My friends created a 'cancellation fee' for our group chat and now it's tearing us apart.
By @willalol · Friends
What started as a dumb joke has become a legitimized system of Venmo requests if you bail on plans. I refused to pay a $10 'premium cancellation' fee for skipping a taco night and now i'm the villain.
The full story
this has to be the most chronically online friend group problem in history. a few months ago, one of my friends—the one who works in tech and thinks everything can be optimized—made a google doc called 'Friendship Terms of Service'. it was full of ironic corporate-speak about response times, meme quality standards, and a section on 'event cancellation'. we all laughed and thought it was peak comedy. after that, if someone bailed on brunch, the host would jokingly Venmo request them for like $5 for 'emotional damages'. it was a gag. people paid it. we all had a laugh. but then the joke just… never stopped? and people started taking it seriously. the 'ToS' now has tiered pricing. bailing on a casual hang is $5. dinner where someone made a reservation is $10. if tickets were involved for something like a concert or movie, you have to pay the person back for the ticket *plus* a $20 'logistical inconvenience' surcharge. it's completely unhinged. so last night i bailed on plans to go to a new taco spot. literally just a text that said 'hey sorry im super tired, gonna have to skip tacos tn'. no reservation. no tickets. just casual plans. a few hours later i get a $10 venmo request from my friend. the note said: 'Premium Event Cancellation Fee: Taco Tuesday (High Anticipation)'. i refused to pay it. i said the joke is dead and this is getting weird. now the group chat is in flames. the dude who sent the request is screen-shotting clauses from the google doc and saying i'm violating our 'social contract'. other friends are chiming in, some defending me and saying this has gone too far, others acting like lawyers and saying 'well technically the ToS does mention anticipated events'. we are fighting over a fake contract and ten dollars. my phone has been buzzing for hours with people debating the 'spirit of the law' vs the 'letter of the law' for our stupid friend group. this has fully killed any spontaneity and now i feel like my friendship is a SaaS i might need to unsubscribe from. am i insane for thinking this is completely ridiculous?
How people voted
- Bad Move — 28% (11 votes)
- Needs Context — 49% (19 votes)
- Reasonable — 23% (9 votes)
Readers say “Needs Context” (49%) — 39 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@danisorta — This feels like the consequence of someone bailing constantly and everyone else getting sick of it.
@remylately — Time to send a counter-request for 'emotional damages from a friendship turning into an MLM'.
@daniwelp — Friendship has been successfully disrupted.
@karakindof — Your friend group has replaced genuine connection with transactional relationships.
@danikindof — Why did any of you agree to pay the fake fees in the first place?
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