[Closed] People not caring about other folks stuff (need to vent)

I 100% knew from the title that this was going to be about someone's car, and was going to feature someone bursting a blood vessel.

🙂

I wonder how many of you who are saying 'it's just a car' would be so calm if it were your bike being damaged by someone else.

It doesn't matter what the object is, it's just that someone else has damaged something of yours simply through a lack of respect.

I can stomach scuffs and scrapes to the car or van if they are minor, maybe a little bit of touch up paint or similar.
When it gets to the level of 'needs a bodyshop or paint guy' to fix I tend to get quite annoyed.
The sides of my T5 have several dents from car park door opening incidents. It may be 'just a van' but it probably cost at least as much as your car, if not more and as I'm self employed it is essential to my livelihood. Lizards, the lot of them.

Troll or asshat

Guilty of both probably, but the former was the intended bit. Sorry Julian, for some reason I couldn't resist the bait.

I'm pretty sure Premier members are allowed one free attempt at trolling, so consider that my only time. 🙂

It's only a car, happens to me once a year or more in London, c'est la vie, smile at yourself when you shave in the morning, kiss the wife/partner and tell her you love her, do both of these for a week and you will be a happier man.

This.

Although I can't speak French, don't have a wife and can't grow a beard. But I do know that placing less value on your material possessions leads to a happier life.

It's happened to me (at least once) in the past; my car was bumped by a woman in a car at the supermarket car park. Her partner looked a bit embarrassed/pissed off, she seemed pretty stressed about it. I told her not to worry, it was only a small scratch; there's plenty more of them. And we all drove off into the sunset happy and stress free.

It's just a car. Nobody got hurt. Relax a bit more about your personal possessions and you will be happier in life.

Police don't need to be involved. Somebody took my mirror off outside a shop - I heard the noise and saw the van drive away - random passer by came in with a full description and the number plate, gave me his name and address. Sent that to insurance company, who sent him a witness statement from to complete, which was enough for both insurance companies.

I had a similar thing happen to my Mondeo estate 2 weeks ago. Some idiot managed to scuff the passenger side back door and dent the wheel arch. The bit that annoys me (apart from the fact i'll be out of pocket getting it fixed) is that I parked away from other cars and my car is big and bright blue. How could this idiot not f#@#ing see it.

I wish I was rich enough to not care about the things I buy 😆

Apart from a car, what other thing that you own, potentially worth many thousands of pounds do you just leave in the street/public places?

Re: bike scratching, the ones I leave locked in town when on errands etc, I expect to pick up marks and dings due to the environment, same with my car, it's covered in dings and scrapes, only one of which I caused, but then I do leave it abandoned on public roads 6.5+ days a week so it's bound to happen. If I had a nice classic or something I was precious about it'd be kept in a garage or off-road and I'd be careful where I parked it if unattended.

There's also a difference between cosmetic damage and structural. I don't bother getting small dents and scrapes fixed, it doesn't affect the functionality, and has little impact on value as I run my cars until they're dead anyway so resale not much of a concern, even if it was then Repair costs can quite quickly escalate beyond the point of being worth doing. Like I said, would be different if it was a show car, but hen the environment it would get used in and left in would be a bit different, as it is my current car is a noisey smelly not particularly pretty tool so gets treated as such.

These things will happen, I'm not saying it's right, but it is not unexpected is it?

[u]Tale 1[/u]

The Mrs knocked down a wall, a low wall, with her car a couple of years ago. As she reversed into a small Ironmongers Yard her bumper caught the corner and about 4mtrs of the wall collapsed.

She went into the office to explain, the woman at the desk said it'd been knocked down so many times they just rebuild it without mortar, so brick on brick.

I collapsed laughing when she told me about it.

[u]Tale 2[/u]
Mate lives up Hampstead way, some steep driveways up there, pulled in handbrake on but the electronic gizmo that controlled it failed and he sped backwards into a 911 parked on the other side of the street. He popped around to the house to find an elderly woman half naked and a young bloke prancing about in the kitchen..naked.

Tale 2???

I wonder how many of you who are saying 'it's just a car' would be so calm if it were your bike being damaged by someone else.

You second instance involves a BIKE and you need to ask? The first involves a car and these are of no importance. HTH

Relax a bit more about your personal possessions and you will be happier in life.

