People Spew Out Their Absurd Revenge Stories
12. Refuse To Pay For Damaging My Car? I'll Sue You And Make You Change Your Business Name
Should’ve done the right thing from the get-go.
“In 1993 I bought a 1992 Saturn, a nice car, low mileage, ran great! I had been taking my cars to the same place for a few years for oil changes; the place was named after a certain loony tunes character that went “beep beep” and even used that purple-headed bird in their logo.
One day in 1995 I had to run an errand across town right after the oil change. Sometimes there might be some smoke from oil getting on the exhaust headers, so I didn’t think much of it when I saw a bit right after starting my car.
I got on the highway and after several miles noticed smoke coming out from under the hood.
I pulled over and popped the hood to find the oil filler cap sitting in the valley of the valve cover instead of screwed down over the filler opening.
Oil was everywhere, the engine bay was soaked! I checked the oil and was two quarts low. I walked to a gas station, got oil and topped it off, and turned to head right back to the oil change place. I didn’t make it. The check engine light came on, the car started stumbling and running rough, and I managed to make it to the Oldsmobile dealer (think GM product) I had done business with before.
They took the car in while I called to cancel my appointment and call the oil change place to lodge a complaint. They told me they couldn’t do anything, I had to call the boss. I got his number and called. This is where it starts getting fun!
He basically told me it was my problem, he changes 90 cars a day and can’t be expected to get every one right. I told him he would be responsible for the damage to my car and that he would be hearing back from me. Olds dealer told me the alternator was saturated in oil, being right behind the oil fill hole, and was shot.
They had to go to the Saturn dealer for the alternator as it was not a standard GM part. The next day I get my car back, $450 to fix, needed a battery too. I call the oil change owner and he tells me to send him the receipts.
I figure good, gonna get this taken care of in no time. Nope, I call a week later and he says with my car having 52,000 miles on it, he can’t be sure it was the oil change that caused it. He even refused a refund for the oil change.
I went back and forth with him for three months, he would flip-flop between being cooperative and combative, but never getting anything done. Finally, I decided to sue. I filed and his response to the notification was that he wasn’t responsible if his employees messed up someone’s car.
Since I was/am not familiar with this process, I asked the court clerk what to expect, and she became a library of info. I followed her advice, brought a ton of paperwork, showed up in a suit and tie to court, and explained my case to the judge.
The oil change guy showed up in a pair of jeans that should have been thrown in the trash and complained that he was a small business owner and shouldn’t be held accountable for his employee’s actions. Suffice it to say, Judge ruled in my favor.
I asked the court clerk what to do next and her reply was to lay low and do nothing. He had 30 days to appeal, and if I did nothing, he would think I was happy and wouldn’t appeal. A month later she confirmed that he did not appeal. I then sent him a registered letter stating that he owed me the $450 plus $75 for the court filing fee.
My letter was carefully worded and stated that if he didn’t pay I would file a lien on his business. He called the day the letter was received and told me a check would be in the mail asap. It did take another month for the check to come in, but I did get paid.
As I mentioned, it took three months for me to get tired of his crap, so I decided to check on whether he had the legal right to use the beep-beep bird material (note this was before internet days). I made several calls and finally got a hold of W bros.
legal department in Burbank, CA. The lawyer I talked with was VERY interested in what I had for her and gave me her mailing address to send the information on the oil change place. A short time later a friend who knew of my troubles told me I needed to drive by the place, so I did.
Less than two weeks after I sent the materials, (including a copy of my receipt, the yellow pages ad, his business card, and photos of the place) the signage was covered with a sheet, and no beep-beep bird-related stuff in sight! A week later the place had a new name and new logo.
Now if this guy had just paid for his mistake up front, it would have been simple and done. As he chose to be a jerk, it wound up costing him a lot more.”
11. Can't Treat Your Staff Right? Watch Us All Walk Out On You
“I was a rink rat growing up. The only days I wasn’t in the skating rink were the adult and gay nights (calm down, it was the 90s and that’s literally what it was called).
Friday night, Saturday morning and night, along with Sunday morning and night I was there. Heck, I didn’t even leave between the morning and night sessions. I even went Tuesday nights as well! I was serious too. I dove deep into speed skating and not trying to toot my own horn but I was pretty good and well-known.
Anyway, I’d been going to this specific skating rink for years and knew EVERYONE. One day, It was right before I started 7th grade, the owner came up to me and asked me to go out onto the rink floor and tell some kids to slow down.
I did and came back and he asked me how would I like to make $7.50 an hour to which I responded “do I also get in for free?” He laughed and said of course. BOOM! First job and I wanted to be there anyway so it was the biggest win-win of all time for me.
To say I loved it was an understatement and I did everything besides work the snack bar. DJ, skate counters, floor guard, janitor, hype man… you name it and I did it. It was some of the greatest times of my life. So much fun and the owner was super awesome.
Also, we were paid under the table so getting an envelope full of change every week just felt like a bonus for having fun. To me it wasn’t a job, it was pure fun. It also helped that all my friends were regulars as well.
A few years go by and the owner sold to another guy who we will call Tim. Tim could be an absolute nightmare to work for. He changed the entire dynamic of the place and everyone felt it. Now, this skating rink was POPULAR and extremely old.
Lots of people all over the city knew of it. My mom and aunt skated there when they were kids if that tells you anything.
Some way or another the new owner set up a juicy deal that had the rink start making a crapload of earnings.
On Saturday night from 7-11, it was skating per usual but from 11-2ish/3ish it was a club. A local hip-hop station came in there with the local label Swishahouse and turned the place upside down for those few hours. Every week and the place was POPPIN.
There must have been over 2k people in there on average and at $20 per person it adds up quickly plus the snack bar would NEVER stop turning out food and drink. We were making a stupid income. Bonus! We also found some good stuff when cleaning up as well.
Change, knives, substances, jewelry… It was awesome.
So, Tim has it made but sometimes he would fly off the handle for little things. All of us weren’t sure what his deal was but he would explode out of nowhere and start talking all kinds of nonsense.
I’d started to have enough because we all had worked there for many years WITHOUT ISSUE. One night he went too far…
I don’t like being called outside of my name. It’s a respect thing. My own mother didn’t do it and he for sure wasn’t.
For context, I was in 10th grade now. One night he was in some kinda mood and for whatever reason was taking it out on everyone. I don’t remember the exact situation but he started freaking out on me at about 11:30 PM. Now, Slim Thug and Paul Wall were in the building that night so the place was extra packed. Waaaay more than usual (I’m sure we were breaking all kinds of fire marshal rules lol).
He went ballistic and called me every name in the book while I just stood there with rage building up in me. I’d had enough. For years this place ran flawlessly and everyone loved us so he really didn’t have a good reason to treat us in the manner he did.
My plan was formed. I immediately gather everyone else that was working and we all decided that enough was enough. It was time for a lesson.
I assembled the entire crew and we all quit on the spot. ALL OF US. That meant nobody to serve food, clean, help the Swishahouse people, or just carry out general things that needed to be done when 2-3k people were in the building.
He was stunned, his tone changed and he became very sweet. We weren’t having it. As an additional screw you I called the other two people that were off and they showed up to quit as well. Tim had already reached out so he assumed they were showing up to work.
Nope. We left him with zero workers on the absolute busiest of busy nights and boy did it implode. He couldn’t find anyone to work so the place went to absolute crap that night. The on-duty officer told him he needed to figure something out or he was going to close it down without workers.
Well… he didn’t. It closed down that night and apparently without staff it got nasty. People started getting nasty, smoking, trashing the place, and all kinds of stuff. Shortly after the radio station and label took their business elsewhere and not long afterward the place closed down.
He lost his entire investment. This was very bittersweet for me because I loved the place but he ran it into the ground. The building is still standing and I would LOVE to bring it back to its former glory but my pockets aren’t deep enough yet.
Maybe one day.”
Another User Comments:
“My first job was also at a roller skating rink. I worked there from the time I turned 15 years and 6 months old until they tore the place down to build a new parkway for the gigantic mall they were building.
I was there for around 3 years. I got my job basically the same way as you OP. I was a regular and they offered me a job.
It is still one of the favorite times of my life 30+ years later. I met my first partner there and made friendships that have stood the test of time.
I still talk to that first partner once every month or two. After I got my driver’s license and my first car I was there 7 days a week, even if I wasn’t working. I loved to skate. After the rink closed on Saturday nights at 1 am about 15 of us would stay until 3 or 4 in the morning and play hockey.
