This deal keeps getting worse all the time...
I know that most people have a problem with their in-laws or their in-laws have a problem with them. This is normal. I do not believe that the relationship that I have with Beth's family is normal. I won't go into a play-by-play. For the most part I have kept our issues off this forum since I don't think that its anyone's business and because I didn't necessarily want them finding this journal and reading about it. However, this latest thing just goes above the pail and I let them know how I felt about it so i guess the cat is out of the bag.
Beth and I had planned on going back to the Carolinas to visit for the past year or so but then I got a paycut at work so that option was out. This year, Beth's parents contacted us and told us that they'd be willing to pay for us to come down and visit them. They offered to pay for plane fare. Beth and I talked and we agreed that we'd prefer to rend a van and drive the distance instead. At the time I thought that this would save the parents money and it would give us A LOT more storage space. For a 2-week trip that would be a must and it would allow us to visit all the people on the way that we know.
Months passed and as far as I can tell, Beth's parents never checked on what the rate for a van would be. Instead I think that they just assumed that it would be low. However, about a month before the trip, Beth's mom called and I answered. She asked again if we wouldn't reconsider plane fare. She said that she'd gotten a good deal and I asked her what it was. She said it would be $300 for each of us so it would be $900 total to fly us down. I told her that Beth and I were pretty happy with the van idea especially since Rachel needs so much to keep her calm. She got off the phone and a little while later she calls back and tells me that renting a van was also $900. This surprised me but I figured that since it was equal in value to the plane tickets that they would be fine with renting the van instead. Instead she tells me that she was going to reserve a full-size car since this would only run them $550. I was kind of annoyed. While that would save cost it destroyed the primary reason that we wanted a van - the additional storage space. Taking a full-size car would be comparable to flying on a plane. Frankly we didn't want to deal with the hassle of layovers (there are no direct flights from Milwaukee to Columbia, SC) and since we'd have to rent a car once we got there anyway it didn't seem sensible to us fly when we could just rent and drive.
Beth and I discussed matters and we decided that we'd still rent the van. Beth called her mom and let her know that we'd still go with the van and that we'd just pay the difference if they were unwilling to do so. I was hoping that this response would shame them into paying, especially since they had originally promised us that they'd rent us the van. Instead, they decided to take our offer.
I thought about the payment a few times during the week but wasn't to worried about it but then we got to the last day and I realized that we had never been paid and Beth's parents weren't at the house. Instead she tells me, "they gave me the money" and produces a check for $500. I realize that $50 isn't such a huge deal but when we had already been stiffed hundreds of dollars every little bit counted. I would think that maybe she forgot the value, but she specifically got Beth alone with her to give her the money knowing full well that Beth does not handle financial matters and may well be ignorant of how much we could get. I don't understand why that would be necessary if not to pull the wool over our eyes. Also this isn't the first time that her parents have used the "bait and switch" tactic on us (and the other instances are more blatant and more easily verifiable) and I was finally sick of it as was Beth once she learned what had happened. We left her parents a tersely worded letter regarding how we felt about the whole affair although we didn't bring up the years of other crap that lead us to this point.
Beth is a bottler. She routinely tells me and our friends about how upset her parents make her but she has never told them. Now I think finally the time has come to finally lay it all on the table and I think that its about time. They've lied to us to often and shown us way to much disrespect.
Beth and I had planned on going back to the Carolinas to visit for the past year or so but then I got a paycut at work so that option was out. This year, Beth's parents contacted us and told us that they'd be willing to pay for us to come down and visit them. They offered to pay for plane fare. Beth and I talked and we agreed that we'd prefer to rend a van and drive the distance instead. At the time I thought that this would save the parents money and it would give us A LOT more storage space. For a 2-week trip that would be a must and it would allow us to visit all the people on the way that we know.
Months passed and as far as I can tell, Beth's parents never checked on what the rate for a van would be. Instead I think that they just assumed that it would be low. However, about a month before the trip, Beth's mom called and I answered. She asked again if we wouldn't reconsider plane fare. She said that she'd gotten a good deal and I asked her what it was. She said it would be $300 for each of us so it would be $900 total to fly us down. I told her that Beth and I were pretty happy with the van idea especially since Rachel needs so much to keep her calm. She got off the phone and a little while later she calls back and tells me that renting a van was also $900. This surprised me but I figured that since it was equal in value to the plane tickets that they would be fine with renting the van instead. Instead she tells me that she was going to reserve a full-size car since this would only run them $550. I was kind of annoyed. While that would save cost it destroyed the primary reason that we wanted a van - the additional storage space. Taking a full-size car would be comparable to flying on a plane. Frankly we didn't want to deal with the hassle of layovers (there are no direct flights from Milwaukee to Columbia, SC) and since we'd have to rent a car once we got there anyway it didn't seem sensible to us fly when we could just rent and drive.
Beth and I discussed matters and we decided that we'd still rent the van. Beth called her mom and let her know that we'd still go with the van and that we'd just pay the difference if they were unwilling to do so. I was hoping that this response would shame them into paying, especially since they had originally promised us that they'd rent us the van. Instead, they decided to take our offer.
I thought about the payment a few times during the week but wasn't to worried about it but then we got to the last day and I realized that we had never been paid and Beth's parents weren't at the house. Instead she tells me, "they gave me the money" and produces a check for $500. I realize that $50 isn't such a huge deal but when we had already been stiffed hundreds of dollars every little bit counted. I would think that maybe she forgot the value, but she specifically got Beth alone with her to give her the money knowing full well that Beth does not handle financial matters and may well be ignorant of how much we could get. I don't understand why that would be necessary if not to pull the wool over our eyes. Also this isn't the first time that her parents have used the "bait and switch" tactic on us (and the other instances are more blatant and more easily verifiable) and I was finally sick of it as was Beth once she learned what had happened. We left her parents a tersely worded letter regarding how we felt about the whole affair although we didn't bring up the years of other crap that lead us to this point.
Beth is a bottler. She routinely tells me and our friends about how upset her parents make her but she has never told them. Now I think finally the time has come to finally lay it all on the table and I think that its about time. They've lied to us to often and shown us way to much disrespect.