A new Rant from Fred_G (Long)

Yeah, I know what you are thinking, shut the hell up Fred_G! But I thought I would share this one with you. 'People that think they are more important than the average person'. We have all met them, let me tell you about one I dealt with at work today.

Just for some background, I am the service manager for a Mercedes Benz service/repair shop. I usually meet the customer, get the info on what is wrong with the car, discuss price limits, and all that good stuff. But yesterday I was busy and the boss took in a customer for a B service. Now a B service on a MB can be quite pricey ranging from $300 to $800 depending on what is needed. They use a 'flexible service' thing. It also depends on the miles on the car.

We had done some work on the car in the past, so all the needed was an oil change, brake fluid flush, and a fuel filter, and he would be ready to go. He had 131k miles on the original fuel filter! My technician told me that should be changed every 60k miles. And the retail on the fuel filter was $118! (I love my Nissan truck) The bossman/owner told the tech to replace the filter. I was not in on any of this. So his bill is $600 or so. He starts raising hell at me. Cussing, getting in my face, all the stuff the self important person does. The bossman approved the bill, and he is the only one that can discount it. After several phone calls (bossman was at lunch), and a lot of threats (this dude seemed to have some fascination with kicking my ***...) So we work out the price, he paid $400 and had to be somewhere, so he needed to go. Now we are short on help, I am also the janitor at the shop, yeah, I can use a mop. My technician goes out of his way, for no extra pay, to wash the guys car.

So dude pays. Then, the comes back in the shop, and bitches because his car was left 'wet'? I quote, "You can't leave a brother's car wet! You are lucky I don't have time to kick your" arse!

Now lets get to who this is. A local high school football coach. Also a former NFL player (he must have sucked, google only gave me a pict). So I got a damn near 300# pound guy wanting to kick my arse. He did at some point play for a NY team. And he is teaching our future leaders. Yeah, I am impressed, pick on the 150# service manager. The bossman gave him the discount, I would have locked his car in the shop and charged him full freaking price, or we keep the car. Mechanic's leans are nice for this situation. Respect people, have some manners and some pride about yourself.

Well, I try to keep the rants few and far between.

E

 

Kind of like a house my wife and I sold. When we moved out, the A/C was working. When our tenants moved out, the A/C was working. When the home inspection was done, it was not working correctly.

So, we sent out the company who installed it, and maintains it. They make some adjustments, and give it a clean bill of health.

The house sells, and a few days later the owner calls screaming at us that it isnt working. So we sent out the company again, out of our pocket. They find nothing wrong. The new owner demands WE pay another company to come out and look at it. His realtor chose the company, and they came out. They couldn't find out what was wrong, but claimed cooling the attic would help.

So the new owner calls the registrar of contractors on the company who services the machine, hoping to force them to legally replace the unit. The entire time he was a complete :kissmy

Ready for the kicker?

The registrar said that not only did the company have no legal obligation to him, but that they were now legally exempt from the warranty contract due to him having another company come out and mess with the A/C unit.

roflmao

 

I got in a bit of trouble back when I was an apprentice. I've always worked at a couple of Ford dealerships so most of the time I deal with regular people. Some can get pissy though. I think I'd been in the business for about two years, and had changed the transmission output seal on a Lincoln Mark. The customer who was clearly better than the rest of us because he dressed nice and drove a Lincoln came back the next week complaining that the seal was still leaking. (The housing turned out to have a small crack in it.) The Service Manager told him we'd get the car in right away to check it. The "gentleman" followed me out to his car, tapped me on the shoulder and said "Are you going to fix it this time? I don't want to have to talk to my Lawyer." I turned and said to him "Your lawyer? Is he a mechanic too?" The guy turned purple and stode off back into the building. I thought my job was done. His wife got out of the car and apologized to me for the threat the guy made, and I drove the car in to the shop feeling quite sick. I'd barely got it on the hoist when the Dealer Principle walked into the shop and beckoned me to his office where the guy was waiting. The customer told me I'd never make it in life if I "didn't recognize which people should be shown a higher level of respect, and I was fortunate that he wasn't going to demand that the DP fire me." After he left the DP chuckled and told me not to worry. He said he'd had a hard time not laughing when the guy told him what I said.