I miss those simpler times. We had such a blast.” clown572
10. Take Advantage Of Military Folk And Retirees? You And Your Pal Are Going Down
“This happened back in 2002 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. I was stationed down the way at 32nd Street Naval Base for my Military Occupation Specialty school and was a new Lance Corporal (E3) at the time. I had a 1994 Dodge Spirit with 180K miles or so and I’d just driven it across the country.
I bought it a few days before leaving KS at an Auto auction. A couple of weeks into my school it died, at the gate, next to the sentry.
After an initial freak-out that I was a s*****e bomber and the subsequent search of me and my car everyone calms down and they help push my car to the top of the hill so I can coast down the other side and into the auto repair shop parking lot which thankfully went without incident.
Before I go in I call my dad and then his cousin. My dad knows a ton about cars and his cousin is a mechanic with his own very successful shop (like a dozen work bays and they handle everything from regular cars to farm equipment to semis).
I know a fair bit about cars on my own but he knows everything. Between us, we decide it looks like the distributor or the distributor cap is the issue. My dad’s cousin says it’s a common issue on Spirits from this time and recommends I get it fixed here by a real mechanic.
Now at this point, it’s important to note his shop did a very thorough once over for me after I bought the car and gave me good notes on the condition of the car in writing, from his shop.
I go in and talk to the guy at the counter.
They’re not too busy and pull it into a bay and run their diagnostics, same thing. Distributor cap. Cool. I get the services agreement saying they’ll replace it and call me if they find anything else. I hear nothing until the end of the week when they call and say my car is ready.
When I get there they present me with a bill for like $1,400!
Wow. Just wow. Now my heart has stopped beating and I say something about that being a lot for a distributor cap. The guy who owns the place (I find out he’s a veteran from way back) breaks off talking to a Master Sergeant (MSgt – E8) and comes over to talk to me.
He starts telling me about how it was much worse than they originally thought and they ended up having to replace my radiator (plus hoses) and my timing belt and a head gasket. I’m still in shock and say something like the head gasket was fine two weeks ago and so was the radiator and the timing.
He puts his hand on my shoulder and tells me I don’t know what I’m talking about because they’ve been waiting to fail for a long time now.
I’m confused now and say that’s not possible. I bought it two weeks ago and… He cuts me off and says I was sold a complete lemon and I should have had it checked. He says he felt bad for me and this should have cost over $2000 but he cut me a deal and he can work with me in an installment plan but will have to charge me interest. Now I’m suspicious and starting to get mad, and I say the only repair I authorized was a distributor cap and they should have called me before doing anything else and I start to explain I’ve got paperwork from the inspection I had done that said those other things were fine.
I’m going to get it from the car and the MSgt grabs me by the arm and starts telling me I’m being ungrateful and disrespectful to a respected mechanic and business owner and asks me if I’m implying he’s screwing me. Every time I try to open my mouth he cuts me off and keeps telling the owner not to worry, he’ll make sure this young pup pays what is owed. He’s threatening to take me over to admin and have my pay docked.
Now I’m angry and a bit scared. Another Marine intervenes and says that’s a little extreme and to let me say my piece. I get permission to get into my car to get my maintenance history which includes an oil change, the inspection documentation, and the original quote for the distributor cap work.
At this point, there’s a crowd of customers and some other passers-by. The owner of the garage and MSgt are in full theater mode talking about how I’m not appreciating the huge help they’ve been and I’m trying to get out of paying for work I asked for.
Now I’m mostly just angry.
I come in and the MSgt cuts me off and tells me to be careful how I talk to his friend. I ask the MSgt if he’s going to let me speak or keep interrupting me while I’m in a private conversation with a business owner.
I ask him if he owns part of the shop (no) and ask why he’s so interested in not hearing a Marine out. Then I get out the original statement of services and say the distributor cap is all I agreed to. I also ask why he didn’t call me and he says he called my barracks several times and left messages including ones telling me the car was undrivable until the repairs were made so he went with the lowest-cost option to get me back on the road.
Oops. I say that’s interesting, the only number I gave you is my cell phone and I don’t have any messages or even attempted calls until the previous evening when they left a message that my car was ready. I show everyone my call history (including a Captain who’s very interested and standing quietly by).
The MSgt has backed off and the Capt is quietly talking to him off on the side.
Now the owner is backpedaling a bit and saying he was thinking of a different customer but he’s already made the replacement and has to charge me for the work.
Then I pull out the stuff from the inspection and it has some fun little statements in it. Statements like: Timing belt good, timing well. Check again in 30K miles. The radiator appears to be recently replaced. All hoses were new in the last 6 months.
Nothing on the head gasket but there’s a statement that there are no leaks in that area which was why he said he had to replace it. I say he can put all of my original stuff back on because all I’m paying for is the distributor cap work.
He gets red-faced and starts demanding I pay for the labor and he can’t put things back on because they were too badly damaged in the removal process.
Now some old retired guy chimes in from the back and asks “what kind of mechanic damages things when they take them apart?” The owner drags out my radiator and there is a giant hole in one side that looks like it was stabbed with a crowbar.
Now a couple of other people (locals) are questioning past situations where he helped them out with repairs they didn’t know they needed. The MSgt tried to walk off and a Colonel and a Sergeant Major in civilian attire post him to the side for a later conversation.
The Capt pulls me aside and asks to see the info I have and to see my phone again and steps behind the counter to photocopy it all. He has a truly evil grin. Turns out he’s a prior Enlisted former infantry Marine who became an Officer after going back to college.
He has suspected this shop of being crooked for a while but never had enough proof. He’s on the commanding general’s staff and they were looking into complaints from permanent personnel and retirees in the area. The owner is sweating bullets now. I only pay for the distributor cap and get a statement that says my balance is zero so he doesn’t try anything in the future.
The Capt takes me to dinner and gets my info and basically a statement from me of what happened. After dinner, he takes me back to his office while he types up something for me to sign about the whole incident and I call Verizon to get them to fax over the incoming/outgoing calls from my number from the past week.
He explains that the MSgt has been steering a lot of customers to his buddy and they suspect he’s getting kickbacks. The Capt and several others have been taking their cars there for months to try to catch the guy doing what he did to me.
The MSgt sealed his fate when he started threatening to take my pay. They suspected he was getting kickbacks or favors in exchange for hooking up his buddy. Now he has the justification he needs to formally look into the MSgt. The Capt was thrilled and bought me a 6-pack for using up so much of my Friday evening.
I wasn’t around long enough to see the outcome but when I left there were auditors from base services going through the business with a fine tooth comb and it was a legal matter. Once something like that gets started it probably means a business and the owners will get kicked out of the on-base location (the base owns the building and the owner leases it).
He and his business would also end up blacklisted as a place known for taking advantage of service members. Most commands give this out to people who check in so no one patronizes them.
It still boggles my mind that one veteran would try to use that status to take advantage of others.
Or that a senior Marine would do that to other Marines. I know there are people out there like that but having the shared common background we do, I expect better.”
9. Wrongfully Fire My Wife While She's Pregnant? Lose Your Business
“My wife worked for a small start-up company that was a distributor of beauty products and was the highest ranking member of staff apart from the owner of the company.
When my wife was hired, she inherited a brand that was incredibly slow-moving, and the guy who had her job before her basically lost his job for over-ordering. So now my wife’s been tasked with getting rid of as much of this crap as possible, except nobody wants it.
The stuff is like 5 years old at this point and my wife suggests new packaging, she suggests more display stands, some more marketing perhaps, and dropping the prices. She even asked if they can at least get new gel pads for the thing because the ones they had were way past their expiration date.
Nope. The owner wants to recoup the profit she’s lost.
While all of this is happening, the owner decides to buy 2 new offices in a really fancy part of town where they don’t go cheap. She also decides to take on crap loads of other luxury brands that are made of placenta and all sorts of other weird crap and sell for a LOT.
There’s a lot more other crap going on, but basically, things were not looking good. They were understaffed and didn’t have enough to hire more people. While all of this is happening, they’re having massive logistics issues and issues with their accounts. Clients are getting upset, their orders are not coming in on time, or they’re receiving crap in screwed-up packaging or whatever.
Things were not really looking good.
I offer to help multiple times, going to their warehouse and sorting it out, taking stock counts, and whatnot. I help redesign their website – all for free. I knew they were going through a rough patch and I thought I’d help in any way I can.
