What happened to decency?

[swee'pea99]

So are cars a special case then when it comes to damaging other people's property? All the people who sign up to the "its only a car" philosophy, would you own up if you accidentally damaged someone else's car?

What if it was someone's house, say you were clumsy with a ladder and put through a neighbours window, or bit of fence or something. "its only a house" doesn't quite cut it.

I can see both sides of "its only a car", owning a cheap banger for day to day and something nicer for the weekend. I think it depends what value (which may not simply by monetary) it has to the owner though, not what the person inflicting the damage thinks it may be worth (i.e. "its only a car" so I can take less care opening my door near it)

Have to say I'm baffled by the notion that it's ok to damage someone else's property and just leave without so much as a sorry because 'it's only a car'.

Yes 'these things happen'. Yes, you shouldn't get too worked up about it, there are more important things in life. But that doesn't mean it's ok to damage someone else's stuff then do a runner. You should leave a note, and be ready to pay for the damage, on account of you caused it. That strikes me as so blindingly obvious that it amazes me that a thread disputing the notion could have gone on for seven pages.

 

[Dan B]

So are cars a special case then when it comes to damaging other people's property

Judging by some of the responses here I guess they must be, simply because there's no other similarly fragile items of similar value which you can leave lying around in public places and expect everyone else to care about to the same extent. Leave an expensive suit in the middle of the road? Put your laptop on the ground in a car park? Whoever runs into or over (or off with) it is certainly not going to be leaving a note

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Judging by some of the responses here I guess they must be, simply because there's no other similarly fragile items of similar value which you can leave lying around in public places and expect everyone else to care about to the same extent. Leave an expensive suit in the middle of the road? Put your laptop on the ground in a car park? Whoever runs into or over (or off with) it is certainly not going to be leaving a note

I had an expensive shoe run over and ruined recently. Did I get a note?

 

[Crackle]

[QUOTE 2820092, member: 259"]Where did you leave the shoe?[/quote]
Are you hoping it was on his 2nd left foot?

 

[swee'pea99]

That would be because no one is saying that it is OK.

Well, I dunno...

"But should they compensate, that's the question. I don't think you or the OP are looking for just an admission, because how would the dinkers mere admission of the act restore the value of the OP's damaged asset? It therefore appears that what the OP and other 'car-as-asset' pride'n'joy types want is

Admission of fault
Apology
Compensation/Restoration.

My view? Car park dinks are part of normal wear and tear and a risk you face if you leave your asset unattended in close proximity to the clumsily operated assets of others."

seems to me to come pretty damn close. And the broad idea that 'you have to expect it' and 'don't make such a fuss' seems to have got quite a lot of people nodding sagely in agreement.

Personally I'd definitely go along with

Admission of fault
Apology
Compensation/Restoration

Why the hell not?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

[QUOTE 2820092, member: 259"]Where did you leave the shoe?[/quote]
In a car park.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Personally I'd definitely go along with

Admission of fault
Apology
Compensation/Restoration

Why the hell not?

Because this is a thread about what has happened to decency..... and there is no commonly agreed version of decency we can all use.

For instance, from my perspective, the decent thing to do would be

Admission of fault
Apology
Compensation/Restoration
Rejection of compensation
Owner drives away smiling

Thus I would take a short cut if/when any car/bike I might own gets dinked of going straight to the final point. Why? Because it is a means of transport not a fetish object.

 

[swee'pea99]

But the thread began with a post concerning someone who did a runner. That's 'indecent'. Regardless of how anyone regards their car.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

There is a difference between what people might do if they have damaged someone else's car and how they might view a small scuffed in their own.

or indeed a scuff on their shoe caused by a clumsy fellow pedestrian.

Check your facts first, Mort

Actually.

 

[Spinney]

Ask me what happened next....

What happened next?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

What happened next?

He rocked up a few months later to seek a five year renewal of his professional services contract to find me, to his utter horror, sat in the hot seat and his firm, of which he is the principal, off the short list.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

[QUOTE 2820142, member: 259"]Church's - this explains everything. [/quote]
It really doesn't explain anything.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

[QUOTE 2820140, member: 259"]Or "I've done something wrong which affects someone else, so I should admit it because that's the decent thing to do." [/quote]
Admitting the error would not be sufficient, as has been said in previous posts. Folk want compensating for their "loss", real or imagined.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

[QUOTE 2820167, member: 259"]I think you're just making this up as you go along, but whatever...[/quote]
Are you working from a script then. In which case can I have a copy? Because I think my position has been pretty consistent on the matter of car park dinks...

I'm sorry the OP's wife had a piece of property that means a lot to her, and him, damaged. To extrapolate this into the death of decency and honesty, though, seems a little ott to me.

Car park dinks are a fact of life. Have been since the first two cars were parked next to one another in the first car park. Let it go. Move on. It's just a machine, an object, it doesn't actually matter.

 

[gavroche]

That is the damage done, £200 worth to be more precise.