Recently...
Until this last week life has been great and I've been meaning to update this thing, but I guess I only get motivated when I have something to vent about.
It begins: Thursday I hit a drunk pedestrian who was walking across four lanes of a one-way street during rush hour and not even looking in the direction of oncoming traffic. A vehicle ahead of me obscured my vision of him until almost the last second. Then the guy actually looks at my car, acts like he's going to stop and keeps walking into my line. I was all the way over to the left so I couldn't go anywhere. I slammed on the breaks and laid on the horn, but there was no preventing the inevitable. I was able to move just enough to the left that he rolled along the side of my car instead of being plowed over. He his head on my windshield so hard that it caved in and sent shards of glass flying all the way into my backseat. He also tore the side mirror off.
After the accident I tried to get him to sit down, because he may have had a concussion, but he declared that he needed a cheese burger and stumbled into the nearest Burger King. Some other witnesses helped me keep track of him while I called 911 and waited for the Paramedics and Police to arrive. The Cop took my information and the Paramedics took the other guy to the hospital. Days later I still don't have a copy of the police report and my insurance company hasn't given me any answers. It's probably going to take months to get this whole this resolved and I'm not the least bit at fault.
On the bright side, my car was perfectly drivable. I got my windshield was replaced the day and my Dad and I reattached the mirror ourselves, which was actually a rather satisfying personal growth experience.
And then: Tuesday I fractured my ring finger on my left hand in Jujutsu practice. We were doing a practical application mock-fighting exercise where three people take turns "attacking" a fourth person in the center of the group. While attacking I was thrown and as I put down a hand to push myself up off the mat my Sensei was pushed backward in my direction. Neither of us had time to react fast enough and his heel (supporting the full weight of his body) came down on the tip of my finger. It hurt quite a bit, but I didn't think much of it until I looked at my hand. My finger was bent inward at an angel and my nail was sticking up through the skin. I had to drive myself to emergency care, where I was x-rayed and found out that I had fractured the finger.
So now I have to wear a splint for eight to ten weeks, which is not only painful but it seriously inhibits the use of my left hand. A pain in the ass considering that I can't practice martial arts, my work requires high dexterity, and worst of all a good friend of mine is getting married tomorrow and I have get dressed up - including somehow tying my tie.
The final straw: I bought a present on eBay for my friend's birthday and had it shipped to him. Upon opening the box he could see that the item was damaged inside of its package. I wrote the seller asking him how we could resolve the situation. He wrote me back saying that he wouldn't accept a return on the item as the three day return limit had passed - ignoring the fact that the item wasn't even received within three days of purchase. On top of that he literally wrote, "And next time you want somebody to jump thru hoops for you go fuck yourself!!"
I filed a complaint with both eBay and Paypal, but I've been through this situation before and I know there's only a slim chance that I'll get any form of justice. I may get a reimbursement from Paypal, but honestly that matters very little to me. eBay shouldn't allow their users to get away with such behavior. More than anything it pisses me off that they'll probably end up running me around in circles for a couple of months and then simply state that "the proper action has been taken." This will most likely equate to nothing because they're a conglomerate solely concerned with profit and legally they aren't required to mediate. Nothing gets to me more than dealing with companies whose only human representatives are next to impossible to contact, completely uncooperative, and entirely unsympathetic.
The universe may conspire to create misfortune, but people choose to create injustice.
It begins: Thursday I hit a drunk pedestrian who was walking across four lanes of a one-way street during rush hour and not even looking in the direction of oncoming traffic. A vehicle ahead of me obscured my vision of him until almost the last second. Then the guy actually looks at my car, acts like he's going to stop and keeps walking into my line. I was all the way over to the left so I couldn't go anywhere. I slammed on the breaks and laid on the horn, but there was no preventing the inevitable. I was able to move just enough to the left that he rolled along the side of my car instead of being plowed over. He his head on my windshield so hard that it caved in and sent shards of glass flying all the way into my backseat. He also tore the side mirror off.
After the accident I tried to get him to sit down, because he may have had a concussion, but he declared that he needed a cheese burger and stumbled into the nearest Burger King. Some other witnesses helped me keep track of him while I called 911 and waited for the Paramedics and Police to arrive. The Cop took my information and the Paramedics took the other guy to the hospital. Days later I still don't have a copy of the police report and my insurance company hasn't given me any answers. It's probably going to take months to get this whole this resolved and I'm not the least bit at fault.
On the bright side, my car was perfectly drivable. I got my windshield was replaced the day and my Dad and I reattached the mirror ourselves, which was actually a rather satisfying personal growth experience.
And then: Tuesday I fractured my ring finger on my left hand in Jujutsu practice. We were doing a practical application mock-fighting exercise where three people take turns "attacking" a fourth person in the center of the group. While attacking I was thrown and as I put down a hand to push myself up off the mat my Sensei was pushed backward in my direction. Neither of us had time to react fast enough and his heel (supporting the full weight of his body) came down on the tip of my finger. It hurt quite a bit, but I didn't think much of it until I looked at my hand. My finger was bent inward at an angel and my nail was sticking up through the skin. I had to drive myself to emergency care, where I was x-rayed and found out that I had fractured the finger.
So now I have to wear a splint for eight to ten weeks, which is not only painful but it seriously inhibits the use of my left hand. A pain in the ass considering that I can't practice martial arts, my work requires high dexterity, and worst of all a good friend of mine is getting married tomorrow and I have get dressed up - including somehow tying my tie.
The final straw: I bought a present on eBay for my friend's birthday and had it shipped to him. Upon opening the box he could see that the item was damaged inside of its package. I wrote the seller asking him how we could resolve the situation. He wrote me back saying that he wouldn't accept a return on the item as the three day return limit had passed - ignoring the fact that the item wasn't even received within three days of purchase. On top of that he literally wrote, "And next time you want somebody to jump thru hoops for you go fuck yourself!!"
I filed a complaint with both eBay and Paypal, but I've been through this situation before and I know there's only a slim chance that I'll get any form of justice. I may get a reimbursement from Paypal, but honestly that matters very little to me. eBay shouldn't allow their users to get away with such behavior. More than anything it pisses me off that they'll probably end up running me around in circles for a couple of months and then simply state that "the proper action has been taken." This will most likely equate to nothing because they're a conglomerate solely concerned with profit and legally they aren't required to mediate. Nothing gets to me more than dealing with companies whose only human representatives are next to impossible to contact, completely uncooperative, and entirely unsympathetic.
The universe may conspire to create misfortune, but people choose to create injustice.