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Sep. 7th, 2009
I stand before you my friends, to tell you that you can beat the system, if possessed of determination, vocabulary, and the righteousness of the innocent!
To begin the story at its beginning ... We own a car. Not that it sees much use, it's 11 years old and has only just gone over 60,000km. I don't drive and Mr Brammers prefers to catch the train or walk. Also, most of our life is within a four-mile radius, in which parking is grim. So it spends time in its residential parking spot, outside the house with the nosy old lady who calls the police whenever she sees suspicious young people. Slapped on its window is a residential sticker, and cobwebs, usually.
One day a few months ago, we decided to drive somewhere. There was something under the windscreen wiper: a parking ticket from three weeks previous.
Mr Brammers swore loudly and profanely. I counselled calm: we have a permit, the ticket was for parking for longer than allowed in a residential area, our area, without a permit: clearly it had been given in error. People make mistakes. The car was dirty, there were cobwebs, it had been a bright sunny week when the ticket was issues and the combination of glare and muck may have made the permit invisible. 'We will call the council, we can sort this,' I advised.
Mr Brammers rang the council and asked what to do, they said that it would be fine, all he needed to do was to send a copy of the receipt for the permit and a letter explaining the situation to the State Revenue and they would revoke the ticket.
This he duly did. After a few weeks, a letter came back in which an officious twat from State revenue, who I will call Annoying Man, declared that there was no reason for him to revoke the fine, as the mere fact that we had purchased a permit did not prove anything.
Mr Brammers ranted and swore again, I suggested he write a letter. He declared that there as no point, as The System would never let anyone win when there was cash at stake. I asked if he would let me write a letter, then, pretending I was him. He conceded it would be worth it to shut me up.
I wrote the following, using real names and phone numbers:
( The actual text of the letter )
I sent registered copies to Annoying Man, Annoying Man's boss, the Department Head, and the Treasurer (because postage is cheap and I am not afraid of a little overkill). Registered means that you can track the arrival of a letter, which is handy if you think that you may need to write a follow-up letter.
Three and a half weeks later we had heard nothing back, so Mr Brammers thanked me for my valiant effort and the giggle it gave him, and logged in to pay online. Where he found a notice saying 'Penalty cancelled, no fine due.'
In addition to thanking me for my efforts, he admitted that I was right and you can beat The System if you are more annoying than it is. It is just as well that I have a Proper Job and so use my superpowers of annoyance for good, rather than evil ;-)
To begin the story at its beginning ... We own a car. Not that it sees much use, it's 11 years old and has only just gone over 60,000km. I don't drive and Mr Brammers prefers to catch the train or walk. Also, most of our life is within a four-mile radius, in which parking is grim. So it spends time in its residential parking spot, outside the house with the nosy old lady who calls the police whenever she sees suspicious young people. Slapped on its window is a residential sticker, and cobwebs, usually.
One day a few months ago, we decided to drive somewhere. There was something under the windscreen wiper: a parking ticket from three weeks previous.
Mr Brammers swore loudly and profanely. I counselled calm: we have a permit, the ticket was for parking for longer than allowed in a residential area, our area, without a permit: clearly it had been given in error. People make mistakes. The car was dirty, there were cobwebs, it had been a bright sunny week when the ticket was issues and the combination of glare and muck may have made the permit invisible. 'We will call the council, we can sort this,' I advised.
Mr Brammers rang the council and asked what to do, they said that it would be fine, all he needed to do was to send a copy of the receipt for the permit and a letter explaining the situation to the State Revenue and they would revoke the ticket.
This he duly did. After a few weeks, a letter came back in which an officious twat from State revenue, who I will call Annoying Man, declared that there was no reason for him to revoke the fine, as the mere fact that we had purchased a permit did not prove anything.
Mr Brammers ranted and swore again, I suggested he write a letter. He declared that there as no point, as The System would never let anyone win when there was cash at stake. I asked if he would let me write a letter, then, pretending I was him. He conceded it would be worth it to shut me up.
I wrote the following, using real names and phone numbers:
( The actual text of the letter )
I sent registered copies to Annoying Man, Annoying Man's boss, the Department Head, and the Treasurer (because postage is cheap and I am not afraid of a little overkill). Registered means that you can track the arrival of a letter, which is handy if you think that you may need to write a follow-up letter.
Three and a half weeks later we had heard nothing back, so Mr Brammers thanked me for my valiant effort and the giggle it gave him, and logged in to pay online. Where he found a notice saying 'Penalty cancelled, no fine due.'
In addition to thanking me for my efforts, he admitted that I was right and you can beat The System if you are more annoying than it is. It is just as well that I have a Proper Job and so use my superpowers of annoyance for good, rather than evil ;-)
I stand before you my friends, to tell you that you can beat the system, if possessed of determination, vocabulary, and the righteousness of the innocent!