Anyway, during this whole fiasco, the owner finds out she’s pregnant and needs to stay home and away from the job. She doesn’t really hand over the reins to anyone but tells everyone to go through her. She’ll work from home when she can, what ended up happening was that emails would go unanswered, nobody knew what the heck was going on, and their accounts are not pleased. My wife starts trying to take charge a bit more.
She’s had a bit more experience with this sort of thing than all of her colleagues (including the owner of the company) and manages to bring in a large sum of funds for the company from another account she was in charge of.
With my wife at the helm, it seems like things are starting to take a turn for the better, except that nobody was getting paid on time.
The finance department hasn’t been getting the green light from the owner (for whatever reason, she wanted this to go through her too). They lose the only accountant, so now the owner basically gets a friend’s mother to come in and do it (for free) because she is basically bored with him.
The owner sends everyone an email saying that the funds will come in late because they don’t have enough or something to that effect, but this new accountant (the friend’s mother) tells us that apparently, she bought a new really really expensive apartment “because the baby needs a room”, she bought herself a new Porsche SUV and a giant chandelier because, well, she needs it.
At this point, my wife starts looking for another job.
Anyway, the owner comes back and she starts complaining about how the business is doing really crap, and that she needs to start laying people off. They go through some of the staff, and the owner has this conversation with my wife about this old brand again.
She suggests selling it to another person in another country. My wife basically refuses to be a part of that because it was against the contract and she wasn’t comfortable getting involved with that shady crap, but the owner decides to go ahead with it.
She also decides to do some other really shady crap. You see, in the country we live in, if you’re selling any health products, you need to have them registered. I don’t think this is the right term, but basically, if you have a crate of 1000 bottles of f****l cream, each bottle needs to have a registration number according to the government and it was incredibly expensive.
The owner decides to NOT do that and to sell crap anyway. She also decided to basically remove the expiration dates on certain products and change them. She forged some documents, etc.
My wife started objecting to all of this and started telling her colleagues to not sign anything and to be very careful about doing crap like this because they could personally be charged with a serious crime.
It starts to feel like my wife ruffled some feathers because the environment started to change a bit.
One day, she calls my wife into work and tells her that she’s fired because she’s the highest-paid member of staff and she’s not been hitting her targets consistently.
My wife argues, but she brings up the numbers, and it’s true. That old brand just wouldn’t sell. It doesn’t matter that my wife had tried to get approval on many things that may have shown a bigger number, but the numbers didn’t lie.
By law, she’s supposed to give my wife either 3 months’ notice or pay her that amount.
She doesn’t do that. We started emailing her about it and she started getting very aggressive about it, so we threatened to get legally involved with it. It was all an incredibly stressful time for us. We had just gotten married, just moved into a new apartment, bought a new car, and around this time, we found out that my wife was pregnant!
Anyway, during the whole process, my wife informed her that she doesn’t want to pursue this. Just pay her what she’s due and she’ll be out of her hair. She told her that she was pregnant and that it was incredibly stressful. The Gyno had told us that my wife was a very high-risk pregnancy because of her age, so she needed to chill out.
If she was working, she would’ve been signed off for the entire pregnancy. In any case, we realized that my wife’s health insurance was canceled the day after she told the owner. Now, the owner could not legally do this because this case was not concluded. My wife was also not allowed to be employed during this time for the same reason.
So we had to go through this mediation thing before it went to court. The way it worked was that the company was actually owned by a bigger company (that basically provided business permits) and that company first had to try to sort it out before it went to court.
Now the bigger company makes its profit from the companies it owns, so they may be a bit biased, even though they claim to not be. They claim that my wife has no claim, she is completely wrong. The owner also trawled through her emails and claimed that we were doing business via her business because my wife used her work email to get some business cards printed for me.
They also claimed that my wife was committing espionage because she accessed her emails outside of work to email people to let them know that they should get in touch with someone else as she doesn’t work there anymore (on the same day she was fired and was dealing with some urgent business).
The numbers prove it and that she is in fact not owed ANYTHING because my wife broke the law by “conducting business” while still employed and committing espionage. Her employer also claimed that she overused her holidays and used our wedding as an example. She basically counted weekends and public holidays too, but that didn’t matter.
They even went as far as to claim that my wife had stolen company property because she took business cards that she obtained (the bulk of them were from BEFORE she was employed with this company).
The whole process was so stressful for both of us and my wife, unfortunately, lost the baby.
We don’t know if stress played a part in it, but I can’t help but feel that way. Completely devastated by it all, my wife decides that she really cannot be bothered to pursue this anymore and gives in. We lost a huge huge sum of funds that we really desperately needed at the time.
Some time had gone by, and I couldn’t really take it. I submitted an anonymous tip about the unregistered products and left it at that.
A few days ago, I found out (indirectly, so I don’t really have specific details) that she was facing MASSIVE MASSIVE fines over that, that brand that my wife inherited found out about this shady deal. It was a complete breach of their contract and she’s being sued massively by the company she sold to as well because they didn’t deliver everything as expected or something.
This is still ongoing, but I really hope she suffers for the crap she’s put us through.”
8. Tried To Get Me To Lose My Job? You'll Get In Trouble Instead
“I’m a Year 9 student (British schooling system) and go to a very good school. This is a massive privilege to have, and I’m massively thankful for it. Our school has a magazine that we print and distribute to teachers, students, and parents, and it is very popular!
I am fortunate enough to be the Assistant Editor of the magazine (I basically format and check the magazine, while making sure everyone on the committee is doing well) and it’s hard work. As part of this role, I have to teach and mentor the new students and get them used to the new system.
Being on the committee is like having a job, so balancing it with school is tough, and lots of newbies drop out very quickly when they begin to realize that they can’t handle the workload. I enjoy teaching the new guys, as it’s mostly people who love writing as much as I do and it really gives us a connection that does stick around.
However, last year, I had a very bad ‘mentoree’, whom I dislike to this very day…
Now, I knew AM before he joined the committee; we were friends, we’d been into town with each other a bit, and we were good mates, so I was excited to be mentoring him.
The way mentoring works is that there are 7 tasks to complete and have checked by your mentor, leading up to a big review six weeks after one first joins. The tasks are fairly easy; learning how to Photoshop pictures for the photographers and learning the formatting of the articles to make my life easier.
Now, I teach the mentorees in a way that means that I set them a task (e.g. Task 1) and it has a deadline which I will take in the work, check it, and give feedback on. It works well, and I have always done the mentoring this way.
When I set the first task for AM, I was really confident in his ability. Because we were (and still are) at a really good school, I genuinely believed that he would do it and I’d have no problems. However, as you’ve probably guessed, I was very wrong.
When it was time for his first task to be checked, this happened:
Me: Where’s the work, AM?
AM: I wasn’t able to do it…
Me: Why? It was a fairly simple task. If you had any problems, I told you to ask me about them.
AM: Well, the thing is… (AM takes a massive breath and I expect the worst) my dad just got in a really bad car accident and I’ve been at the hospital for the past few days.
I was shocked. This guy’s dad was in intensive care, and I was ready to give him a hard time for not doing some work.
I immediately apologized and almost had a panic attack. I gave him an extra week to do his work. I was a terrible person. I went home and sobbed about how mean I was ready to be. I came in the next day and avoided him as much as possible.
At this point, I didn’t even suspect a thing. When it came to his second task (and the first task as well) being checked, I was nervous but prepared:
Me: How did you find the work?
AM: I couldn’t finish either of them.
At this point, I was just livid.
He’d told me privately that he wasn’t in the hospital as much anymore, so I was confused.
Me: Come on, this is starting to get silly. Your review is soon, and you haven’t even started the tasks!
AM: OP it’s because my cat got put down.
It was really old, and I’ve had it since birth, so I was really attached to it.
This really made me upset. I have two cats, and I love them to pieces; I couldn’t even imagine their death. So I told AM I was sorry, but he needed to either get the work done or take an official break and leave the committee briefly (this gets put on a report which is kept by WI, the teacher and head editor, and it’s about the bad things a person in the committee had done).
This back and forth of “Work?” “Nope, and here’s why…” went on until literally the day before his review. I sat down with him and spoke to him about how he had not done any of the work and had 6+ hours of work to do for the next day.
He was really apologetic, but I had become totally immune to his shenanigans by this point; he’d really ticked me off. By this point, I didn’t know if he was lying or not, but I had my suspicions.
