First off, there’s no question that your neighbor is the asshole. My neighbor is a chef but I wouldn’t dare ask them to cook me a meal. No chance I’d be a jerk to them when they said “no”, either.
Now for a personal story that may or may not be helpful:
My second job is tech-adjacent at a religious institution full of tech-illiterate elderly people. The second I sit down behind a computer I get bombarded with every question an old person could ever have about tech. Toasters to smartphones to DVRs, I’ve heard it all. Just last Sunday someone asked my how to update their laptop. I expect similar questions tomorrow.
I helped someone once with a printer problem. Quick and easy, they paid me $50. Then I somehow became “their IT guy” and I started getting unwanted calls every damn week asking ignorant (to me) questions like “how do I log in?” or “why don’t I have internet? What’s the airplane mean?” When they couldn’t follow my instructions over the phone, I had to make house calls to press enter at the login screen or to disable airplane mode.
I didn’t have time for the constant help requests, and if I didn’t pick up (because I was at work) I was basically DDOS’d with calls to the point I had to block their number until I got off work.
It quickly became clear that this person was losing their memory and their mind. While it was sad, it’s absolutely not my responsibility. I drew up a bunch of instructional diagrams that would help them with their most common requests, and handed them off to their grandson with my explanation of why I couldn’t help their grandparent anymore.
No matter how I tried to justify it in my head, that job was not worth it. I was losing money (my hourly rate is a multiple of $50/hour), I was losing my personal time and therefore my sanity, and I wasn’t gaining any social leverage or “good feelings” from repeating the same old tasks at a fraction of my going rate. I’m also not heartless enough to charge an 80+ year old client more than $50/visit when they’re living on social security.
The bottom line is this: Value your personal time above all else. We are sysadmins. We might know how to do tier 1 work, but that doesn’t mean we want to or have the time to do it. I know it’s hard to say no, but it’s harder to lose your personal time and fire a client over it. If you have to make up an excuse… I’ve seen a lot of great ones in this thread.