 

Don't worry, Fred! Ranting is fun!

Speaking of :kissmy..... I hate our neighbors. They bought the last lot in our area and decided to build the biggest house they could on this weird shaped lot. (Kinda pie slice shaped, not square, or anything uniform). There are restrictions are how far the house has to be from any given point of edge of the property and sidewalk, etc. These people had it measured out to the inch, the thing is enormous. So, having your house fill up the lot to the maximum allowed leaves you with no yard... Well, they wanted a yard too!

All our houses back up to Government Protected Wetlands and you can't do anything in there. No cutting, no dumping, no playing, etc. Our street kind of curves, and there are two house to our left and they curve along the road and then there are our neighbors in question, who are pretty much behind us to the side. So we look out our back windows and see the back of their house and the wetlands.

The couple that moved is in their twenties, and mommy and daddy paid for their house and their family's friend is a contractor and built the home. Well, when they realized they had about 4ft of backyard before it was wetlands, they called up their friend the contractor who showed up with a bulldozer. I came home from school about an hour into their little clean up job. They had already knocked down about 10, 40ft trees that lined the back of our property in the wetlands. Any shade and privacy we once had been now turned into a barren strip of land giving us a really great view of the road on the other side…

Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I grabbed my digital camera and went out there screaming at the bulldozer. The guy driving just looked at me, laughed, and kept on demolishing trees, shrubbery, and other plants. I took a few pictures of the bulldozer, the guy driving, some wide shots, the downed trees etc. When it was all done and over with, they had cleared all the trees and land from their property line behind my house to the edge of our property line (150ft), and the width of their property (80ft)!

How the hell did they think they were better than everyone else who lived along the wetlands???!!! I mean, did they seriously think they could get away with it??!! Well, I wasn’t going to let them. I called the EPA, and the Army Core of Engineers, and they came out and saw the damage. My neighbors got slapped with a $5,000 fine and they didn’t go back there for a while. But about a month later, guess who came back with the bull dozer? Yeah, so we called the EPA again, they assessed the damage, issued another fine, and now they have been stopping by every week to check up on things.
/rant!

 

The fine is a pittance compared to the increase in the value of their property. Some people in Vancouver cut down trees to enhance their view. Their fine was equivalent to the increase in the property value, in the tens of thousands of dollars. That makes a bit more sense. Make life miserable for your new neighbours...every day.

 

A fine like that would have been nice, especially since mommy and daddy probably paid the 5K. While they do technically have a larger yard now, they can't touch it w/o being fined again so it's growing back, but sadly the large 30+ year old trees are gone. I'm seriously considering setting up a night vision webcam out my back window just in case they decided to do anything in the night. (Like how the 4ft trees we planted magically were snapped in half after a summer night last year). How legal would it be to set up a 'security' cam like that?

 

Nothing illegal about setting up a secruity camera for your property....and the area in question happens to be in the line of vision.

 

LOL Bravo! That idiot apparently has forgotten simple ethics and practice, in particular "respect for the individual"!

 

Out here the Council would have issued a legal order and a fine against such persons that would have ended up in court if ignored and the penalty then be more than a slap on the wrist and a fine.

Bravo for taking some action against such irresponsibile idiots who besides ruining an area belonging to the State and its people has also ruined your own privacy and enjoyment.

 

Overlooked these parts of your rant:

If there were trees on your property that were downed, then that sounds like damage to your property...which I mistook (in my earlier post) as damage only to State property. If your trees were downed, then you would have a case against them. Your local chamber magistrate should be able to give you free advice on this (if you have that type of service available in your area).

As for your new 4' trees, I'ld be suspecting your new neighbours but you wouldn't be able to get an action against them unless you could prove it. Flood lights that automatically turn on by strategically placed sensors with a highly visible dummy security camera could deter them long enough to allow you to grow your trees. Again, the "security" camera would be guarding your own property so there shouldn't be issues unless your laws differ where you are.

 

LOL Bet they'll now read the fine print of future warranties and contracts....