Then his review came around; I was terrified. You see, as his mentor, if he does badly, I get in trouble for not doing my job well enough.
I am a massive goody-two-shoes. I’ve never had a detention, and I was petrified of getting one as my parents would not approve. AM, WI, and I sit down and when WI asks to see the work, AM says he hasn’t got any of it.
Before I can interrupt and explain the situation, AM goes on to say that he had handed in all of the work but I had said that none of it was good enough, and threw it all out before the review. WI gave me a death stare.
I was crapping bricks.
In my first year of being on the committee, I had lied to WI about doing some work. This had been put on my report and I got screamed at for 15 minutes straight. He said I had delayed printing by over a week, and I was incompetent, etc. (we moved past it and now we enjoy each other’s company very much!) and essentially if I made any mistakes, I was getting fired. I looked at AM, shocked about what he’d said, and stuttered to WI about the actual situation, and all the lies he’d told me.
WI didn’t believe me, as not so long ago… I. Had. Lied.
I then made it my absolute mission to prove everything he had told me and WI wrong, but there was one problem; I didn’t arrange anything over a traceable source; I hadn’t emailed him or texted him, other than on Snapchat, but that deletes messages after being read.
It looked like I was going to get fired, and I only had a few days to prove my innocence before I was gone.
That evening, I went into town with some friends (AM wasn’t present) and I sat down with my best friend (BF).
She was texting AM on iMessage (a key detail), so I told her what happened between the committee and AM. She was shocked and believed me over AM. This is when a plan was hatched.
Firstly, I needed evidence, and BF gave me exactly what I needed. She took AM into town as he liked her.
She then began a conversation about how she heard I was being nominated for an award for my writing for the school magazine (this was actually true, I won an award for England’s Young Journalist of the Year and Best Featured Article about my transgender sister #humblebrag).
BF then set her phone to record the ENTIRE CONVERSATION! This included AM admitting to screwing me over so he could eventually take my position as Assistant Editor. BF then sent this to me, and I stored it on my computer in sweet revenge.
I sent the voice message to WI and he, too, was shocked. He apologized profusely to me and I told him that I didn’t want him to fire AM yet and then told him my plan.
He was worried, but on board because of what he did to me. I met with AM the next day, to ‘apologize’ for being too harsh about his tasks, and beg for him to retract his statement about me. He obviously said no. As protocol states, I had to give other members my ongoing articles, and I gave AM my award-winning transgender article and said that I had changed so it was talking about a different girl rather than my sister.
However, I actually changed it to make it horribly transphobic. Like disgustingly transphobic. He thanked me and left.
The next few weeks, I didn’t show up to any meetings and made it seem like I had actually been kicked out, but I stayed aware of the situation in the committee and kept up to date on my articles.
Because this was the kind of person he was, AM didn’t even read the article I had sent him before he handed it in, so WI received a heavily transphobic and sexist article that AM wrote, supposedly. WI called AM into his room and AM was screamed at for writing such a horrible article, and then played the voice tape back for him so he knew that he’d been caught.
The headteacher of the school found out about the article AM had written and AM was put in isolation (you get taught on your own in a separate room, where you spend lunch and break, etc.) for a week! He was also fired from the committee immediately, and got a mark on his permanent record.”
7. Can't Zip Your Lips And Be Nice? Let Me Start By Getting You Fired
The bully’s life collapsed one piece at a time.
“This takes place just a couple of months ago, but I’ll give some back story. In school, I was bullied pretty badly. In this school, bullying was unofficially popular and accepted. This meant many kids would compete to see how badly they could treat their “lessers”.
Among these jerk wads was the clique who just hated. The type who had no reason, just that was the way they believed it was. Time passes though, I left that school and graduated at another, yet once or twice I met my old school bullies and had to deal with them.
No big special deal, just someone picking out old habits and being told off. Otherwise everyone else I went to school with just did the same as I did and moved on. This guy was one of those who couldn’t let it go, and due to circumstances, I had to deal with him.
Understand I love my job. I’m a computer geek that is IT. A nice position where I get to choose how my work gets done with great pay. To me, it’s a dream come true. So, with this in mind understand that I will fight tooth and nail to keep it if the need arises.
Time to start.
The whole thing started with a simple encounter. At the facility I work at, we have contractors. People who come in and will do a job then leave. In this case, SB (School Bully) was with one of these contracted companies who were supporting maintenance with electrical and framework updates across the shop floor.
I got one of my usual support request calls and went down to see what was up. On the way, I saw him walking in the opposite direction. At first, I didn’t recognize him, it has been nearly twenty years. So I nodded politely and moved on.
It didn’t click until later who he was, and at that time I decided to ignore it. I had my own job to think about.
Two days later the signs started. I was doing some stock audit work on the floor when one of the assembly workers I know (and I do know a lot of the shop floor workers) wanted to ask me a question.
I said sure, so he asked me if it was true that in school I tried to attack a classmate. I won’t lie I was really taken aback. The answer of course was a resounding NO. I was livid so I asked him who brought up such a thing.
He told me that a contractor from a certain company was talking to him and a few others and brought it up. He said this guy talked a lot of hate full smack. He told me he didn’t believe it but wanted to hear it from me.
Fair enough. I asked for more details about the smack-talking perp and his description fit SB. I was not amused.
I didn’t want to deal with this, I was happy and didn’t want to jeopardize my job by confronting a person who would just deny it.
Asking the shop floor workers to back me up as witnesses wouldn’t work either since even though they are decent people, they wouldn’t want to risk their paychecks for such drama.
Instead, I called my brother who works as one of the maintenance managers. I convinced him to tell me where the company SB worked for was doing their work.
I explained the situation and he told me to leave it be because within a couple of months when the work is done they would move on. It was understandable, but I’m a little paranoid and wanted to keep my wits about me just in case.
For about a week I stalked the group SB was with. I would simply walk by and make a note of who the shop floor guys he was working with were. After SB moved on I would casually ask everyone, how things were going. The common thread was that one of the contractors on site really hated my guts and talked a lot of crap.
Multiple people told me that when he noticed me around he would go into small tirades about how I did this or something else when we were younger. Things like how I did substances, or I quit school because I was a waste. Things like that.
The thing is that everything I heard was very nostalgic in a bad way. Everything said was a classic excuse the haters would have used. They never actually had a reason to hate me, so they would make something up. Hence why I called them the Haters.
After this, I decided that it would be best to keep on damage control. I know how things can be, if a rumor is heard enough people can start to believe it. I didn’t want to confront SB either since I figured nothing would come of it.
My brother was right, after a month or so this jerk would be gone, but fate had other things in mind. My boss, being the nice guy that he is called me up one day asking if everything was ok. The rumors had gotten back to him and he wanted to ask me about them.
I explained the situation and my plan for damage control. He understood and told me to keep it up. Unannounced to me he was annoyed enough to talk to SB’s boss about what was going on. Which led me to my first real encounter with SB.
This happened the next night. I was heading to my car because I was done with the night. SB was waiting for me outside by the back lot. I was halfway to my car when he called out.
SB: Hay, we need to talk!
I turned and saw him, but not wanting to deal with it I ignore him and continued to my car.
SB: Don’t freaking ignore me, I have been through heck because of you.
He sped up and got in between me and my car. So now I have no choice but to listen, if I tried to go all the way back to the lobby he would just get in my way again.
SB: I got chewed out by my boss because of you. Someone said I was acting inappropriately while on the job.
Me: Okay, and this involves me how? (I said it all passively, figuring on playing dumb. It was obvious my boss talked to his boss getting him in trouble.)
SB: I know it was you who told my boss.
Me: Dude I didn’t tell anyone about anything, I don’t care, so just leave me alone.
SB: Screw that, I know you, I know all about you, I remember the good days when we used to beat the crap out of you, I can bet you would love to have some revenge.
I’m not going to let that happen by not letting this slide. You know your place or I’ll beat you.
Me: (I interrupted, I was getting livid at this point.) Screw you. This isn’t that heck hole of a school; do you really think you could just get everyone to hate me by spreading dumb rumors?
I remember this point very well, he got a real smug look on his face like someone who just won an argument. I can bet my remark let the cat out of the bag. I could also remember having to hold myself back from punching that smug face.
SB: Do you think anybody gives a crap about you? Nothing’s changed……(this is when he said it. The nickname that still makes me mad. He called me the derogatory word they called me in school. The one they used as an excuse to beat me up or insult me.
