The "Responding to the Anonymous Letter" Game
Discussion
Well I have had every type of reaction possible towards my car so far as I am sure most of you have. But for me, I think this one takes the biscuit. I sometimes park my car in a quiet residential road which is well lit in the evenings and is away from the main road, for me this is a bit safer than parking on the main street. Checking the car over this morning I found this note on the windscreen:
"Listening to the sound of your TVR warming up for 15 minutes at 6.15am every day is not what i want to wake up to. Why this is necessary is beyond me. You are the only person on the street who carries out this ritual and it is extremely inconsiderate.
The sound of my windows vibrating at that time of the day is maddening and I won't let it continue.
If your car needs warming for 15 minutes before you move it then please do it OFF r
h road.
I feel I've been quite polite in asking you to do so
Your Neighbour"
This letter has really pissed me off for many reasons. I park on this road about 2-3 times during the week not everyday. During the weekdays I don't even get to my car until 7.15am. Lastly and most importantly I realy don't like anonymous letters with a hint of a threat in them being left on my car. If it really grates them that much why not leave a number so we can have a reasonable conversation about it?
I am seriously considering typing up a response and leaving it on display in my car and leaving my car in the same street as much as possible. I am just having a bit of trouble wording it, so any suggestions anybody?
"Listening to the sound of your TVR warming up for 15 minutes at 6.15am every day is not what i want to wake up to. Why this is necessary is beyond me. You are the only person on the street who carries out this ritual and it is extremely inconsiderate.
The sound of my windows vibrating at that time of the day is maddening and I won't let it continue.
If your car needs warming for 15 minutes before you move it then please do it OFF r
h road. I feel I've been quite polite in asking you to do so
Your Neighbour"
This letter has really pissed me off for many reasons. I park on this road about 2-3 times during the week not everyday. During the weekdays I don't even get to my car until 7.15am. Lastly and most importantly I realy don't like anonymous letters with a hint of a threat in them being left on my car. If it really grates them that much why not leave a number so we can have a reasonable conversation about it?
I am seriously considering typing up a response and leaving it on display in my car and leaving my car in the same street as much as possible. I am just having a bit of trouble wording it, so any suggestions anybody?
sacha said:
Sorry to to diviate, but it is better for a car to warm up on the move than stood there, driving it slowly will do it no harm. A garage once told me,(correct me if im wrong) that it more harmful to just let the car stand to warm up.
>> Edited by sacha on Tuesday 15th June 08:05
I am only on the street for a max of five minutes warming up. I start the car, do a walk round the car checking stuff and then get in, put the head unit on, the road angel on get comfy then set off. This takes no more than five minutes, then yes after that i drive along not exceeding 2k rpm until i get to the motorway. So this person saying that i have a 15 min warming up period is totaly exaggerated .
PaulHill said:
Send me the address so I can come round and warm up at 4 am?????
Neil
Maybe we could get a few more round on a sunday at 4am! A synchronised start up and "warming up period" sounds perfect! Maybe we could knock their windows clean out?
Sounds like a job for "Precat Man!!!"
Count me in if you need an extra 106db of Blackpool music.
IMO you are being a little paranoid. I think the letter is pretty polite and frankly leaving the name / number off the letter is pretty sensible... bearing in mind that it could be read by anyone.
I frequently get hacked off in the winter with diesel engines warming off and having worked shifts for 17 years, I have been known to go to the vehicle in question - usually unattended, engine running - and take the keys from the ignition leaving them on the seat.
Now whilst this is not quite the same scenario, the principle is the same...... It's also not parked outside your house, for a perfectly good reason, but that itself may be the root cause for the letter as well as the noise.
I'm afraid we all have to face it... TVR's are noisy. Start her up, move down the road slowly and as others have suggested warm the engine up on the move.
If the person makes a complaint to the Police regarding excessive noise, which on the strength of what you've described, then you may find yourself getting an official ticking off or worse.
Worse than that is that the writer of the letter may at some point take action themselves and leave you with a couple of scratches, flat tyre or worse...
Ian
I frequently get hacked off in the winter with diesel engines warming off and having worked shifts for 17 years, I have been known to go to the vehicle in question - usually unattended, engine running - and take the keys from the ignition leaving them on the seat.
Now whilst this is not quite the same scenario, the principle is the same...... It's also not parked outside your house, for a perfectly good reason, but that itself may be the root cause for the letter as well as the noise.
I'm afraid we all have to face it... TVR's are noisy. Start her up, move down the road slowly and as others have suggested warm the engine up on the move.
