Bad Form

Pontoneer

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I was sitting up late last night and ended up visiting a few sites I had not frequented just lately - on another Mercedes forum (which shall remain nameless , as will the members involved) I came across a thread which angered me .

To cut a long story short , one member who was due to leave the country had a car of which he was quite fond and , wanting to see it go to a good home , offered it free of charge to any other member who was willing to restore it and cherish .

Here is the (edited) text of the original posting

"F reg xxxxxxxxxxxxx free to good home.
bought car last september when returning to the uk.
In good condition except blowing manifold, sticking valve seal on cylinder 6 (causing internittant misfire as spark plug fouls up) and drivers window doesnt work.
was used to get myself work on returning to uk, going from south wales to london, leicesershire and blackpool in 3 days without missing a beat.
Used for next 6 months as main transport only needing exhaust welding and spark plug change to cylinder6 twice (about 2 quid!!)
MoT expired june- lent it to friend in london who used it 3 days before MOT expiry to travel london-blackburn and back without any problems. not used since started it today first time and run brilliantly!!!
I have another car (old golf) and with work dont have the time to do upthis classic brilliant car
just needs a bit of time, dedication a few quid and will be seen in another 20 yrs.
I dont want cash for this just someone who appreciates fantastic engineering and not get rid of these gems for some scrappage scheme
"

The car was duly uplifted by another member who , a couple of nights later , gloated that not only had he got this car for nothing but was actually paid to take it away ( in as much as he found a small amount of cash in the car when he was cleaning it out ) .

However , much worse than that , and the thing that annoyed the majority of other members was that he promptly put the car through an MOT and put it up for sale on a couple of well-known advertising sites on the web , even having the audacity to state that the fitted alloy wheels would be at extra cost above the asking price .

the interval between the car being picked up and advertised was something like one week !

A long running thread ensued , with many members disparaging over the apparent goings-on and wondering if there had been any agreement re sharing : after some lengthy discussion and speculation the person who had originally offered the car up came on with the following comments

"hello
Im out in thailand so missed all the fun.
Thanks for emails saw ad on xxxxxx yest and forum today.
no profit share at all-quite disappointed if truth be told. also if money pit how come 12 months mot??? cant be that bad surely
it was a good car I wanted an enthusiast to turn into a great car again
ps not as much work done as you think from pics, i know i owned it!!!!
i hope this helps
"

The person who uplifted/advertised the car was known to have visited the thread and responded by text to another member who contacted him privately , then posted up the following message

"Just gathering my thoughts on the whole situation ,
will be posting tonight if I can get in front of a comp .
I had a quick flik thru while I was at work today and on sat .
Quite upset really , as nobody on there knows what was agreed
between me and xxxxx .
As you can imagine free car is never going to be perfect and I have
done everything I said I'd do ( clean her up / mot her )
cant let a freebie become a money pit and trust me the xxxxx requires
work . It's certainly going to be tough getting fellow members to see it my way ,
real shame if I get banned . We shall see !
"

So there we have both sides of the story . I summed up my own feelings in the following comments which I posted early this morning

"Sorry to bring this up here folks , but I only just read the thread re the 'free' car that was kindly offered to any member who wished to cherish it and give it a good home , then was subsequently seen up for sale only a short time afterwards !

To say I was shocked would be an understatement ; that one member of our community would take advantage of another's generosity in this way beggars belief !

There may not be any rules in the club/forum terms and conditions , but there are normal rules of human decency which I feel have been breeched in this case .

I read on that thread how xxxxxx made a long trip to Carlisle just to do another member a good turn (as would many of us) ; I am at least glad that this member who has done the worst sort of disservice to another mamber has had to travel to Coventry for his trouble .

If that person is known to be a member of any other motoring forum or car club , I would like to think this conduct would be brought to their attention too .

I normally consider myself to be reasonably articulate , and seldom have difficulty expressing my feelings , but on this occasion WORDS FAIL ME !

Sorry again , for resurrecting a closed topic , but I just had to say SOMETHING .


Having mused further on the above for a couple of hours , I'm thinking to myself that we should have some sort of 'excommunication ceremony' similar to the one used by the French Foreign Legion for a dishonourable discharge where the dischargee is made to stand whilst epaulettes etc are ceremoniously ripped from his uniform .

In this case , the member in question should be made to stand by while other members rip the star from his bonnet , smash off his door mirrors and remove all visible Mercedes stars from any other parts of his car . When this part of the ceremony is complete he should be 'shunned' by everyone turning their backs on him as in the Klingon 'discommendation' ceremony .

Nothing less than what is deserved .
"

As said at the outset , I am not going to name names , provide links or give any more details , although I know a number of people who are active on the other forum as well as this one and so will know exactly what i am talking about .

I just post this here as a warning to the generous of heart that sometimes noble gestures can be taken advantage of by unscrupulous people leading to bad feeling all round .