NO, I’m not posting it here.) I bet I can get everyone to hate you because you know you are worthless.
By this point, my emotions were in the open and I think he noticed because instead of stopping he picked up momentum.
SB: I saw you and that fat freak of a wife around town, maybe I’ll tell her too.
I can bet she would end herself if she knew what a (nickname) you are. What are you upset about, are going to cry like you use to? How about this, I’ll say what I want when I want or find you and your freaking wife and beat you up!
I’ll leave you alone to think about what I said and I’ll see you tomorrow, freaking (nickname).
He left it at that and walked off. I stood there for a bit and thought. I was now seething. I really wanted to turn on the jerk and punch his lights out.
But I know if I did I would just get fired because of the no-tolerance rules we have. Then I had an idea, he was right, by this point I wanted revenge. He insulted me and my 5-month pregnant wife. Nope, not going to put up with this crap.
I went home and vented the event to my loving wife, who listened and gave me a well-needed hug. The next day I went into motion. The first thing I did was talk to security, they had cameras for the parking lots, so I requested the video for the time frame SB and I had our little chat.
The video didn’t have audio but at least I had proof of his approach. This is why you become friends with the other departments’ ladies and gentlemen, you never know when you will need their help, and help they did. They found exactly what I needed. The video showed him coming up on the back lot and hiding behind the fence, then it showed his approach as I was walking to my car.
It made it obvious he was waiting for me since he had no reason to be there. They copied the video, and per my request sent it to my boss, and to the site VIP. The VIP is the guy who runs the entirety of the plant.
VIP is just the IT nickname. I then called my boss and explained the email and what happened. I also explained that I sent it to the VIP. So we ended up scheduling a meeting later that day. It was just me, my boss, and the VIP.
It was mainly to explain the video and what happened. During the meeting, the VIP got the contracting company’s owner on call. I then once again explained myself. I explained SB’s threats and that I felt like my safety was put in jeopardy. My workplace has a no-tolerance rule for threats like this so I knew it would be taken more seriously if I added that in.
Now for the results. During the talk after I explained what happened, the contracted company told us they would fire him because not doing so would risk the contract they had with us. My VIP also called the police as per the rules for anything like this.
The police came, took a statement from me, my boss, saw the video, and then arrested SB during his lunch break due to the threats of violence. A week later I got a summons to court to speak on my behalf. I told the judge what happened as I told my boss and VIP.
I wasn’t told what SB was charged with since the county decided to charge him on their own, but I do know he spent a small amount of time in jail and got a fine. After that, I was allowed to get a restraining order just in case.
This kind of thing still peeves me, but I wanted to type this up while it was still fairly fresh. I also wanted to wait until things were said and done. I was told by a lawyer I asked before writing this that since his trial is over the matter can’t be overturned because of what I wrote here.
Also for those curious VIP is basically the manager of the entire plant, but calling him that actually makes his role seem less than it really is, so calling him VIP seemed more fitting to me. Also, note that I can’t release the video, it’s company property and I don’t want to get fired.”
6. Accidentally Use MY Phone Number In An Ad And Refuse To Edit It? Consider Your Business Done
You had one simple request.
“The end result of this story, which I will tell you upfront, is that we lost the ability to order from several local Pizza Huts…for life…
We used to have a phone number that was very similar to a Pizza Hut, their number was (555)455-5575 and ours was (555)455-5515.
Now, these two numbers are commonly mixed up for obvious reasons. This was back before the days of cell phones and everyone having their own personal number, and we actually had to get a caller ID because of this.
For years we had this Pizza Hut’s client base call our house (about 50/50 split sober/intoxicated) and order pizzas.
The thing is people WILL NOT LISTEN when you tell them “Sorry wrong number.” We would have tipsy people call back 4-5 times and then begin screaming into the phone “I KNOW THIS IS A FREAKING PIZZA HUT YOU IDIOT” or “GIVE ME THE NUMBER OR I’LL KICK YOUR BUTT.”
This was pretty normal and the pizza hut was even aware of this and profusely apologized when we would call them. (Never giving us anything for free though, despite the massive inconvenience of the phone ringing off the hook.)
Well, Pizza Hut Corporate then pays for an advertisement on paper, billboards, and phone books.
And guess what? They botched the number they put OUR number on the things for the phone number as one of the locations in our town for Pizza Hut’s pizza. Why? Because 1s and 7s are the same number, apparently.
The phone calls we get FREAKING EXPLODES.
It goes from like 3-5 phone calls a day to like 100-200. Initially, we were directing people with a message that simply said “THIS IS NOT PIZZA HUT! THEIR NUMBER IS XXXXXXXX” It didn’t end. We would get calls with people screaming into the voice recording “I WANT A FREAKING PIZZA, THIS IS BULLCRAP.
I’M GOING TO END WHOEVER DOESN’T ANSWER THIS FREAKING PHONE!” (Aren’t boomers great? We got that crap all the time from older people.) I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been told to kill myself for trying to direct someone to the correct place, and for some FREAKING reason, no one EVER listens.
Well upon this happening my Dad calls into the pizza hut and says “look, all we want is to not have to change our number. If you guys will PLEASE change yours, or pay for ours to be changed (it was like a 10-buck convenience fee or some crap) we will stop getting your darn phone calls.” The manager cussed my Dad, who had him on speaker phone, calling him a crap load of names and for “getting him bad reviews” as well as losing customers to his branch, which is locally owned. What a freaking joke.
It’s costing their business a solid 10 grand EASY over a phone number why not JUST CHANGE IT? IDK.
My Dad looks at the phone, hangs up, and says “Ok jerk, you want to be like that about it?”
My dad then instructs my 17-year-old self (and my sister) to take all calls from now on.
If it rings pick it up, take the order, and say “Ok your pizza should be there in (1.5 hours).” Then when they call back tell them “Sorry the driver just left.” And if they call back a third time say “Well I can get you on the phone with my manager but hes probably going to kick your butt if you keep complaining.” And then switch the phone with someone else and have them say “Listen here witch, you aren’t getting your pizza and we are keeping your payment, freaking get over it.”
Or something along those lines anyway.
Two weeks pass and my Dad tries to get said Pizza Hut to change our number for free. Never point out that they screwed up their ad, as apparently, they were completely oblivious to this fact. Again the manager screams at my Dad saying “I don’t have the funds to change your freaking number!” We even tried calling OTHER pizza huts to get the issue resolved, and their corporate with no real luck.
Fair enough, it’s game on time now witch, why? For two reasons 1. My dad got a phone with a transfer button and 2. Because summer was rolling around, and my sister and I loved screwing with people over this. It was a really bad influence on us tbh.
We fielded phone calls every day all day long, we had friends come over and they loved partaking in the same thing. We had a general plan:
Every other call would get a pizza “delivery.” On the other calls, we would get them really angry for talking crap to them and saying “Ok do you want to speak with my manager?” And just cold transfer them to the pizza hut.
It took 6 more weeks of us doing this, and the pizza hut closed. A few weeks before they closed we got a phone call from pizza hut corporate who more or less threatened us with a cease and desist sounded like they didn’t really understand what was actually happening as it accused us of “stealing their phone calls.” LOL.
We called their corporate and explained what was going on, and even played our recordings of talking with them before about the issue and ignoring us. All they said is “You had better stop! This is ILLEGAL!” over and over. We didn’t stop. They were aware of what was going on and didn’t want to do anything about it.
A few weeks after the owner lost his job he called our house and was trying to argue with my Dad about how “bad of a person he was because I lost money and got my butt beat several times.” …apparently, we had angered a few people so much that they actually went in and attacked him and other staff… To this day it cracks me up that a company can be so oblivious, and that is the single reason I don’t believe we live in anything close to a “Meritocracy,” anyone in this position who has any merit would instantly change the number, but not a corporation who has the finances to sue, and not a middle manager who has an ego problem.”
5. Can't Honor My Car's Warranty? Guess I'll Keep Your Computer
“About 25 years ago I bought a car and also made the idiotic mistake of buying the extended warranty. The warranty was touted as a bumper-to-bumper warranty that included everything that might break.
About 10 months into owning the car it started exhibiting ignition system issues. I took it in and it was the coil.
They replaced it at no charge and everything was fine. Three months later I had the same issue. Took the car back to the shop where I had purchased the car and told the manager what was happening. He said he’d check it out and asked me to sign a shop order just like last time.
