What's your buddy technical failure tolerance level?

Just curious as to what peoples' tolerance levels are regarding a buddy that constantly has equipment issues which causes dive to be cut short or get called before they even happen.
I'm not talking about buddy skills here or new clingy divers, or new divers that may not be completely familiar with their gear, or buddies that are annoying control freaks or have some other personality disorder.

What I'm talking about is a buddy that may be a really great friendly person and a pleasure to be around but when it comes to diving, every time you try and dive with them something goes wrong.
Things like freeflowing or hissing regs or bubble streams coming from various connections, chronic leaky masks, wetsuit or drysuit failures, computer failures-dead batteries, underweighted/overweighted, forget to bring an essential piece of gear, or just plain call the dive for some other personal reason once you're geared up and ready to go (or 10 minutes into the dive). Some people are just like that. Something seems to always go wrong preventing a full length dive with no issues.

Where I'm from it's a whole day dedicated to driving out to the coast (sometimes better than 2 hours) , lugging gear, setting up on the beach, doing two dives, driving home, cleaning gear. From the time I leave to the time I get back to the house it can sometimes be 12 hours.
I've had my share of buddies that have let me down over and over for silly reasons. I've probably spent several thousand dollars in gas and other expenses over the years dedicating a whole day to have it cut short or not happen at all.

So how many times of this is your personal limit.
I give them a few chances to straighten things out and I'm a pretty patient guy who is willing to work with them, but if I see a pattern I make some changes.
I can understand that everyone can have a bad day, me included, but every time?

I've learned to always be prepared to solo dive and equip and plan accordingly. If my buddy shows great we're going diving. If he doesn't too bad, he missed it. I'm going diving.

I'd be sure I drive. When my buddy ends up a train wreck, he can sit on the tailgate and contemplate the 6 Ps of diving. While I enjoy myself underwater.

I don't dive around people who aren't comfortable diving solo or have their own buddy. It insulates me from a lot of drama.

AfterDark:

I've learned to always be prepared to solo dive and equip and plan accordingly. If my buddy shows great we're going diving. If he doesn't too bad, he missed it. I'm going diving.

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I agree and that's why I mainly solo dive now.
I've worked hard to learn about servicing gear, I keep my stuff in order. I double check, triple check, to make sure I didn't forget anything. I have two sets of almost everything and many times will bring extras of things "just in case". I don't drink the night before I know I'm going to dive. I get plenty of sleep. I keep myself in shape so I can do this with ease and have fun instead of being bloated and overweight huffing and puffing.
I don't know why some people can't take this sport seriously enough to tailor their life around it, especially for local diving.

I used to use my boat quite a bit. After several times of people having issues and me jumping in to solo dive anyway while they sat on the boat only to come up after my dive and find them seasick and puking wanting to go home.
A whole day up and back towing the boat, all the gas, fees, launching, etc., for one solo dive.
I sold the boat because it became a PITA and it sat.

Am I the selfish one here, or is it the other guy, someone who doesn't take diving serious but then want's to go diving and expects people to be tolerant when they can't get their sh_t together.

I've tried to help these types by bringing an extra hood, set of gloves, some weights, even a spare reg set if I have one. I always have o-rings and if I have my car I'm very likely to have an extra weight belt or set of fins (excellent excuse not to clean the car ;-).

(The following is conclusions from many conversations with friends re: similar behavior)
But esp. if you can provide a solution (extra mask, hood whatever) sometimes you can't help but suspect that the presented problem is a symptom, not the problem. With this type of person I suspect that although he might honestly not realize it, he doesn't have a genuine desire to dive. It's like he fails to be properly prepared so that he won't have to dive, or so that he at least has an excuse to cut it short. Apparently the person is insecure with exactly that dive, or even diving in general but is inwilling to admit it - not even to themselves. You can try to lower the bar and find their comfort level, but if they won't even tell themselves what they are thinking & feeling it's rather hopeless.

If you don't want to dive solo, try going diving in groups of at least 3 persons so that you can either dive as a threesome or as a buddy pair depending on how Mr Surprises is doing that day. I've learned the "plan on a threesome but dive as a twosome" -strategy for dealing with folks that frequently call at the last minute to cancel or to simply announce that they will be an hour or more late.

I have a pretty high tolerance for issues such as forgotten gear...we all forget things. However, there are limits with respect to frequency.

I have a lower tolerance for issues that can easily be prevented such as a free flowing regulator that hasn't been serviced in 5 years.

I don't think I could trust such an unreliable buddy. You're talking about equipment failures cutting dives short, but what if an equipment failure cuts a life short?

I have some friends with Poseidons Xtream... it's always a hit or miss with those ones, but they are good people

Redshift:

I don't think I could trust such an unreliable buddy. You're talking about equipment failures cutting dives short, but what if an equipment failure cuts a life short?

I have some friends with Poseidons Xtream... it's always a hit or miss with those ones, but they are good people

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we carry backups for important pieces of equipment so that a failure only cuts the dive short...and not a life.

Knowing and maintaining your equipment ( or having it maintained ) is as important a skill for a diver as any other. My limit of tolerance would be two events. One time, hey, things happen. Two in a row, or two out of three, and I would be done. I should say that on day trip outings I always toss an entire set of extra gear in the car ( exposure suit excepted) plus a comprehensive spare parts kit and tool kit. If I am driving I take lots of stuff so that if any of my gear (or my buddy's gear is faulty, we can repair or replace and still do the dive(s) planned. Despite that, if I had two succesive problems with a buddy's equipment, I would consider that a problem issue and probably not go with them again unless I was convinced they had remedied any problem.
DivemasterDennis