Would you have reported these damages or MYOB?

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 6:53 pm

I had 2 scenarios in a row today that left me wondering what to do:

1- I was standing outside dd's school, waiting for her to come out at dismissal time, and a UPS guy showed up with a bunch of packages for the school. He was buzzed in and told to unload the stuff in the basement of the school. Nobody saw his packages except for me and some other mothers. We noticed that one item he had was a big storage container and the side of the container was completely cracked. It was totally unusable. It the school can't be sure it was delivered that way, they may not be able to return it.

2-There was a very small fire across the street from my house. 6 fire trucks and the fire chief came rushing over and maybe three of the actually went in and put out the fire very easily. But on their way to the call, one fire truck was trying to turn on to our narrow street and it hit a parked car and damaged it. The firemen did not acknowledge in any way that they damaged someone's property. I asked police officers who were there what they should be doing and they said nothing because they can't file a police report without the owner of the car. They didn't leave a note explaining or anything.

WWYD in these situations?

amother

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 6:59 pm

#1 - the school may have purchased the cabinet with a crack at a deep discount

#2 - was the car parked legally? Do you need to leave a certain amount of feet at the corner? If not I would call the neighbor and tell them what happened. ( a relative of mine lost a car when a fire truck destroyed it on a turn. It was parked illegally, so there was no claim)

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 7:01 pm

If I was the secretary in a school and I got a delivery and the item was broken, I would assume it arrived that way. I don't see what benefit your 'testimony' would be, but if there would be a point then by all means, tell them!

Regarding the fire truck - unfortunately, NY (I'm assuming!)'s finest and bravest and strongest... are all above the law. If I knew the person whose car it was, I would probably tell her. But suffice it to say I highly doubt that she will be getting any compensation for damages - even if you had the whole thing recorded. That's just the way it is... they don't care. They're saving lives, and that's what they do best. Any damages along the way are just too bad.

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 7:25 pm

amother wrote:

#1- I doubt it. If so, then the seller obviously wasn't honest because that container wouldn't hold anything. It was useless.

The purpose of reporting it would be that the company could claim it wasn't their fault and UPS could claim it wasn't their fault, but the school has no way of knowing if something fell on it in their basement unless I tell them it came like that.

#2- Yes and no. There is a "No parking anytime" sign, because the street is narrow, but the car had a disability permit. Cars with permits often park there. There is room for cars to drive by fairly easily, but it's a pretty tight squeeze for trucks.

LittleDucky

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 8:54 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

The disability placard does not allow you to park at a "no parking anytime" unless there is a caveat there such as residential permits being allowed. The disability card allows one to park at meters past the time limits, at "20 minutes only" spots for as long as they need, blue spots, and to not have to worry about residencial permits (some areas have these-only people who live in the zone can buy a permit for their car... Helpful for those homes right near commercial property like restaurants...). One cannot park at red curbs, no parking anytime, during street cleaning times/alternate side of street days etc.

Sorry but the neighbor probably won't get anything.

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 8:58 pm

That reminds me of the time I had ordered a laptop. On the day that it was supposed to be delivered, I saw the UPS truck on my block as I was leaving. I asked the driver if he had my package. He looked at his list, said yes, I have it, and went onto the truck to find it. He picked up each box, saw it wasn't mine, and threw it onto the floor of the truck. I was standing there praying that he hadn't done that to my new laptop at all that day.

B"H the laptop was in good working order, so maybe it escaped being thrown on the floor. Or maybe it was just packaged really well.

the world's best mom

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 9:00 pm

LittleDucky wrote:

I believe you are mistaken. You are thinking of No standing anytime zones. Those are okay only if it says "except for..." or if it's only no standing at some times.

But no parking any time is legal for cars with permits. I have one and it says so straight on the permit. We use it all the time and have not been given a ticket ever.

heidi

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 9:15 pm

I would definitely call the school while the driver was still there to tell them about the damage so they could catch him before he left. In fact, I am such a busybody (and usually very active in my kid's schools) that I would ask the driver to wait till he got the OK from the administration about the cracked box.
About the firetruck however, I was once waiting at a light to turn and a firetruck came barreling around me, sideswiping my car as he went. I had to swallow the damage.

LittleDucky

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 9:30 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

I just looked it up. It depends on where you live. Some states allow you to park at "no parking" signs others do not. A NY city one allows the "no parking anytime" but not the "no standing". In Colorado, Washington, California, Indiana, Delaware...(at least according to my research) you cannot park in a no standing or no parking zone.