I get back to the shop a few hours later and the manager says it was the coil again and that I owed $158 for the part and labor. I asked him about the extended bumper-to-bumper warranty and his exact words were, “A coil is a standard maintenance part and the car is over a year old.” Now I had owned several cars and I have never had a coil go out on a single one of them.
I asked him about the fact he had replaced that same part just a few months ago and was told it had a 30-day warranty and it was no longer covered.
I then asked to see the shop order I signed and all I had agreed to was the $25 diagnostic fee.
I told him to put the old part back in and I wasn’t paying squat except the diagnostic fee to which I had agreed!
When I pulled out my credit card to pay they demanded the payment in full upfront. I was getting paid tomorrow and was poor back then so I didn’t have even $25 at that moment.
I called a friend and he brought me the payment.
I got in my car with the manager shouting expletives at me. The car ran but it ran really rough, but I was able to get it to an auto parts store. I bought a coil and installed it, in the parking lot of the store, for 10 minutes.
The after-market coil cost me $12 and it lasted until the car died from being driven for 7+ years.
I contacted Ford after that incident and the coil should have been covered by my warranty. They asked me if I wanted to pursue getting my $25 back and have a genuine Ford part put in instead of my $12 aftermarket part.
I told them no because the car was running fine.
The opportunity:
I work in the computer industry. One of my clients is an auto dealership. Well, the shop manager moved on to bigger and better things and a new shop manager was hired recently.
Lo and behold it was the same guy that was the Ford shop manager that tried to rip me off! I never remembered his name back then but I know it now. We’ll call him Lenny. Well, Lenny was all smiles and obviously didn’t remember me from that incident many years ago.
For several months I worked on his systems in the shop and everything has been going great. I did notice he tried to pull the same crap he pulled with me on customers but I stopped that by going to the owner. I told the owner about my issue with him in the past and that I noticed similar arguments when I was working on the systems in the shop office where the customers would pay.
The owner said he’d watch the situation, and it seemed to have stopped.
A few months ago Lenny asked me if I could take a look at his home computer as there were files he couldn’t access anymore. I said sure and asked him to bring it to work.
I picked his system up at work and took it home. When I turned on the system it was obvious that he had gotten one of the ransomware trojans. I pulled the plug on the system and pulled the hard drive. I then called Lenny and asked if he had any backups.
Amazingly he did. I picked those up at the dealership and took them home. I told him what had happened and let him know that the best possible course of action would be to reload from scratch and restore from backup to which he agreed. I also let him know that to get everything loaded and working the way it should run close to $400.
He also agreed to that. I had him sign a work order indicating the price and the labor to be done.
I finished the reload and restore and his computer is working flawlessly. I even installed Sopho’s free home edition security software so he won’t have that issue again.
I took an invoice to the dealership and it was a little over $450 tax and all. He took out a credit card to pay me and I looked him right in the eye and said, “No Cards or Checks.”
Lenny looked a bit shocked and said, “I don’t have that kind of money at the moment and why are you demanding no cards or checks?” I looked him right in the eye and said, “Why did you demand no cards or checks from a 20-something kid for a part that should have been covered under warranty?” He looked at me a bit longer and then recognized me.
“You’re the idiot with that Escort!” I just smiled and said, “When you can pay me in full, you can have your computer,” and then I walked away.
It seems Lenny hasn’t been too successful in life as it has been several months and I still have not received any payment for his system.
I did send him a letter that he has another 90 days to pick up his system or it will be sold or parted out to pay his outstanding balance. The last time I was in the shop, he asked me to please accept a credit card and I told him to go get a payday loan.”
4. Stop Scheduling Me To Work? I'll Turn You In For Fraud
“This story starts about 7 or so years ago but you’ll need some background info first. After I graduated high school I wasn’t able to afford college so I became a CNA at a nursing home.
It was a crappy job. Literally. I worked there for about 8 months before I left to work for a health care agency where I could make my own schedule and also work home care cases.
Most of my patients were only allowed a home health aide temporarily while they recovered from surgery or an illness.
Or sometimes their insurance would only cover a few hours a day when they really needed much more. After several months, my agency called me about a patient that was disabled and approved for 9 hours a day every day. She was considered a permanent case as someone from the state would come twice a year to evaluate and authorize the continuation of home services.
I ended up working with this lady, Geri, for about 2 years with the agency. She was a sweet woman and although there was a generation gap, we got along great. She had a sister, Nancy, who was a self-proclaimed advocate for her sister and her very handicapped daughter, Jessica.
I always admired her because she was dealt a crap card with having to care for not only her sister but a daughter who was unable to care for herself.
We lived in New York state and they had recently come out with this CDPAP program that would allow the family to appoint people as caregivers.
They would then choose a healthcare agency to process the paychecks. It was nice because it allowed families to have more control over the care they received and more importantly, you could get paid for taking care of your own family members. But there were limitations.
One of which was that you couldn’t get paid to work with your child. It had to be a sibling or some other kind of relationship.
Nancy really liked me and when she asked if I’d be willing to work with Geri AND Jessica under this program, I said heck yes.
At the time, Geri and Jessica lived in different places but the family was able to get them section 8 vouchers and moved them to the same apartment building so the aides could do split shifts. With the number of hours between the two of them, I was easily working a minimum of 40 hours a week.
Then things changed. Nancy realized that she could get paid for literally doing nothing. The program is flawed in that the patient is approved for a certain amount of hours and all you do is fill in weekly the sheets, print a schedule of when people are supposed to work, and return them to the agency that processes the paychecks.
There’s no way to prove that someone is actually there taking care of the person. At first, Nancy started filling out timesheets for herself whenever there were hours left over for the week. Hours that no one worked. She could only claim these hours for Geri so she would fill out a timesheet for her son, saying that he worked with Jessica whenever she had leftover hours.
Now, her son did actually help out from time to time but not for all the hours she was claiming.
Eventually, Nancy got greedy and started deliberately stealing hours from me and the other aides. It got so bad that she pushed us out by not scheduling us.
I was struggling financially at the time so this was devastating to me. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college and here I was working my butt off so I could take a few community college classes and pay my bills. There had been some Medicaid cuts so it wasn’t like I could just find another patient.
I was still technically employed at my old agency and none of their offices had work because there just wasn’t enough.
Now onto the revenge. The second I realized what Nancy was doing I started taking pictures of the weekly schedules and everyone’s time sheets.
Then once I stopped working there I called up the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Unit and reported her. I explained the entire story and for a while, I didn’t hear anything. Then I heard back from an investigator and I gave him all the details he wanted. I had copies of schedules and time sheets to show that Nancy was pretending to schedule aides but ultimately putting herself and her son on the time sheets.
I also had another aide as a witness to back up all my claims. More months passed and then I got a call saying that the CDPAP program was a grey area for them and there wasn’t much they can do because it’s hard to prove cases like this.
So I just let it go and forgot all about it.
Then almost 2 years ago I got a call from the attorney general’s office and it turns out the case was sent to another investigator and re-opened. They wanted to meet with me and go over some evidence.
It was over 3 years after I made the complaint so many of the smaller details had been lost. Turns out they had been spending the last few years building a case against the family and they were nearly ready to go to court. And man did they have a lot of evidence.
Apparently, Nancy had forged my signature on timesheets to put hours that I had worked with Geri under Jessica so she could claim all the hours for Geri. Then, she was filling out time sheets for her son who wasn’t working because he was away at college in a different state!
She was just pocketing all the profit for herself.
I ended up moving across the country shortly after so I had completely forgotten about this. Then, last week, I randomly googled Nancy’s name and had a mini freakout when I read the news articles. Turns out that Nancy and her son were arrested a year ago and charged with a few felonies each.
Nancy must have taken a deal because she pled guilty earlier this year to one of the felonies and was ordered to pay back over $100,000 that she stole from the state. She also got 5 years of probation. Not only that but it made the local news and it’s the first thing that comes up when you Google her name (which I’ve changed for the purpose of this story).”
3. Steal My Trash Bin? Get Kicked Out Of Your Own Home
“I live in England, and my flat is owned by a Housing Trust, meaning it’s a rented public property (Basically a council flat). I moved in last November and the first thing I did was to go and meet my downstairs neighbour.
Our flats are old houses, converted into flats.
We both get a front door and our own front (and back) gardens. I have the upstairs flat, meaning I get a little downstairs storage space and then a nice upstairs flat & a gate into my back garden. The downstairs flat doesn’t have inside storage space, but they get two sheds in the back garden and a back door.