If the person makes a complaint to the Police regarding excessive noise, which on the strength of what you've described, then you may find yourself getting an official ticking off or worse.
Worse than that is that the writer of the letter may at some point take action themselves and leave you with a couple of scratches, flat tyre or worse...
Ian
Paul - I'm all for a bit of fun and happy to wind people up who I feel deserve it...
... however, from the tone of the letter, I reckon your neighbour is being fairly reasonable. Mine once said that hearing the Griff start up at 06.30 on a saturday morning sounded great... but then he got up at about that time anyway.
This is what I would do, leave a note on your car saying " fair point - my apologies" then in the mornings, check round the car and put the stereo/road angel in before you start the car, then off you go.
It'll make no difference to you or the car - but make your neighbour a happy bunny and instead of "flash noisey tw*t"... he'll think "good on him, top guy"
Life's too short to make enemies. Good luck.
al
... however, from the tone of the letter, I reckon your neighbour is being fairly reasonable. Mine once said that hearing the Griff start up at 06.30 on a saturday morning sounded great... but then he got up at about that time anyway.
This is what I would do, leave a note on your car saying " fair point - my apologies" then in the mornings, check round the car and put the stereo/road angel in before you start the car, then off you go.
It'll make no difference to you or the car - but make your neighbour a happy bunny and instead of "flash noisey tw*t"... he'll think "good on him, top guy"
Life's too short to make enemies. Good luck.
al
PaulHill said:
I sometimes park my car in a quiet residential road which is well lit in the evenings and is away from the main road, for me this is a bit safer than parking on the main street.
IMHO I think your neighbour has been very reasonable. It must be a real pain the the r's to have someone wake you up everyday. Perhaps they don't work, 7:15 may feel like the middle of the night to them.
Just a thought, imagine how you'd feel if someone parked a dirty great lorry outside your house when you were trying to sleep. I know that it would be a sure fire way to irritate the living daylights out of me.
Life is too short to fall out with neighbours. We all have enough stress at work, you don't need it on your front doorstep.
Another thought, from your profile pic you appear to have your own driveway. How about getting some gates and a car cover to improve security and solve this problem?
the hell with this! the speed six needs warmed. (i think 5-10 mins of static running before driving off is best)
think your neighbour should mind his own business. i have a collection of caterpillar excavators, trucks, diggers etc at 6.55am every morning waking me up and will have for the next two years.
what should i do? write a letter and put it on their cabs saying: 'please can you not start your engines/work until i've had my beauty sleep'???
no way!
let's say (for argument's sake) that your neighbour plays bagpipes (our ex-neighbour used to!) would he be obliging if you asked him not to play them? i doubt it.
(quote Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 'I say it's a dog eat dog world. And i've got bigger teeth (or exhausts!!!!) than you')
think your neighbour should mind his own business. i have a collection of caterpillar excavators, trucks, diggers etc at 6.55am every morning waking me up and will have for the next two years.
what should i do? write a letter and put it on their cabs saying: 'please can you not start your engines/work until i've had my beauty sleep'???
no way!
let's say (for argument's sake) that your neighbour plays bagpipes (our ex-neighbour used to!) would he be obliging if you asked him not to play them? i doubt it.
(quote Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 'I say it's a dog eat dog world. And i've got bigger teeth (or exhausts!!!!) than you')
Well quite clearly your neighbour is a bit of a twat, because leaving aggressive, anonymous notes littering the place is the behaviour of a twat. (There is nothing polite or constructive about this note at all ... I am amazed people are suggesting it is measured. You could clearly write a much ruder note if you wanted to, but that doesn't make this one polite.) If the person has a problem with you and your car, then if they had an ounce of sense they would talk to you politley face to face. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who seem to enjoy the drama and self righteous indignation which they can extract from minor irritation even if they won't admit it to themselves. Leaving a note like this is a deliberate attempt to stoke things up; again I don't suppose the author would recognise this.
But in this life of drizzle and taxation we are surrounded by twats, so the state of your neighbour's psyche is neither here nor there. I'd try to defuse the situation by leaving a short, sympathetic note on the windscreen asking them to give you a call.
But in this life of drizzle and taxation we are surrounded by twats, so the state of your neighbour's psyche is neither here nor there. I'd try to defuse the situation by leaving a short, sympathetic note on the windscreen asking them to give you a call.
Don't forget that there may be other "less" friendly neighbours who are at present bottling up their frustrations. Causing a bit more fuss might bring them crawling out of the woodwork and cause you all sorts of extra grief.
