Remember the gas co. guy who walked on top of my car?

Wow, I was expecting to see you'd made him intimately familiar with the underside of your car, this time - congrats -

 

Phat, ignorance is something to be embar***ed about, not something you should expose so readily.

 

$10/lb Good for you!!!!!

 

Congrats on the follow through. I just went back and read the entire post. You might want to mud out the check number and signature though. We just got dinged at our office for a $10,000 check forgery that was done on our CONTROLLER'S expense check! They took it and copied the check, including signature, and then changed the amount! It was one of those machine checks so they just played with photoshop and got the font right. Fortunately, the bank didn't cash it but we had some fun once it was determined that the check number was from his own check.

Funny how that works. Did the guy get canned? Do you have a 'not on my property' thing going against him so he can't come back after it? How about a sign on the fence that says Keep Off the Cars?

 

good for you, but take that pic of the check off, its got the routing number exposed, and they'll get you in trouble for that

 

I hope they took the money out of the dumb****'s paycheck that walked on your car.

 

Great that it turned out well.

Can you improve the meter reading situation?
When I built a new gate and side fence at my SoCal house I hole sawed a couple holes a few inches apart and connected them with saw cuts to make an oval viewing port.

Worked well since the meter faced the street.

 

I'm not a meter reader but I work for a big ol' utility and I can tell you that the guy probably got a very nasty write up or possibly lost his job over that one (as he should have done!). IF he is union, his shop steward probably told him he was a dumb *** and broke the rules so take your lumps like a man. We have a policy that you as the homeowner MUST provide access to the meter or it must be visble to the meter reader so they can read it WITHOUT coming onto, or damaging your property. As C9 said, cut a hole in your fence, if they can't read your meter they should leave you a notice that states you have not provided access and if you have trouble with broken fence boards etc... contact the company and TELL them. Glad compensation was made for a legit complaint and sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with someone in the industry, round here that person would probably have been shown the door for doing that....have fun welding!

 

I remember the post well. Glad that you stuck to your guns and it all worked out for you.

Love your idea about investing part of the money in a Mig and doing the repairs yourself...when you start that you'll have another string you can share with us. This may turn out to be a very famous car on the HAMB!

 

Wow - that's a rare sight!
And you say without police report or oversight comission or small claims court, etc....?
Can you give us a few more clues how you got to his outcome?
What's the trick to get something like an utility company to send such a large compensation check ? Unreal!

Glad for you, man. Inspiring story...



Just goes to show, it's always the little amounts and petty things that cause the biggest stink.
Seems like the bigger issues do get settled much easier sometimes.

 

Nothing like the sight of a couple big Monitor Lizards to keep the clown out of the side yard.

 

good for you .. maybe that will teach that fat ******* a lesson enjoy the welder and teach us what you learn haha.

 

Thanks everybody, especially those of you who in the original thread gave me the advice to call the gas co. (as opposed to "kick his ***"). That was good advice. I also erased the account # from the picture so no trouble will arise.

I'm satisfied with the result, and I guess in the end it's gonna make a good story about "How I learned to weld" They cancelled the cl*** I was going to take until next January so I'm going to get Miller's video and just teach myself for now. I have a stripped out Fiat body I was going to sell that needs a few patches so I'll practice with that first before I work on my "good stuff".

Also, there is about a 6" gap between the gate and the wall that I left uncovered just so the gas guy could see the meter. No good excuse there really.

As to how I got to this outcome, be persistant is my advice. First I put my facts together about what happened before I called the gas company. Then after they rejected my first quote for replacing the roof and wanted to bondo it instead I made a good argument about how it was a collector car and not some modern car and it should be put back right. That was what got the larger amount (popping out and bondoing was quoted at $1400).

If this happens to you, keep after the company that did the damage and be prepared to get the police involved if needed. I was ready but didn't have to.

I don't know what happened to the guy, hopefully he just got written up or something. I don't want him to lose his job (even though he probably deserves to) but I'm pretty sure he fully understands now not to go tearing up peoples property. We all gain if he learned something and doesn't do this again.

PS: I thought about not telling the wife but instead I showed her the check and told her I was gonna buy a welder with it!

 

Hmmm......the dog idea works for me. Total ***** cat but certainly keeps anyone who doesn't belong on my property off of it.

Congrtas on getting things resolved.

 

I've seen some pretty badly damaged roofs on cars that were repaired by simply popping them back up and shrinking the creases.
The car on the bottom was saved from the wrecker after being on the bottom of the pile for 18 years. It's mercedes 300SE long wheel base,one of only 14 built in RHD. As you can see it had another mercedes finny sitting on top.The roof was squashed in the back ,and thought was given to welding a new roof panel ( rare and big $$$$) but when the roof was bumped back,it only took about 2 hours work with torch ,hammer and dolly and it was perfect again.

 

Order 'The Key to Metal Bumping' from Eastwood Co. It's a '40s book on metal repair and is a bargain at $15. I learned more from that than all my other bodywork books put together after hearing about it repeatedly here on the HAMB...