I wonder whether it's really about the possessions, or about the owner needing to be [i]respected[/i]. I'd altogether rather people didn't knock my bike over, but when they do I tend to treat it as an accident rather than as a moral failure by them to respect my bike and by extension, me. Same result: I'm happier, because people aren't constantly disrespecting me.

🙂

People do that?!

Yes, some to55er left a 12" long crescent-shaped scratch on the bonnet of my car within a day of me taking delivery, by swinging past it with a bag over their shoulder. Idiots.

I am never buying a new car again - I got a nice car a couple of years ago and it has been deliberately scratched down the entire length, wing mirror ripped clean off by a passing car (and no details left), big chunk of paint scraped off (right down to the metal) by a bag or similar, several dents and both sides of the rear bumper scuffed by (I believe) someone using the shared office car park (her car is absolutely covered in scuffs).

Next time I am buying second hand and not worrying about it.

So I can trash your stupid bikes since I think that they are pointless and not worth caring about. Ok?

But for some reason many people don't think twice about leaving a very expensive car in public and are surprised when stuff happens to it. I have a shoddy bike that I leave "parked", same with my car 😉

Having said that, people with complete disregard for other peoples property still pisses me off.

[quote=JulianA ]

the same time; it's a good reason to have a car you don't really care much for. I don't know why the UK is so car obsessed

It's kind of been done, but the question is, who is happier, the folks who get all upset when their car gets scratched, because they attach a high perceived value on having an unblemished car, or those people who don't care? I note that whilst I do like to keep my bikes as shiny as possible, when they stop being shiny and new I also shrug, because that's what happens to bikes if you ride them - if I wanted to keep my bike shiny and unblemished I'd hang it on the wall, if I wanted to keep my car shiny and new I'd keep it in the garage and never drive it. Oh, and whilst we're at it, my collection of high end bikes (none shiny and new any more) still cost me a lot less than most people spend on depreciation on cars over the 20 years I've been building that up.

Note, for those who find this concept difficult, none of that is excusing people who damage other people's things - it's just that personally I'd feel a lot more upset about damaging somebody else's things than I would about getting mine a bit scratched or dented.

Those complaining about that comment seem to have completely missed the point being made. The attitude being commented on is the one which leads to motorists thinking their paintwork is more important than a human life.

Irritates me this one. We live on a narrow street with a church at the bottom, the congregation are mostly elderly and see parking on the double yellows as their right. Also they enjoy parking over our driveway and famously once IN our driveway which was interesting...On Sunday I watched helplessly as an elderly lady did a slow motion crash almost into my van, literally mms away, into the neighbours car then drove away amid gear crunching and clutch destruction. Quite a lot of damage so I was compelled to report it (she lives up the road) I fell bad but frankly if my daughter was on the path she would have been killed so this lady needs taken off the road. My neighbour was a tad annoyed as this is his 3rd car in a few months. My garage and drive is finished so the vans off the road and I'm thankful its still in one piece. Also, incident with courier driver who deliberately munched a car that was blocking the road ("We're late for the Carol concert" said the man as he ran down the hill leaving his car blocking a single lane road, mr DPD dealt with it amid crunching, scraping and a lot of destruction - I think he was having a bad day - I didn't see it just heard it and saw the van up the hill. Fella with the car was a bit upset but I felt it was a reasonable outcome given where he was parked (double yellows, blind corner, single lane that you could maybe squeeze past)
EDIT: HE rang my bell actually and claimed that I was responsible as well which was interesting, he then threatened me if I didn't tell him the numberplate of the vehicle which I never saw and was immovable on the fact that parking where he parked was dangerous, selfish and a risk as the double yellows are there to allow emergency vehicles up and down (ambo got stuck last week due to my builders 😯 )

It really boils my whatsit...

I bought a car back in June. Not a new car, but one I really wanted for quite a while. Within two weeks, someone had scraped the bumper and driven off. I am 90% sure I know who the culprit was, given the matching paint on the scrape on the side of their car, so I contacted my insurer. The other party refused to take calls from their own insurer, so the matter had to drop.

I've had someone smack a door into the side of my car, not realising I was sat in it and behaved as though I was being unreasonable when I challenged them about the dent they'd left.

I don't know the answer, I really don't...but I suspect that forced sterilisation might be in order.

I wonder how many of you who are saying 'it's just a car' would be so calm if it were your bike being damaged by someone else.