To begin the story at its beginning ... We own a car. Not that it sees much use, it's 11 years old and has only just gone over 60,000km. I don't drive and Mr Brammers prefers to catch the train or walk. Also, most of our life is within a four-mile radius, in which parking is grim. So it spends time in its residential parking spot, outside the house with the nosy old lady who calls the police whenever she sees suspicious young people. Slapped on its window is a residential sticker, and cobwebs, usually.
One day a few months ago, we decided to drive somewhere. There was something under the windscreen wiper: a parking ticket from three weeks previous.
Mr Brammers swore loudly and profanely. I counselled calm: we have a permit, the ticket was for parking for longer than allowed in a residential area, our area, without a permit: clearly it had been given in error. People make mistakes. The car was dirty, there were cobwebs, it had been a bright sunny week when the ticket was issues and the combination of glare and muck may have made the permit invisible. 'We will call the council, we can sort this,' I advised.
Mr Brammers rang the council and asked what to do, they said that it would be fine, all he needed to do was to send a copy of the receipt for the permit and a letter explaining the situation to the State Revenue and they would revoke the ticket.
This he duly did. After a few weeks, a letter came back in which an officious twat from State revenue, who I will call Annoying Man, declared that there was no reason for him to revoke the fine, as the mere fact that we had purchased a permit did not prove anything.
Mr Brammers ranted and swore again, I suggested he write a letter. He declared that there as no point, as The System would never let anyone win when there was cash at stake. I asked if he would let me write a letter, then, pretending I was him. He conceded it would be worth it to shut me up.
I wrote the following, using real names and phone numbers:
( The actual text of the letter )
I sent registered copies to Annoying Man, Annoying Man's boss, the Department Head, and the Treasurer (because postage is cheap and I am not afraid of a little overkill). Registered means that you can track the arrival of a letter, which is handy if you think that you may need to write a follow-up letter.
Three and a half weeks later we had heard nothing back, so Mr Brammers thanked me for my valiant effort and the giggle it gave him, and logged in to pay online. Where he found a notice saying 'Penalty cancelled, no fine due.'
In addition to thanking me for my efforts, he admitted that I was right and you can beat The System if you are more annoying than it is. It is just as well that I have a Proper Job and so use my superpowers of annoyance for good, rather than evil ;-)
To begin the story at its beginning ... We own a car. Not that it sees much use, it's 11 years old and has only just gone over 60,000km. I don't drive and Mr Brammers prefers to catch the train or walk. Also, most of our life is within a four-mile radius, in which parking is grim. So it spends time in its residential parking spot, outside the house with the nosy old lady who calls the police whenever she sees suspicious young people. Slapped on its window is a residential sticker, and cobwebs, usually.
One day a few months ago, we decided to drive somewhere. There was something under the windscreen wiper: a parking ticket from three weeks previous.
Mr Brammers swore loudly and profanely. I counselled calm: we have a permit, the ticket was for parking for longer than allowed in a residential area, our area, without a permit: clearly it had been given in error. People make mistakes. The car was dirty, there were cobwebs, it had been a bright sunny week when the ticket was issues and the combination of glare and muck may have made the permit invisible. 'We will call the council, we can sort this,' I advised.
Mr Brammers rang the council and asked what to do, they said that it would be fine, all he needed to do was to send a copy of the receipt for the permit and a letter explaining the situation to the State Revenue and they would revoke the ticket.
This he duly did. After a few weeks, a letter came back in which an officious twat from State revenue, who I will call Annoying Man, declared that there was no reason for him to revoke the fine, as the mere fact that we had purchased a permit did not prove anything.
Mr Brammers ranted and swore again, I suggested he write a letter. He declared that there as no point, as The System would never let anyone win when there was cash at stake. I asked if he would let me write a letter, then, pretending I was him. He conceded it would be worth it to shut me up.
I wrote the following, using real names and phone numbers:
( The actual text of the letter )
I sent registered copies to Annoying Man, Annoying Man's boss, the Department Head, and the Treasurer (because postage is cheap and I am not afraid of a little overkill). Registered means that you can track the arrival of a letter, which is handy if you think that you may need to write a follow-up letter.
Three and a half weeks later we had heard nothing back, so Mr Brammers thanked me for my valiant effort and the giggle it gave him, and logged in to pay online. Where he found a notice saying 'Penalty cancelled, no fine due.'
In addition to thanking me for my efforts, he admitted that I was right and you can beat The System if you are more annoying than it is. It is just as well that I have a Proper Job and so use my superpowers of annoyance for good, rather than evil ;-)