My flat is directly atop theirs even though our doors are side by side.
Anyway! I move in and go and say hello to my neighbours. I introduce myself, explain that I have TV/Music on every hour that I’m in (for mental health reasons I can’t sit in silence) and of course, I’ll try and keep it quiet, but this is a new flat, noise levels will be different to where I last lived and if it’s too loud, just come bang on my door and I’ll naturally turn it down.
My neighbour (we’ll call her Charlotte from now on) smiled and nodded and assured me that it’s fine, they’re a little loud too and the same goes for if they keep me up.
With that done, I head back up to my flat, feeling good that my neighbours were nice people.
Well… I’m sure I’ll be wrong again too!
I parked my wheelie bin by the fence that divided our front garden at first, and I noticed that her bin was full to bursting and wondered if that was a common problem or just because Charlotte had had a massive cleanout.
That was until I go to put my own bin bags in my wheelie bin and find it full. With the exact same bags that she uses. (Not black bin bags but yellow ones for some reason, very distinctive.) I brush it off, fine, annoying but whatever, and move my bin to the bottom end of my garden, by the gate, so it’s easier for me to put it out on bin day.
This works for a month and then I catch the flu. I put the bins out before it hit me hard, so on bin day, and the day after, I couldn’t get out to put my bin back in my own garden. I get better, go to fetch my bin and find… it’s in my neighbour’s garden.
Full.
And there’s no way this could be a simple mistake because my bin is covered in stickers. Because I’m a grown-up and I like stickers~! Anyone that looked at it would go “Oh yeah, that’s OP’s bin!”
So I start to plot.
First stop, wait till she puts the bin out, drag it back towards my flat and get it back in my garden the second the bin-men are done because I can’t afford the fine from the council to get a new darn bin.
And then for the kicker. I’d noticed while hanging out washing in our backyard (and rescuing my inside kitty when she fell out of the kitchen window) that her back shed is full of bin bags. And it was now spilling over into the garden.
Our back garden is steadily filling up with trash. And Charlotte rarely, if ever, puts out her bins, and her one is full to bursting still, her recycling boxes are overflowing (with dishes in one case, for some reason?) so it’s a pretty easy assumption that she’s just tossing her rubbish out into the back garden rather than dealing with it.
So it begins.
The Revenge
I’m on the panel for the area where I live, where the residents of this Housing Agency’s homes can air complaints and help decide where the money is spent.
I bring it up there, in a nonchalant “Will it stop the cut you promised me of my back garden that it’s full of rubbish?” and then when the conversation moves on, I leave it.
I start taking pictures of the back garden, of her front garden, and forward them to my housing officer. The trash mountain still steadily growing and growing.
My housing officer comes around and slips into the back garden through my gate with the premise of ‘Examining for the cut’ and then sends her a warning letter.
He later tells me that she claims the trash was there when Charlotte moved in and since there’s no proof, on the contrary, they’ll just come and clear it out.
‘Right,’ I think. ‘I’m gonna freaking get this!’ So I make friends with the family whose garden borders ours where a fence panel has blown over, leaving a nice gap.
And there I hide and wait. (Their kids think I’m HILARIOUS because I’d sit in one spot in their garden and just stare at my own garden. The adults understood, they’d lived in Council properties all their lives and entirely understand bad neighbours.) And then, after three days of sitting there all day and late into the night, I finally get what I want!
A quick video of her opening her back door and throwing out rubbish bags (not the neon yellow ones, the black ones that match the trash pile already there).
Jackpot!
I snap a few pictures of the pile, thank my new friends, and head home to email the video to my Housing Officer.
Two days go by, and I’ve heard nothing but that’s normal. This is a society of red freaking tape, I had a feeling it would take a while, but I was feeling gleeful already.
A week goes by… another… suddenly we’re in February and I’m starting to think that maybe nothing’s gonna happen…
Until I get woken up by banging and clattering downstairs at 10 AM. I grumble and huff and head out to look out my front window and Lo and Behold, a white van and they’re carrying out furniture.
I check my emails and there’s one from the Housing Officer.
‘Thank you for your help, steps were taken and ignored, and final action is being taken.”
Or something along those lines.
SUCCESS!
So I made myself a cup of tea and sat on my couch by my front window, gleefully watching them load up the white van.
I even give a little wave when they notice me watching them, a full-on crap-eating grin on my face.
The back garden has now been cleaned, flat is now occupied by a lovely girl who I’ve spoken to on occasion (and given the same explanation of noise, still not heard anything on that so I guess my noise level isn’t so bad!) and we chat if we’re both hanging our washing out at the same time or something.
Don’t know where Charlotte’s gone, but I bet it’s private since if you get kicked from a Housing Association property, you aren’t getting another one.
Lesson? Don’t mess with my bin.”
2. Toss Them To The Side After Using My Family For Cheap Labor? Time To Take Legal Action
“This story happened quite some time ago. I have never tried to seek out revenge before, but the way these people treated me and my family was utterly repulsive, and so here we have my first-ever (and hopefully last) revenge story.
First, the setup.
My family lived in a house that was owned by, according to one of my family members (let’s call her Mary), benevolent landlords. After they had lived there for two years on a lease, the lease expired and so they started living there on a month-to-month basis.
Mary’s husband (let’s call him John) suggested that they renew their lease, but Mary, being convinced that they had established a relationship of trust with the landlords, insisted that there was no need to do so. This was the first mistake.
Sometime after, there was a storm that knocked over a relatively flimsy (and, frankly, hideous) chain-link fence that was built around the house.
Now, because Mary and John kept important things in their yard, they needed a fence. The landlords were looking around for contractors to rebuild the fence, but John had an idea that he felt would be beneficial for all. See, John and Mary really loved this house, and they were hoping to someday buy it off the landlords (something that the landlords had suggested as a possibility from time to time).
John suggested that he build the fence instead. He would only charge for the materials required, and he would provide the labor at no cost under one important condition: the landlords must promise that they had no intention of selling the house. One landlord (we’ll call him Benny) not only promised John that the house wouldn’t be sold anytime soon but even went as far as saying that they would only ever consider selling the house to John and Mary.
And so, a deal was made. John would rebuild the fence more beautiful than it had ever been, and Benny and the other landlord would ensure that John and Mary would get to keep living in that house, enjoying the fruits of their labor, until the day the landlords finally decided to sell the house to them.
John and Benny agreed upon what the dimensions and material of the fence would be. They decided on wood, and they decided on the fence being fairly tall. John bought the materials, and Benny paid John for the expenses. Halfway through building the fence, John asked Benny whether he wanted certain changes in the backyard that would, alongside the fence, only serve to make the land value skyrocket.
Benny said he would love said changes. This next part is important. John looked Benny in the eye and said, in no unclear terms: “If you have any intention of selling this house to someone other than us, tell me now and I will stop this entire project.
I’m only interested in building this under the condition that I will get to enjoy it.” Benny responded, equally clearly: “You and your family will get to enjoy this home indefinitely. Feel at ease and do whatever you want with this yard.”
And so the fence was finished, and it was beautiful.
This is the part where I come in. I came to visit my family, and I helped them finish the fence and clean up the yard. I wasn’t particularly happy about the terms of this agreement, but there was nothing that could be done now.
Now comes the part where my family gets screwed. Hard.
Not so much as a week after the fence had been built, Mary gets a call from the other landlord (let’s call her Jane). Jane tells Mary that something unexpected has occurred. See, her niece is currently on the market for a house, and she really wanted to see this particular house.
Mary, who can feel herself getting riled, asks Jane how this could be. The fence was only just finished, and they’re considering selling the house? Jane assures Mary that her niece will most likely not want the house, but that she has to let her see it.
Very well. Now, I’m not sure about the details that happened shortly after, but it seems that Jane’s niece didn’t like the given price of the house (which was now more valuable than it was before), and so she chose not to buy.
Bullet dodged, right?
If only.
Benny came to visit John and Mary with something they had always wanted. Suddenly the landlords wanted to sell, and an offer was made to my family. Now, my family is not wealthy, and they would have preferred to have been told well in advance of the intention to sell.
Nonetheless, the offer that was presented was not unfair, and my family said yes. Excellent.
Yet, as soon as my family was approved to purchase the house, Benny came back with a change. The landlords no longer wanted to sell the house at the original price.
Instead, the price they had in mind had now skyrocketed to roughly the same price as the most expensive house in the area. A price John and Mary could no longer afford, and certainly more than the house was actually worth. That’s not the worst of it, though.
