Man, my buddy Dan had the same thing happen with a "free fill dirt" ad out in Puyallup. He shows up with his truck and the guy's got like 15 yards sitting there from a pool dig, plus a Bobcat parked off to the side. Dan's thinking he's about to shovel all day, but the guy just says "20 bucks and I'll load you with the machine." Dan paid it so fast. Meanwhile the guy made almost 300 bucks that weekend off guys like Dan. He wasn't lazy at all, he was running a whole operation out of his front yard.

My buddy went through something like this with a warped T-square he used for two years of trim work. Every cut was a hair off and he kept blaming his saw. Felt pretty dumb when his kid used it as a sword and he saw the bend.