Customer Demands "Common Courtesy"

[Anakah]

They deserve to be towed. There are signs all over! I got pissed one day when I got home because our idiot neighbor parked in my spot and I had to go find parking. I told the people I rented for and they dragged their heels. That car was there for quite a few days. I wish they had been towed!

[Samaliel]

This thread reminds me of the one time when we had to CHASE the postal worker around the residence to get our package. The impatient bastard just rang the bell and walked away the second after, ignoringour yelling of "One minute please!" Why were we yelling, you ask? Because the day before, he, or one of his colleagues, didn't even ring the bell, even though there were lots of obvious signs that we were, indeed, home (like the kitchen windows being wide open). Just put the "Couldn't deliver" slip with the rest of the mail. With the wrong (next day) date on it, too.

Yeah, French postal workers aren't all that reliable...

[protege]

Although I have to admit, Philadelphia (one of the cities they film) can be a pain in the ... to park in though.

Eh, Philly sucks But, I do know that their parking authority is a joke. At least it was years ago, when my father got a ticket. There weren't any signs, nor was the curb painted yellow. My uncle said not to worry about it--they were so far behind, that they'd never catch up. About a month later, we get a letter in the mail, and dad told them to go fuck themselves. By then, that car had been sold (and replaced), and the registration no longer valid--PA was slowly phasing out the yellow tags in favor of the now-gone blue ones, and had issued a new tag. Didn't stop the Philadelphia parking authority from sending threatening letters every so often...all of which were ignored

[bsaana]

Wait, you mean people actually get house to house delivery of mail through the USPS???

Ok, ok, I know it exists outside of small towns. Have to go to the post office to get anything. And I have to admit - the UPS drivers are much nicer here. I had set a plastic shelf outside to clean, and he was happy to have a nice place to set the package.

Another good thing about small towns in the middle of nowhere - parking isn't too much of a problem, and most of the time you know who parked where by recognizing their vehicles.

[Nohbody]

I'd like to say UPS here plays "ding dong ditch", but that'd be inaccurate for two reasons: 1) the door bell is broken, and there's a piece of masking tape over it with "Broken" written on it, and 2) they don't signal in any way at all, just leave stuff and run, or don't leave anything but a "missed you" tag then never honor the "we'll come back later" part. It's like a half hour drive down to their local-ish warehouse to get what I actually ordered (a lot of which can easily run to well over $100) if they do leave just the note.

Argh...

[smileyeagle1021]

One thing I like about the post office, and I know this will sound weird, is that I know that I have to go to the office to pick up any packages. The route I'm on is a foot route (for all intensive purposes) and the office won't allow their cariers to carry packages on foot routes. This area also has a lot of low income housing and a lot of crime of oppurtunity (I don't know if those two are related, but I wouldn't be overly surprised) and there is nothing I HATE more than coming home to see a FedEx tag saying "left package on patio"... yeah, thanks, lets leave valuable stuff in plane sight on my patio... then lets advertise it by putting a tag on my door. No thanks, I'd rather my package be safely sitting at the post office waiting for me.

[Andara Bledin]

You know, the company you order from has no idea what sort of place you live in, so it's kind of your responsibility, if you know that delivery is a bad idea, to maybe put something different on your delivery options. Both UPS and FedEx have options for terminal pickup.

I know that I have all of my packages delivered to my workplace for just that reason. I'm in an apartment complex, so there's no way to put anything but letters in the box, and the options are either to leave it at the office or with a random neighbor. I don't like either of those, so I solve the problem before it even exists.

Of course, even when you have a perfect address for deliveries, you'll get lazy drivers (from all three) who don't bother to actually deliver a package for no good reason.

^-.-^

[draftermatt]

UPS came in through my garage once and knocked on the door to go into the house from the garage.

In his defense though he had just seen me walk into the garage so he was probably following me.

We had a neighbor at our townhouse that had 5 roommates, and therefore 6 cars for 2 parking spaces.

They only parked in ours once and we made them come out and move it despite there being 12" of snow on the ground.

Once they parked across the street and the person who owned the spot parked them in by parking on the street.

7 AM on Sunday he's in his car late for work laying on the horn so someone will let him out. He ended up backing into their yard and driving through 2 other yards, over the sidewalk and out in the street.

And promptly parked in the same spot the next night.

[BeeMused]

Yet another reason why I don't have a car.
Parking spots are extremly rare in the area I live, so I would have to hunt for a spot all the time. Driving to work would take me about 30mins, if I'm lucky. Using public transportation takes about 25mins. If I really need a car, there are always rentals or taxies. All in all not having a car is cheaper too.

My postal delivery gal (aka SheWhoBringsBills) gets a Xmas tip and some more during the summer, and when I meet her, friendly words are exchanged. Guess what, I always have perfect service!
At work the post guy gets the same treatment, and we have a cool drink waiting for him when it's hot, or some hot coffee when it's cold. The other companies are complaining about the service once in a while, we never have to.