Suddenly, the landlords needed to sell the house immediately.
John said to Benny: “We had a deal.” Benny responded that they suddenly needed the funds because of some family members’ needs. Later on, the story changed to them no longer needing the earnings. Then it was Jane who needed the funds because of some other piece of completely fabricated bullcrap.
The point was that they wanted to sell the house now to line their pockets, but they could never stick to a single excuse. Again, John told Benny that they had a deal. Benny’s response? “I don’t remember that. We never got anything in writing, and so we never had any deal.” Jane later told me: “A verbal agreement doesn’t mean crap.”
Unfortunately, in the eyes of the law, nothing could be proven. We couldn’t force them to sell the house to my family at the original price, and we couldn’t force them to let my family keep living there. Alright, thought my family, we just want to get paid for the labor that we put into the fence, then.
This was not ideal, since they now needed to leave the home they had lived in for quite some time. But they knew it wasn’t theirs, and they weren’t going to put up a fight over it. At this point, they just wanted to get paid for their labor.
Benny and Jane didn’t want to pay.
My family members needed that profit. Given that they were getting kicked out on such short notice, the profit was needed in order to find a new place to live. Benny and Jane, however, insisted that they had always been fair with the rent, and they simply didn’t owe my family legally.
I told Benny and Jane that we would just take things to court and have a judge decide. Given the fear of court, Benny and Jane decided that they would pay my family, but that the labor for this gargantuan monstrosity of a beautiful fence just wasn’t worth that much more than the materials it was made of.
The labor couldn’t possibly be that much, they reasoned. Also, they would only pay for the labor for the fence, not for the rest of the work that was done on the yard.
Well, everyone decided to get an estimate. The average we got was $3000 for the labor.
Benny and Jane managed to get one estimate from one of their family members at $350. What a freaking joke.
The day to leave arrived, and Benny and Jane paid my family far less than what the labor was actually worth. My family left.
We lost. We lost so much.
The effort that went into building this fence, with the intention of getting to enjoy having it, under the agreement that they would get to keep living there, just to have it taken away, and to barely even get paid for the labor. To get crapped on by these two freakwads.
That was unacceptable to me. We couldn’t win anymore, but I didn’t want them to win either.
So, the revenge.
I read up on fences. I learned far too much about what was and wasn’t allowed when it came to fences. I memorized every freaking rule.
I learned when permits were and were not needed. I learned what the allowed dimensions were. I learned about whether fences needed finish. Oh boy, the things I learned about fences.
I learned that you don’t need a permit if your fence gets damaged so long as you’re rebuilding the exact same fence.
But this was wood, and the old one was chain-link. I learned that the fence needed to be painted, but this one was not. I learned that the fence had a very specific height limit, one which this fence violated.
These people were so happy to stick to the letter of the law when it came to screwing over my family, so I decided that I, too, would stick to the letter of the law.
Somehow, the county found out that this fence was permitless, unpainted, and far too tall. Shortly after the county found this out, Benny and Jane got a visit from the county right before they managed to sell the house at their obscene price. Wouldn’t you know it?
Their fence was built illegally. Now, sometimes you can just get a permit after the fact, but their fence wasn’t allowed to be built the way that it was. There were no plans, no inspection, nor anything else that the county required.
It had to come down.
My family got a very angry call. The landlords accused my family of never getting a permit, something that my family literally could not do, given that this was not their property. Besides, it was the landlords who assumed no permit was needed, and my family knew nothing about how permits worked.
So, the fence had to be torn down. There goes what they saved by not paying my family. And they lost their prospective buyer. There goes the profit they wanted to make. And the land value of the house went down. There goes the price point they wanted to sell the house at.
And they need to build a new fence since no one will want to live in this house without some sort of fencing. Looks like they’ll need to pay for a new fence, labor and all, from an actual contractor.
We didn’t win, but neither did they.
Screw you.”
1. Beat Me Out Of A Promotion? You Better Make Sure You Don't Slip Up
“My first job out of high school was a big deal for me. It was a simple data entry job that I took very seriously. I started moving up very quickly. With so many young entry-level employees, turnaround was high, and I guess sticking around made me stand out.
I was soaring in that company. Before I knew it, I was a supervisor of a team. In the department I was in, there was only one other supervisor. We worked very well together and agreed on almost everything. The two of us made a full training for our department, a department policy sheet, and conducted all direct employee contact.
Our department was doing so well that our manager was recruited by another department for a much more lucrative role in the company.
The new manager was the nicest man alive, but as an outside hire, he didn’t know anything about how we ran things.
At the same time as he was getting acquainted with us, the other supervisor went on maternity leave. I was the only lead in the department left that really knew what they were doing.
It sounds rough, but I blossomed under these circumstances. I helped find our new acting supervisor whom I’ll call Trevor.
I went into all meetings with my manager to take notes and help him understand what we were discussing. I hired all the new staff members, from talking to the recruiter, conducting the interviews, and making the call to offer the position. I was running the show and I loved it.
Our new manager was not really grasping things and told me he was thinking about leaving. I was sad to see him go. He then told me that he thought he would ask them to have me backfill his position. This would have been the opportunity of a lifetime.
A week later, my manager told me that he talked to the director, but the position wasn’t going to me. It was going to the acting supervisor, Trevor. Apparently, this guy had been schmoozing while I had been working. I hadn’t even been paying attention to him.
Trevor had become buddy-buddy with the director by spending all his time in his office and going drinking with him at the driving range.
I was heartbroken, I wasn’t aiming for the job until my boss suggested it to me. I had gotten my hopes up only to be crushed.
I tried to shake it off and get back to work.
I oversaw department projects. I had one that required thousands of entries on an Excel sheet. I assigned our staff to the project and did my share. At the end of the day, I had gotten the sheets back from everyone directly under me, but nobody on Trevor’s team had emailed me theirs.
I went to one of their desks and asked about the project. The person I asked shyly told me that Trevor told her not to do it. When I asked her why he would say that she told me that he said I wasn’t her boss.
I was shocked. This is how we had done every project since we opened the department. What was he thinking telling people not to do it?
I could explain the small ways that Trevor constantly was trying to undermine me or the almost jealous behavior he displayed toward me, but this story is long enough.
I’ll just say, while shocking, it wasn’t out of character for him. I had always been able to keep him from causing damage in the past and this didn’t need to be any different.
Then I realized what a golden opportunity this was. I decided to maliciously comply.
I just nodded and thanked her for her help.
The next day, the director called the manager and supervisors into his office. He asked me why the project wasn’t completed the day before. I shrugged and told him I had sent it out to the team like I always do and had even done a chunk of it myself.
I looked at Trevor. The look he gave me. He was pale and looked at me as if I was about to sentence him to death.
When Trevor eventually tried to explain that he told the staff under him not to do it, the director asked everyone but Trevor to leave.
The project had been related to payroll and Trevor had royally screwed over the payroll staff. Our director was livid. He was in there for over an hour. I heard the director raise his voice more than once, which was wild.
The doors and office walls were glass, so when I passed the office a bit later, I saw Trevor with his head down while our director was shaking his head and moving his hands in a very animated manner.
A week later, the other supervisor returned, and Trevor was asked to return to his old position under her.
I was offered the position of manager soon after, which I gladly accepted.”
Another User Comments:
“Great.. I want to hear the other ways Trevor tried to undermine you.
Makes your move that much more sweeter..” Ok_Leadership_7297
Reply:
“I’ll oblige. Here are 3 that still bother me:
- He spent an entire month of his short time in the role trying to fire one of my best employees. His argument was that her being part-time was out of the ordinary for our team and she had to either become full-time or get out.
It got to the point where he was meeting with HR about it. Luckily they pulled up her offer letter and shut him down pretty quickly.
- He also started offering to create meeting invites for the meetings between me, my director, and him. When he started making the invites, he left me off of it and would meet with the director alone.
Because of this, my director was always under the impression that I was avoiding the meetings. Luckily, I mentioned it to his secretary. She made all the meeting plans from then on.
- When one of our co-workers got engaged, we were all so excited for her.
I hung out with a lot of the team outside of work, so we had become close. I swear that two weeks later, he bought a ring for his girl and showed everyone. We all congratulated him. I later heard him complaining to someone that we weren’t acting as excited for him as we were for the other co-worker.
I thought it was pretty lame if that’s the only reason he told us about his ring. I don’t even think he proposed.” tippytoemaster
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