Random Rants
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I think they made a mistake. The ULTRA low emission fine should be the one that makes working people homeless not the other way around.
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I haven't been able to find anything really helpful, but EPC seem to genuinely be engaged by TFL. They seem to have a reputation for asking people to pay the same fine more than once, being hard to contact, etc. Not sure if this is extreme incompetence or sharp practice. Hope you manage to find a way out of paying at least their outrageous mark-up.
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First time posting in a rant here. Usually I keep my woes to myself.
I am still getting used to my new one hour commute to and from work since my wife and I moved to West Virginia from Maryland. I went from a five minute commute, meaning I used to have a 50 minute commute a week which is now a 10 hour weekly commute. The drive isn't bad, in fact it has been entertaining at times. For example, today on the way home, I saw an emergency vehicle SUV smash the ever loving crap out of a wild male pheasant on alt 40 today that flew in front of his truck. It was an explosion of feathers and I saw the beautiful green, red and golden bird tumble across the middle of the road. I try not to mourn death as it is a part of all life. But it was kind of jarring to be right behind and swerve around it.
My wife and I drove separately because over the past few weeks, we stop by our old house in MD to pack up our truck and car before heading home. I got home first today and found the puppies losing their minds in the barricaded area of the living room we closed off for them. They are not used to the extra couple of hours home without us. Our Christmas tree had fallen over and broken ornament glass was strewn across the hardwood floor. After I let the dogs out, I noticed that one of my Ravens ornaments that my mom gave me was one of the few that broke on the floor. Same with our Krampus tree topper that I just bought last year that I really had fallen in love with.
I had to quickly vacuum the glass up before the puppies could greet my wife when she was walking in the door. As I'm sure all of you know, glass goes fecking everywhere when it falls and breaks. From there, I needed to join my wife to unload our truck and my car, both packed to the brim. When I was finished, I needed to move my car and ended up running over our knife magnet that had fallen out of my passenger side door that I did not notice. The screws were still in it and I ran over it, resulting one screw and metal knife holder lodging into a tire as I drove up the driveway. Just as the sun had set, I then needed to change the tire to the spare from the trunk in the dark.
Now I'm deciding whether or not to put in for a substitute teacher for tomorrow. The weather report for this area is calling for 1-3 inches of snow in the morning and a coating of freezing rain ice, with 5-8 inches in some spots. The forecast for Maryland where I teach is only calling for a bit of snow and mostly rain, so the schools will likely be open. Driving an hour in the dark on windy, unfamiliar WV backroads at 6am in the snow is not what I want to be doing one day before winter break.
My wife and I are both super stressed out and a bit on edge. I just needed to type it out and if you read any of this, thanks. I don't have any friends to talk to in person anymore (long story) and I don't have that many folks to talk to.
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@Oaktavia what an absolute shit day.
Just saw this today and maybe it was made for you:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmWTbn_DW0R/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=
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Sorry man, that is a total shit day. Hoping you and your wife make some time to decompress even if just for a few minutes.
Personally if they’ll let you, I would use a sub. I’m not sure I would risk my health and well being especially given the weather that is incoming.
I am 50/50 spending the night at the hospital tomorrow if the roads are too bad.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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@Jett129 I agree a wake and bake is long overdue
@Tmulltuous lol thanks for sharing that. I showed my wife and we both agree dude is wise!
@Anesthetist we have decompressed and it is all good vibes now. What state do you live in? I don't think I've asked you that before.
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@Oaktavia sounds like you need mental health day–i hope you take one!
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@endo I suspect since UK isn’t part of the EU that your driving privileges in Britain alone could be suspended but not reciprocated in the EU. If the UK isn’t responsive to your search for info check your own local motor vehicle office or a court that handles motor vehicle infractions. I know nothing about Euro laws though. Maybe @EdH knows someone who can help.
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@Oaktavia sounds like yesterday was a total nightmare. In my experience, 21 December has precedent for being a Bad Day. Hope today is a better day and you're back to your usual self soon!