 

The trees in question were a few feet off my property. They were in the wetlands but provided a great deal of shade and privacy. As you can imagine, my lawn, which doesn't like direct sun throughout the whole day, will never look the same again. It's alway dry and burnt out, no matter what I do.

I've had issues with Deer stripping bark off small shrubbery around my house, killing the plant. I've seen them do this, but I haven't seen them (or any evidence of them) near the small trees I planted on my property. (I was hoping in ten years they would be big enough to hide away a good portion of their house.) Besides, stripped bark looks MUCH different from a 1" diameter tree that was snapped, literally, in half. So I suspected the neighbors.

I'm going to look into a security camera that can write to my hard drive. If anything suspicious happens, I can at least go back and check the video to see what caused it. I plan on replacing the snapped tree with a 10' Cherry. Our wonderful neighbors added two 300W motion activated spot lights to the back of their house and when ever they let the dog out, or step outside for a smoke, it looks like an airport for two hours. I guess they have it on a switch because sometimes it will be on all night, illuminating all the bedrooms in our home with light. The tree should block out the light and I plan on adding a few 'properly aligned' spots to light up the trees at night. I have to do something because talking with these people got me nothing but more light pointed at my house... :mad

 

Re trees to plant - consider the Leylandi (see attachment - which are bloody hardy, growing to 60' - great hedge as you can see from photo, minimal care). Also consider speaking to a garden nursery person about your particular needs before you buy. And rather than trees, look for hedge type trees like the leylandii which is bush from the ground up. (Lilly Pilly and Murraya paniculais are fast growing trees that make great tall hedges to 30' and depending on type, even taller - neighbour planted 4 x 2' Lilli Pillies 6 years ago and he now has a 30' hedge with 4' branch spread - looks great, very private).

Re neighbour's pointed lighting - sounds like harassment and annoyance if they are purposely directing the light at your house....wouldn't hurt to check your rights with your local magistrate to get them to properly adjust their lighting. (These neighbours sound like absolute a...holes!)

Re grass - I've corrected similar problems buying certain grass seeds that take full sunlight and shade (from the same packet), pretty hardy, drought tolerant, shoot fast from seeds but not maniac at growing to require constant mowing. Speak to your local plant nursery.

Shame you can't speak with these neighbours - that would really help put to sleep a lot of problems, but I guess your reaction to the tree falling incidents put their delicate little spoilt noses out of joint.rolleyes

 

Here in the UK Leylandii and other evergreen hedge are a scourge and can be curbed by the local council. However, the hedges are not good for nearby grasses or plants.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4595727.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4596685.stm

 

A couple of Councils in Australia have the solution to that. Anyone who poisons or cuts down trees to improve the view are dealt with. The Council erects large signs high enough to block out the improved view, expaining why the signs have been erected.

The signs stay until the new trees grow back to the original height of the original trees.

Works a treat.:major Bazza

===

 

Y'know, I have been reading this thread and wishing I could throw a few thoughts in about people who think they are better than the rest of us, but unfortunately, because the people I am referring to are Doctors and the incidents relate to my work at a Medical Answering Service, and the Federal rulings on HIPAA seriously limit what I can say...... Let's say that some Dr's have a serious god complex.


~C

 

True, Leylandiis and other hedge type trees if badly situated can be damned annoying if they block your view or leave you in the shade. But used properly they provide perfect solutions for shade and privacy.

My neighbour diagonally situated behind me has 3 Leylandii (each 60' tall) and due to aspects of my neighbours and myself, we are never in the shade while he enjoys privacy.

My back fence is lined with dwarf Lilli Pillies now almost 30' tall which successfully blockout my nutty neighbour away from me while not robbing anyone of sunshine (again due to our aspects).

Myself and my next door neighbour also have Murrayas along our side fences....theirs after 3 yrs are now 9' tall and will grow taller, but they won't affect either of us shade wise and we have no views to complain about, just lots of trees to enjoy, privacy and the scent from the Murrayas' flowers is delicate.

 

Dang it, I was talking about cars, not trees! Thanks for letting me blow off some steam. If the thread is about trees now, I am all for it. Lots of stress for me right now.

