You broke it!

[Raldazzar]

So if a friend came over and accidentally broke your, lets say, $1,000+ TV you'd say "shit happens" and not want them to buy you a new one?

In all seriousness, this has happened to me. brand new 50" plasma, friend of mine's kid was near it, he slipped, friend went to grab kid, almost tripped himself, put his hand up to stabilise.. bang right into screen.

my instant reaction, and onwards (despite it being warranty covered, considering this was xmas, so it took months for them to sort out!!!) was 'shit happens'
it's real life. they are friends. these are just.. things.

[Armond]

Compensate them for a new one, let them keep the old one. I wouldn't have much use for the old one (I can't think of any broken expensive electronic devices I'd want anyway - I have working versions of most of them), and in a number of cases, there's personal/sensitive information stored on those devices.

In all seriousness, this has happened to me. brand new 50" plasma, friend of mine's kid was near it, he slipped, friend went to grab kid, almost tripped himself, put his hand up to stabilise.. bang right into screen.

my instant reaction, and onwards (despite it being warranty covered, considering this was xmas, so it took months for them to sort out!!!) was 'shit happens'
it's real life. they are friends. these are just.. things.

this is the attitude.

if your friend walks into your house with a hammer and goes HEY WATCH THIS and smashes it, it is another thing entirely.

This is indeed the attitude... when it's your things that are broken. When it's you breaking the things, it's different (for me, at least).

[Deleted]

"Broken" but still functioning means we're only talking about the aesthetics of the item.

So I can't think of any item which would warrant spending $500 on a new item when parts and repairs for pretty much anything are a fraction of that price.

To warrant this we would have to talking about a vocal "holy fuck how is that thing still working?" level of damage, a real fluke of nature kind of bullshit where the item is damaged to the point where it shouldn't be working and yet miraculously still is.

So if that's the case I'd buy a new one, but in 99.9999% of cases I'd pay for the repairs. Would probably chuck a couple of beers/wine in their too as a sorry for the inconvenience.

[xindralol]

I would give my friend the money for a new one.

pretty much this