10th, if a good price is not negotiated, so the car can be sold back to Honda, or sold to some other entity and the money given to Honda in order to satisfy the lease.  It has been an ordeal for me and one of Jinx’s daughters who, gratefully for my sake, is a lawyer — just not here in FL.  She knows I cared greatly for her Mom, because she both heard and cried  during my eulogy at Jinx’s Memorial Service. She came to Florida and together with another friend and the Church, we organized Jinx’s celebration of life.  She is doing her best, from a distance now, to settle this “good deed” fairly.  Prayerfully, soon this ordeal will no longer be “unfinished business.”  And I can focus on dealing with some of my other good deeds…..