If the person concerned appears on here , he will know that his reputation has preceeded him and I trust he will know the sort of reaction to expect if he tries the same thing here .
 

*Thumper

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What a cock !! ............

I'm suprised the guy that had it for nowt, has'nt sued the original owner for something !!
 

ncooper

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Hmm,greed is one of the least attractive human attributes and the recipient of this free car certainly has more than his fair share.

I am a firm believer in the adage "what goes around comes around",so it's quite pleasant to think that eventually his nature will result in something unpleasant befalling him.:mad:

Regards,
Nick.
 

hawk20

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Yes but it is always dangerous to judge without full facts.

Suppose, just suppose, that the recipient of the free car took it in good faith and intended to keep it and do it up etc. But on getting it home and going over it with a toothcomb found that a lot more was going to need doing than he expected and than he could afford.

What should he do then? Perhaps offer it back to the donor? Or offer it again free on the website to a good home?

At the least if he sold and made a profit he should give that to the donor, shouldn't he?
 

ncooper

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I
A long running thread ensued , with many members disparaging over the apparent goings-on and wondering if there had been any agreement re sharing : after some lengthy discussion and speculation the person who had originally offered the car up came on with the following comments

"hello
Im out in thailand so missed all the fun.
Thanks for emails saw ad on xxxxxx yest and forum today.
no profit share at all-quite disappointed if truth be told. also if money pit how come 12 months mot??? cant be that bad surely
it was a good car I wanted an enthusiast to turn into a great car again
ps not as much work done as you think from pics, i know i owned it!!!!
i hope this helps
"

The person who uplifted/advertised the car was known to have visited the thread and responded by text to another member who contacted him privately , then posted up the following message

"Just gathering my thoughts on the whole situation ,
will be posting tonight if I can get in front of a comp .
I had a quick flik thru while I was at work today and on sat .
Quite upset really , as nobody on there knows what was agreed
between me and xxxxx .
As you can imagine free car is never going to be perfect and I have
done everything I said I'd do ( clean her up / mot her )
cant let a freebie become a money pit and trust me the xxxxx requires
work . It's certainly going to be tough getting fellow members to see it my way ,
real shame if I get banned . We shall see !
"

So there we have both sides of the story .

Communication is everything in cases like this.
I think the text I have highlighted makes it pretty clear that the donor believed he had given the car to a genuine enthusiast and that the recipient thought he was a mug,did the minimum for an MOT and put it up for sale.
This being the most telling remark...
"cant let a freebie become a money pit"

Regards,
Nick.
 

robert_jean221

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Hmm,greed is one of the least attractive human attributes and the recipient of this free car certainly has more than his fair share.

I am a firm believer in the adage "what goes around comes around",so it's quite pleasant to think that eventually his nature will result in something unpleasant befalling him.:mad:

Regards,
Nick.

Have always held on to that belief very firmly all my life, but am finding it difficult to sustain of late, when I look at some of the worlds politician's and world leaders (Mugabe springs immediatly to mind).

Bob
 

The Hooded Claw

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Have always held on to that belief very firmly all my life, but am finding it difficult to sustain of late, when I look at some of the worlds politician's and world leaders (Mugabe springs immediatly to mind).

Bob

Yes Thats a good point ..........That little bugger (Mugaba0 have been keeping a "Low Profile" just recently!!!!
 

MarkCL

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Yes but it is always dangerous to judge without full facts.

Suppose, just suppose, that the recipient of the free car took it in good faith and intended to keep it and do it up etc. But on getting it home and going over it with a toothcomb found that a lot more was going to need doing than he expected and than he could afford.

What should he do then? Perhaps offer it back to the donor? Or offer it again free on the website to a good home?

At the least if he sold and made a profit he should give that to the donor, shouldn't he?

To my mind it's actually very straightforward - he got the car for free on the proviso that it would be brought back to its former glory. If upon further inspection he felt this was financially etc beyond him then the answer is clear: Put the car back up for grabs on the website as the original owner had, this time listing whatever additional work he felt needed doing. No need to sell it and even split the money to be honest, as this was NOT what the original owner had intended. His wishes that the car be restored should be respected to my mind. Not difficult at all.

If it had been myself discovering that it was going to be more work than I could afford then I would have gotten back in contact with the original owner and at least discussed it with them, suggested perhaps selling the vehicle on their behalf and if that was truly not what they wanted then simply do what I mentioned in my previous paragraph.

As has been mentioned before - to simply put the car up for sale in order to profit from someone else's generosity is simply nothing more than greed and I completely agree with the OP - bad form indeed :(

Just my own 2p for the pot.

Mark
 

television

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Marks post above spells it all out nicely, and would have been a fair way of going about things.
 

Miffy

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I think more important is that the car was offered to someone who will cherish and bring it back to a good running order, this is almost like offering a loved pet to a good home, to find out its been put down 2 weeks later..

Leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. YAK
 


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