E

 

I've looked at the Leylandi and the Arborvitae. Both look like they would provide the greatest amount of shade and privacy however, I don't care to much for their looks. We might try to put some type of hedge lining the back of the property and then some fuller trees closer to the house. Our neighbor at our old house actually had a Leylandi that was at least 80' tall. I believe it had been growing since the 1950's. It's shadow was cast across four yards!

I'm going to ask around the township to see if there is an ordinance in our area about lighting. I don't mind that they have the light, it's just that both bulbs are pointed up directly at our house lighting up our entire yard and all the rooms along the back. If they would angle it downward where the light would stop at the base of the house I'd be happy, but they won't budge.

I've experimented with different seed. Scott's offers a 'premium' full sun/high traffic seed that is supposed to be drought tolerant but I really didn't see much of a difference in it's condition over time.

I know, I'm completely open to talk to them about all this but they won't hear it. Oh well, I stopped them from destroying everything and in a few years our trees and shrubs should be mature enough to give us the privacy we need. I really want to move to a ranch, away from people. Maybe some day when I'm out of school and settled in a career. *dreams*

 

Agreed. I've noticed the same sign type on the East side of the Harbour and it seemed to be accusingly situated in line with the suspect offender's balcony

My pet hate are oversized trees on properties that overtake air space of neighbouring backyards leaving neighbours in the shade.

My nutty neighbour behind me has 5 large trees in his yard, one was a huge gum in the corner of our boundary fence whose branches covered 5 yards and dwarfed my 100yr tree on the other side of our property. His gum tree constantly dropped branches, leaves, bark and cluttered our gutters. rolleyes Thankfully, age and some pest disease took it's toll and it died slowly over 2 years with large dead branches dropping on everyone's yards before he finally had it cut down....contractors worked for three days! But he left a third of its trunk which is 30' high! Go figure. My Lilli Pillies along the back fence line now block out his unsightly yard (and face) and almost hide that remaining dead trunk from our view.

Proper selection of trees for residential properties is critical. I know my Lilli Pillies along the back fence are fine and not intrusive on his property/sunlight/air space...if they were problem, I most certainly would have heard from this nutty neighbour.

 

LOL Ooops! Guess the thread split in the process.

 

A rant is a rant, sometimes they seem to get a life of their own. Such as this thread. I don't mind a bit.

E

 

By all means let it out. The automotive repair industry is the worst for people being hateful. Too bad the a$$hole didn't hit you, you could have been the owner of a Mercedes Benz, sell it if nothing else.

 

By all means let it out. The automotive repair industry is the worst for people being hateful. Too bad the a$$hole didn't hit you, you could have been the owner of a Mercedes Benz, sell it if nothing else.

You don't know the half of it on my part. And if I won that car, I would sell it in a heartbeat! The prices are crazy on the Benz. $570 for a starter for a C 230? But damn, the little C230 coups are so much fun to drive! 4 banger with an attitude...

Friday my favorite customer came by. This lady gets all hands on deck help when she pulls up. After 10 mins, she needs a $6 part. I love this sweet older lady!

Louisiana is the home of the corrupt politicians. This person is a mover and shaker in our political realm. But she is also the sweetest person you will ever meet. One perk of my job is my good customers. Politicians, lawyers, judges, doctors, yep, I get to deal with them. My good customers just ask a few questions, and write a check, then sometimes I get to deal with folks threatening me.

I had one guy threaten me with a gun one time, sat his arse down an went over the bill, and he paid... You pay or we keep your car. My boss is not scared of a lawsuit.

E

 

My ex husband was an automotive manager, not the high dollar cars you deal with but the same kind of rage. This man had one helluva temper too, gotta give it to him for keeping it together. I used to get mad listening to people rant and rave and ask for the stupidest things. Trying to get something for nothing. Does your boss stand up for you? A gun, now thats going to far. The guy with the Mercedes will loose it (the car) you can't treat people like dogs and get away with it for ever. What goes around comes around.

 

My boss pretty much stands by me. He does sometimes discount the bill for them. I however, do not do that. I refer them to him. I honestly think the man gets 'aroused' when someone threatens to sue him. He is never happier than when he has a court date. And he has a pretty good record.

E

 

Oh my being sued would upset me tremendously.