Dev80

Wed, Nov 05 2014, 11:41 pm

shipping companies (UPS, Fed ex) often have an insurance on items delivered, if an item comes damaged from delivery then they'll come and pick it up, send it back to the container store, and the container store can then ship a new one to the school. It may be worth it to say something, it can't hurt, right?

the world's best mom

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 4:10 am

Okay. I did tell someone at school, and she sent me to tell someone else, so the guy left before I got to the right person. I hope they aren't held responsible for the damage.

Regarding the car: I think I was more bothered by the fact that the owner of the car would come find his car damaged and not have any idea who caused the damage than the money aspect. If he knows it was a firetruck on a call, at least he might understand why it happened. But they didn't leave a note or anything. They left it up to him to wonder what happened. Doesn't that make it much worse, even if they wouldn't reimburse him?

I have a very strong sense of justice. It bothers me when the bad guys escape unacknowledged. They can't give people tickets for hit and run run accidents if they are going to do the same thing themselves. You get what I'm saying?

mille

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 6:54 am

the world's best mom wrote:

The purpose of reporting it would be that the company could claim it wasn't their fault and UPS could claim it wasn't their fault, but the school has no way of knowing if something fell on it in their basement unless I tell them it came like that.

The company will not care what you have to say. Either they will honor the return or not. But why would the company listen to the testimony of some random person who said "Yeah, I saw it, it was cracked!"? They won't. The school will file for a return for damaged goods, and hopefully they ordered it from a reputable place like Amazon, who will take it back no problem. If the retailer feels that UPS is at fault, they will refund the school and deal directly with UPS on the matter.

Most online retailers who have a good reputation got their reputation by having excellent customer service. I don't think you need to worry about this one.

amother

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 7:01 am

I have another would you report or myob situation.

A person is claiming that her diswasher arrived damaged when I know her contractor didn't protect the it before it was installed. Her contractor is claiming it arrived that way, but there is no way to know because he was very careless with her property. The diswasher had tools leaning against it when I saw it.

Leahh

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 7:26 am

LittleDucky wrote:

Do you live in Brooklyn? I don't know if op does either but in Brooklyn a disability permit does allow one to park by no parking anytime including alternate side. It's no standing anytime which would not be allowed.
as an aside, why is an illegally parked car not entitled to get compensated for damages? If I pass a double parked car & side swipe it am I not responsible for the damages even though the other car was double parked?
Eta I witnessed a school bus side swipe a parked car & left a note for the driver of the car with all the information including my phone number. Driver called me to thank me & was able to file a claim with the bus company and insurance. I was called by bus company and insurance company but do not know the end result.
my car was hit when parked and was included in the police report as damaged. So the lazy police officer didn't want to bother with paperwork. I would tell the owner of the car what happened and hopefully they can file a report

LittleDucky

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 7:55 am

Leahh wrote:

If you notice I had a follow up post which said that it depends on where you live about the rules for disability parking. I don't have a placard but I know people who do out of NY and they can't park at "no parking anytime" or alternate side of street (which I don't get allowing. How else should the street get cleaned if the car is parked there? And if it's a dangerous spot, why allow anyone to park there? Why else have no parking signs?)
The car that was illegally parked is at fault. Perhaps the truck was just not able to fit and that is why it's a no parking spot.

amother

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 9:21 am

I used to work for a mail order retailer and this is how it worked--customers were expected to inspect merchandise in a certain amount of time (15 days) and if it was damaged we would file a claim and send them a replacement. Every carrier had a different deal--some required damage to be noted on the delivery receipt or refusal of delivery (but then you may have to refuse entire delivery and can't keep the good stuff...though delivery is based on what shipped together and not total deliveries you are getting from the carrier that day) but most had some sort of deal for "concealed damages" that included splitting the cost with us (the retailer), the factory and themselves. Regardless, it never cost the customer anything so I don't think you're helping the school by telling them about what you witnessed.

the world's best mom

Thu, Nov 06 2014, 11:03 am

Well, I think I made the right choice regarding the car. Last night, I left a note in the windshield explaining what I saw. I left my name and phone number. I had no idea whose car it was.

Today the owner called me. She said she found my note this morning and went down to the police station and the fire station. They claimed there was no fire there and no fire truck had damaged her car. The police said the only thing to do was to have me come tell them what I saw. The owner (who is not Jewish) and I went to the police station together and they agreed to file a report. We went to show them the car, and she pointed out to the police officers that there was red paint on the fender.

We also stopped in to the fire station and I pointed out the truck that had done the damage. A fireman saw heard us saying that that truck had hit her car, and he said, "No, we would never do that."

Hopefully she'll at least get an apology and not just hearing "We would never have done such a thing."