[Ironclad Alibi]

LOL a friend of mine got the best revenge in the same situation ... she lost a leg in an accident, and her parking spot got a handicapped sign and paint job.

Not this is a situation I don't understand. If it is a reserved spot, why is the extra handicapped sign needed? It creates a confusing situation. I know because my wife had foot surgery several years ago and got a handicap placard for a while. We parked in a clearly marked handicap spot at work one day. This was under an apartment building that sold parking passes for people who worked in the area.

That evening we were confronted by an irate guy who was upset that we were parked in his space. It didn't matter to him that we had a handicap placard and was parked in a handicap space. It was his reserved space and we were wrong. When the apartment parking manager came down, it was explained that the space was reserved for the guy even though it was also marked handicap. It had intrepreted the signs as meaning it was reserved for handicap parking.

The guy had insisted it be marked handicap for him, thinking it would be extra protection and a double whammy against someone else parking there. It backfired on him.

I think any space marked handicap should be available to anyone with a handicap placard or tag. Having a reserved spot marked handicap and reserved just creates confusion.

[NightWatch]

My last place had a long driveway for parking and the landlord owned my property (a house) and the property next door (an apt building). The landlord had this really annoying habit of parking in my driveway, then going over to visit (for hours sometimes!) with the residents in the apt building. One day he was parked behind my car and I was trying to go to work. I spent 30 minutes looking for him and ended up being nearly an HOUR late to work because I couldn't find him. When he did finally show up it took him a full 10 minutes to get in and move his car, and that was after I told him I was late for work and had to leave NOW!

So the next time it happened, I had raced home from errands because my blood sugar was dropping (hypoglycemia) and just as I was getting home I was to the point where I was shaky and getting cold sweats and going retarded. I felt like I was gonna die but the landlord was in my damn driveway, again! So I said screw it and parked behind him even though I saw him coming out to move to the car. I went inside and made my food and ignored the pounding on the door until I had eaten and was feeling better. He had to wait like 40 minutes for me that time. When he asked why, I shrugged and said "You were in my spot."

And on the topic of Sears... I won't buy from them either now. The first time they refused my delivery they brought a semi truck (yeah, an 18wheeler) and bitched that I lived in a small alleyway and they couldn't deliver it. Even though I expressly told them over the phone that it was an itty bitty narrow street. Then when they came out (days later) the second time they whined that my street was too icy, in january, right after a snow storm... Then I called them and said some very angry and unkind things because I was tired of washing my clothes in the bathtub... It was delivered that day...

[EricKei]

The guy had insisted it be marked handicap for him, thinking it would be extra protection and a double whammy against someone else parking there. It backfired on him.

Apparently it never occurred to this guy that the sort of people who routinely ignore "Handicapped Parking" signs are also the sort who will gleefully ignore other little things like "Reserved", "Freight/Loading Zone Only", "Fire Zone", etc...Besides, a handicapped sign is, if anything, an encouragement to park there for people who are allowed to do so. My question with this guy is, did it have a big ol' Reserved sign as well?

[Netrogo]

Something I always found amusing in regards to the parking war in my city. When I was a bike courier I started hearing stories of horrible things couriers did to peoples cars that were parked in bike lanes. Kicking off mirrors as they passed, keying, etc... There was one street in particular. A one way street going south, that for some reason had a one way bike lane on the right side that was north bound. Confusing, but somewhat amusing how often I'd bike up that street, have to swerve to avoid a car parked in the bike lane, and see the shiny new racing stripe running along side the car from a courier who'd no doubt gone up the street first.

[Cat]

Parking Wars is on now

At my condo complex, there are NO assigned spots...and this one chick (who didn't live there, she was staying temporarily with a relative) got pissy because I parked in "her" spot. 1) There are no assigned spots 2) I'm a resident, you are a guest...I have more parking rights than you, dearie. I was happy when she left

AT my bf's complex...there are assigned spots, yet no guest parking spots (you have to squeeze in near the curbs) Took the bf about 1.5 years to realize that when I visit, he takes a curb spot, then when I get there at night, I take his spot, and we switch in the AM. (there are curb spots when he gets there, not when I do)

Only got 1 parking ticket in my life....parking the street down from my bf overnight. I had been doing it for some time, there were not any no parking signs on that street. Meh, I paid it,...not worth the gas to go fight it.

Sorry, that was rambling....its because Parking Wars is on

[jackfaire]

I got a parking ticket once I didn't realize that any street that meets another street is a crosswalk.

The reason is simple. In my town if you cross at a spot that does not have two white lines designating it a crosswalk you can and friends have been ticketed for jaywalking.

But apparently these same spots that are not crosswalks if you need them for that purpose are suddenly crosswalks when you park a foot too close.