@Oaktavia Hope today is just a little better for you…and @ARNC completely agree with your observations.
A friend/neighbour was scammed out of $1000 by the your credit card is compromised, we’re looking into it, buy some gift cards, etc….They even instructed her to go to her bank, pull out $5000 and were going to have her continue buying gift cards…Thankfully, someone in one of the stores (who she knows) stopped her from spending probably what is her life savings. When she went to the police, the overall opinion from them is that there isn’t much they can do…
She doesn’t and can’t really afford the loss, but her pride would prevent her from ever taking money from Laura and I. My heart is broken and my faith in humanity is a little shook.
For those of you who live to scam other people…FUCK YOU and I hope there is a special ring in hell just reserved for you.
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[mention]goosehd [/mention] my dad was taken advantage of by a fishing scam and ended up letting scammers into their computer and then gave them their credit card numbers and socials…..he would have kept going had my mom not called to see how is day was….
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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There are some Youtubers doing a good job fighting the scammers. Their channels are some of my favorites. Sharing their videos with potential scam victims (old people, for example) may help.
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Got mail from London. The TfL says endomobile went through some low emission zones the days after our Gosport meeting in September. Well, photos suggest it was acutally there, however I have no idea how it got there.
Anyway, they - or rather their international
mafiadebt collecting agency called 'European parking collection' - are now asking for the humble amounts of 95,70 and 1.196,25 Euros (in case I'd pay immediately, otherwise 287,10 and 3.588,76 €).I'm not money-mad, but this exceeds a little bit the range I'm used to spent without batting an eye.
Any suggestions? (all educated guesses and encouragements very welcome, but legal advice even more)
Are these fuckers able to get some money from me not living in the UK?
Would this be the first time Brexit will be beneficial for me?Hey @endo, this sucks.
Not my area of law but I’ve done some quick research. It seems like the grounds of appeal are pretty limited - they all seem to amount to “it wasn’t me” - for example because you are a car hire company and the car was hired out at the time of the offence, or because you sold the vehicle before it was caught in the LEZ or the ULEZ and hasn’t updated the registered keeper details at the time of the offence. I don’t think these apply to you though.
I’m interested to know why you say “I have no idea how it got there” in case that might be of any help, but the photographs suggest it was in the zones…
So the next thing you might look at is whether the endomobile is the type of vehicle that is caught by the charges. I think the ULEZ is supposed to catch all diesel vehicles regardless of type, but the LEZ is (i think!) supposed to be catching commercial vehicles. There are stories online of people driving non-commercial vehicles but the system thinking they were in commercial ones, and getting over the fine that way. See this guy, for example: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/aug/31/i-was-charged-20000-for-driving-my-car-into-the-london-emissions-zone
As for Brexit and how that affects enforceability of the charges, this now depends on multilateral treaties, rather than EU law, and domestic law in Germany. The U.K. is signed up to the Hauge Convention in its own right, so recognised foreign judgments. I assume that Germany is also a signatory and so would also enforce a U.K. judgment, if it came to that. (At the moment it is just a Penalty Charge Notice, but will go to court to be turned into a judgment if you fail to react to the PCN or fail a court challenge against it.) You’d need a German lawyer to advise on the enforceability of a PCN in Germany.
Incidentally, I have first hand experience of taking on a PCN (and winning!) but it was a gruelling, Kafka-esque experience. I only eventually (18 months it took me!) won because I was actually in the right - neither my car nor I were in London at the time (my number plate had been cloned by some prick who made an illegal turn). The issue was that TFL enforcement and the debt collectors are so process driven that the human beings involved refused to actually read my letters or messages and simply closed every ticket immediately upon receipt… but that full story is a rant for another day as it would take me a good few paragraphs to tell properly.
Oh, P.S. thanks @Matt for summoning me!
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https://www.campsidemedia.com/shows/chameleon-scam-likely
@goosehd @Anesthetist if you are podcast listeners this is a great one on the scam. most of it involves foreigners and 'expired visas" and similar, but it revolves around the gift card scam and how crazy involved it all is.