I lent my Kona Cindercone to MBUK for testing (it had the S&S BTCs in it) about 15 years ago and they put a small dent in the top tube.

I haven't forgotten.

A few weeks ago, I hired a car in Geneva, had 360km on it from new.
Within 2 days I'd scraped and cracked one wheel trim ( couldn't see the kerb due to snow buildup) and then returned to the car one day to find that somebody seemed to have used the bonnet to rest something on, something which had slid and left a half metre scratch on the paintwork.
When I returned the car I didn't mention the issues, and the girl who signed the car off didn't notice them.

Was it morally wrong not to bring it to her attention that I'd damaged the company's possession? (semi serious question)

another thing re cars getting damaged, driving does seem to bring out the worst in some people. There's a significant minority of people who once behind the wheel don't give a shit about anybody else's[i] safety[/i] so given that, do you think they are really going to care about a few scuffs and scrapes they may cause?

Careless people are careless.

Working in Insurance I have this conversation most weeks with customers who have come back to property that has been damaged by some inconsiderate sod.

This topic did remind me of a post last year. Chap lent his bike to a work colleague for a charity/work ride who then trashed it.

Does anyone know the outcome? Last I read the bosses were getting involved.

It doesn't matter what the object is, it's just that someone else has damaged something of yours simply through a lack of respect.

Hit the nail on the head here, why aren't people seeing the point here.
It's your property they have no right to damage it. I drive an old banger which I hate if someone smash it and drove off I'd be fuming, but if someone smashed it and had the common decency to apologise I'd more than likely to say thank you and don't worry about it.

It's about respect something which a lot of people lack

It's just a car. Nobody got hurt. Relax a bit more about your personal possessions and you will be happier in life.

Police don't need to be involved. Somebody took my mirror off outside a shop - I heard the noise and saw the van drive away - random passer by came in with a full description and the number plate, gave me his name and address. Sent that to insurance company, who sent him a witness statement from to complete, which was enough for both insurance companies.

You're right, it is just a car, but why should someone else's incompetence disrupt someone's life and cost them money.

You do realise that the insurance companies will hike the premium as result. You might not lose your no claims but you'll end up paying more.

I don't care much for cars or material possessions but I don't see why someone's carelessness should inconvenience me or cost me money

[quote="BigDummy"]I'd altogether rather people didn't knock my bike over, but when they do I tend to treat it as an accident rather than as a moral failure by them to respect my bike and by extension, me.I've had my bike knocked over [i]by accident[/i] it happens. But when it's because someone actually does something stupid or just isn't paying attention, or just doesn't care.

It grates.

[quote=nickgti ]Hit the nail on the head here, why aren't people seeing the point here.

Some people are seeing a different point - that life is generally better if a bit of minor cosmetic damage (because that is all it is for most of the cases mentioned - they don't affect the functionality in any way) doesn't leave you fuming. Nobody is excusing the people who don't take care of other people's things - but at the end of the day they are just things.

A few years back, I was at a trail centre with my then brand new bike. We stopped for a post-ride sandwich, but all the cycle racks were either full or designed for narrow tyres, so I had to lean my bike up against a low wall.

Along comes a small child, playing on the wall...

...you can guess the rest. I heard the crash as my new bike hit the deck, so I rose to look behind me to see what had happened. At that very moment, a very chastened looking family quietly ushered their child away and left their half-eaten food, before heading quickly in the direction of the car park. They obviously wanted to avoid paying for any damage.

Accidents happen, I wasn't bothered about it but an apology from either parent would have been nice.

Although I can't speak French, don't have a wife and can't grow a beard.

Could those things be related? 😉

Could those things be related?

😀

I think it all boils down to the fact I haven't got a nice car 🙁

We need a test. Learn French and grab a false beard! 🙂

I was hoping I could just buy a fancy car, along with a matching fleece top, which I could wear on nights out to woo potential wives.

I did actually see a bloke once who was wearing a Subaru WRC Rally fleece. I wondered what the hell he was playing at, but he appeared to have a wife and kid with him, so I guess he was just getting ahead in life.

I'm not getting the idea that you're more precious if you've a nice car....I've an old car but I'd still be annoyed if someone banged into it...but yes I'd keep my annoyance in check..shit happens and a smashed car is no where near as bad as if you lived in say Syria...perspective and all that....