Try imagining the guy reading his note to you in a jolly voice and with a big, friendly smile on his face. Might help. Hmmm, just tried it and it didn't help much. Still, it's the priciple that counts!
Blimey! Am I getting old or what!
Try imagining the guy reading his note to you in a jolly voice and with a big, friendly smile on his face. Might help. Hmmm, just tried it and it didn't help much. Still, it's the priciple that counts!
Blimey! Am I getting old or what!
999 said:
IMO you are being a little paranoid. I think the letter is pretty polite and frankly leaving the name / number off the letter is pretty sensible... bearing in mind that it could be read by anyone.
I frequently get hacked off in the winter with diesel engines warming off and having worked shifts for 17 years, I have been known to go to the vehicle in question - usually unattended, engine running - and take the keys from the ignition leaving them on the seat.
Now whilst this is not quite the same scenario, the principle is the same...... It's also not parked outside your house, for a perfectly good reason, but that itself may be the root cause for the letter as well as the noise.
I'm afraid we all have to face it... TVR's are noisy. Start her up, move down the road slowly and as others have suggested warm the engine up on the move.
If the person makes a complaint to the Police regarding excessive noise, which on the strength of what you've described, then you may find yourself getting an official ticking off or worse.
Worse than that is that the writer of the letter may at some point take action themselves and leave you with a couple of scratches, flat tyre or worse...
Ian
I have the right to be paranoid! I have no quams if someone has a problem with the noise, I myself have noisey (drunk) neighbours who I have complained to in face on many occasions. I say I am paranoid because having left me car on a main street and having it vandalised (scratches on the bumber, wing mirror smashed off, spat on, can of coke emptied on, the list goes on) I feel leaving it on a main street away from residential areas (which is nearly impossible as I live in the middle of london) is to risky. Where ever i leave the car it's gonna be next to someone's flat/house.
The car can't be parked outside my own place because the council have had huge speed humps insalled throughout the estate which makes it impossible to drive into.
I have always been told that the car should be warmed prior to moving off! If not it can cause damage to the engine, so why should i not be able to warm her up for 5 mins? It's not THAT loud and I don't rev it.
burriana500 said:
Paul - I'm all for a bit of fun and happy to wind people up who I feel deserve it...
... however, from the tone of the letter, I reckon your neighbour is being fairly reasonable. Mine once said that hearing the Griff start up at 06.30 on a saturday morning sounded great... but then he got up at about that time anyway.
This is what I would do, leave a note on your car saying " fair point - my apologies" then in the mornings, check round the car and put the stereo/road angel in before you start the car, then off you go.
It'll make no difference to you or the car - but make your neighbour a happy bunny and instead of "flash noisey tw*t"... he'll think "good on him, top guy"
Life's too short to make enemies. Good luck.
al
Al,
I agree it could be annoying the "neighbour" (which by the way lives no where near me, see my other post as to reason why I can't park outside my own flat), but why has only 1 person complained, when there must be about 100 flats in total and i try to be as considerate as possible, ie only 5 min warm up, no throttle when pulling away and only park there 3 times a week max. What else can I do? Where ever I park, in a reasonable distance to my flat someone is going to hear it!
Maybe I should push it down the road util I find a spot with no flats before i start it up? (I might be pushing for some time)
PaulHill said:So have you spoken to the council about this problem - or tried the local press? Not being able to park on your drive due to the council installing speed humps would be quite newsworthy IMHO - papers love to knock the local council. Unless you bought the house/car after the speed humps were installed - then it would really be your problem.
The car can't be parked outside my own place because the council have had huge speed humps insalled throughout the estate which makes it impossible to drive into.
I do think your neighbour has a point tho'. I used to get woken up by my neighbour warming his Triumph Dolomite up at 6.30 am 20' from my bedroom window - when you don't have to get up until 7.30 am (which I didn't in those days) this is very annoying every morning.
chim_girl said:
I sometimes park my car in a quiet residential road which is well lit in the evenings and is away from the main road, for me this is a bit safer than parking on the main street.
IMHO I think your neighbour has been very reasonable. It must be a real pain the the r's to have someone wake you up everyday. Perhaps they don't work, 7:15 may feel like the middle of the night to them.
Just a thought, imagine how you'd feel if someone parked a dirty great lorry outside your house when you were trying to sleep. I know that it would be a sure fire way to irritate the living daylights out of me.
Life is too short to fall out with neighbours. We all have enough stress at work, you don't need it on your front doorstep.
Another thought, from your profile pic you appear to have your own driveway. How about getting some gates and a car cover to improve security and solve this problem?
I don't think they do work, I think it's an oldish person who has nothing better to do than complain to be honest. Living in the middle of London, my flat is just of the Embankment so I hear a fair bit of traffic, plus there seems to be a million taxi drivers who all start up the taxi's from 4.30 onwards and at every 15 mins after that
on the estate. I just get on with it. People have to live and do what they have to do, with in reason. I think starting up and warming my pride and joy is within reason, no reving, no throttle on moving off. The pic on the profile is not my place it's a freinds place near work, if only i had a drive and/or garage! It would have saved me alot of money the last year.
tuscan_thunder said:
the hell with this! the speed six needs warmed. (i think 5-10 mins of static running before driving off is best)
think your neighbour should mind his own business. i have a collection of caterpillar excavators, trucks, diggers etc at 6.55am every morning waking me up and will have for the next two years.
what should i do? write a letter and put it on their cabs saying: 'please can you not start your engines/work until i've had my beauty sleep'???
no way!
let's say (for argument's sake) that your neighbour plays bagpipes (our ex-neighbour used to!) would he be obliging if you asked him not to play them? i doubt it.
(quote Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: 'I say it's a dog eat dog world. And i've got bigger teeth (or exhausts!!!!) than you')
Cheers for that! I thought I was going loopy for a while then. I was starting to feel maybe I am being out of order for going about my daily routine
I am going to leave a note in my car stating they should leave a number or maybe meet me at my car at 6.15 (they will be waiting for a while as I don't get to it until 7.15). I think that would be best for now. Just want a reasonable chat with the person, thats all. Not to much to ask...
ATG said:
Well quite clearly your neighbour is a bit of a twat, because leaving aggressive, anonymous notes littering the place is the behaviour of a twat. (There is nothing polite or constructive about this note at all ... I am amazed people are suggesting it is measured. You could clearly write a much ruder note if you wanted to, but that doesn't make this one polite.) If the person has a problem with you and your car, then if they had an ounce of sense they would talk to you politley face to face. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who seem to enjoy the drama and self righteous indignation which they can extract from minor irritation even if they won't admit it to themselves. Leaving a note like this is a deliberate attempt to stoke things up; again I don't suppose the author would recognise this.
But in this life of drizzle and taxation we are surrounded by twats, so the state of your neighbour's psyche is neither here nor there. I'd try to defuse the situation by leaving a short, sympathetic note on the windscreen asking them to give you a call.
I have a feeling that this in an older person of the comunity hence being a bit slow in leaving details in case I get nasty. I am a reasonable, straight forward person, if someone pisses me off I'll tell them to there face, it's so much easier. This note like you say has just wound me up.
I would really like to know what they mean by "I won't let it continue"?
One man's music is another man's nuisance. I don't think that what you are doing is necessarily unreasonable - it is not as if you are deliberately making alot of noise. On the other hand, I can empathise from the point of view that this is causing someone a degree of upset. To get to the point of leaving a note on your car, they must already be very wound up.
Personally, I would do all I can to be sensitive to the situation and reduce the disturbance to a minimum. As Al says, do everything that needs to be done, then start up and move off immediately. Park as far away as is practical to do. The other option may be some track day silencers (if they would work) to attentuate the noise where possible.
I have had to complain about a pub near me in the past due to an accumulation of little things that really started to get my goat. For example, they were having commercial refuse collection at 5.45am on Mondays. A quick call to Environmental Health gave me feedback that this was indeed unacceptable, and now they are banned from coming before 8.00am. The downside is that I don't feel I can get my car kitted out with the sports exhaust of my dreams as then I would cause them disturbance on those nights when I driving back at 1.00am in the morning. Its a difficult balancing act to achieve - but at the end of the day, TVRs are naturally very loud - and that does not sit well with everyone.
Hope you find the right solution.
Personally, I would do all I can to be sensitive to the situation and reduce the disturbance to a minimum. As Al says, do everything that needs to be done, then start up and move off immediately. Park as far away as is practical to do. The other option may be some track day silencers (if they would work) to attentuate the noise where possible.
I have had to complain about a pub near me in the past due to an accumulation of little things that really started to get my goat. For example, they were having commercial refuse collection at 5.45am on Mondays. A quick call to Environmental Health gave me feedback that this was indeed unacceptable, and now they are banned from coming before 8.00am. The downside is that I don't feel I can get my car kitted out with the sports exhaust of my dreams as then I would cause them disturbance on those nights when I driving back at 1.00am in the morning. Its a difficult balancing act to achieve - but at the end of the day, TVRs are naturally very loud - and that does not sit well with everyone.
Hope you find the right solution.
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