Best CF stories part 2

[HepLaurenceLB]

First thread
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3905995-Best-CF-Stories

Placemarking love these threads!!

My two sisters are CF. DS1 asked could I help out with childcare for one week as her DH had a trial for a new job. I obliged as I was a SAHM ( mainly due to the fact I couldn't afford childcare myself) Arrangement was I collected my second daughter from school at 1.40pm,drive to collect my nephew from nursery at 2pm and drove back to the school to collect my DD1 and niece at 2.40pm. I also had a one year old myself. I gave the kids dinner everyday, a little treat and made sure their homework was done when Dad collected them at 6pm. I also sent any leftover dinner up for my sister and her husband. One week turned into two, then three as I was told her DH actually had to do a months trial. I ended up minding the kids for four months including Easter holidays. She also tried to get me to mind my nephew when he got chicken pox. She paid me a measly 40 quid. The petrol and food I was buying cost more. The kids were fussy eaters so I was catering to them, even though my sister doesn't cook at all and she thinks meatballs from a can is an acceptable dinner. She would send nephew down with one packet of crisps in his bag and he would eat them on the sly. It was approaching the summer holidays and I told sister I wouldn't be able to mind them as I had plans for days out with my own children and friends.I wouldn't have been able to afford to bring my three and her two children out. She collected the kids on a Friday evening and didn't speak to me for two years as I had let her down apparantly. Was told she roped a friend into minding kids and had all over Facebook how great she was to said friend and pictures of presents, treats she regularly gave to friend and friends kids. She has done loads more CF things to me.

@DWPmisery1972

Our bin wars when we first moved here. The house 3 doors down had sharers in. We live in a terrace and bins are kept in the front gardens. One day we arrived home from shopping and noticed that our half empty bin was no longer closed - it was full and stuff was sticking out of the top. It was still several days to bin day and we would not have been able to get the rest of our rubbish in, so armed with rubber gloves I went to squash it down. There were a few carrier bags of rubbish in there that were not ours and I noticed that the top one was full of paperwork including envelopes. I pulled a couple out and they were for someone at the shared house. One of the housemates arrived home just as I was putting their rubish on their doorstep!! I said that if they were going to fill someone else's bin then it would be better not to put things with their names and address on top!!

A few years ago, my daughter applied for a job with a local business as a FT copywriter. In the interview, she was duly quizzed... about me, my career, my salary and only then did they move onto asking about her work experience (none, other than what she'd studied in a module during her degree - up until then, she'd worked in restaurants, PT). Because the business was local, I shrugged my shoulders and thought perhaps the business owner thought he knew me somehow (he didn't) given our unusual surname.

My daughter was offered, and accepted the job. For perhaps three weeks she raved about how great the office was, how much she loved the campaign she'd immediately been given to work on/help launch... and then? As soon as the campaign had launched? She was "let go", and because she was still on probation, they refused to tell her why.

In hindsight, the business owner was truly a CF who was looking to use young, inexperienced graduates to get the grunt work his FT long-term, experienced employees either didn't want to, or perhaps couldn't, do themselves. In hindsight, he'd quizzed my daughter about me because he was looking for someone who had family support financially (she still lived at home, then) so that he could exploit the loopholes in probation for his own end.

The business went under less than a year after my daughter had worked there. No idea why, but I did smile a little more than usual on the day I found out the owner had lost his little company (whilst feeling sorry for the long-term employees). My daughter? Secured another position with a slightly better company within a month, fortunately and has been in steady employment pretty much ever since.

But parents of young graduates, beware! There are CF's like my daughter's former boss out there who will cheerfully exploit them for a pittance... then get rid as soon as they've got what they wanted from them!

Coming back later with my story

Years ago I was at a very busy event, I had my 9 month old niece with me as her parents needed childcare, they never ask and she was such an easy baby I didn’t mind as I was designated driver that day anyway. I had her attached to me in a baby carrier for the whole thing with a back pack on holding all her things. So far so simple. Well, my niece had a huge meltdown seemingly out of no where in the middle of an act, no problem, I had a quick feel and discovered she had done a massive poo and was leaking through her nappy, I duly hurried to the bar, got the baby change/disabled toilet key, and as soon as I swung the door open a drunk woman rushed in telling me “not to worry she wouldn’t be long” I was so shocked considering I had a clearly distressed baby with me. I told her to get out and that the baby needed attention, her response was that there was a huge queue for the ladies and she was going to piss herself. Not my problem, I said and stood my ground. It probably would have taken a shorter time to let her pee but I was not going to give in. I didn’t even know this woman from Adam! Eventually she left and after sorting my niece she was a happy baby and thankfully I was clean. If she had been disabled maybe it would have been different but the baby was clearly distressed!

@magicstar1 so they catered for the actual wedding. The guests who expected to have free food etc the day after (when most brides and grooms have gone on honeymoon) are the cf’s here!

@contrary13 similar story here. I applied for a permanent position somewhere in the November. I organised things around my new job and turned down a higher paying offer who's only downside was a slightly longer commute.

I worked tirelessly over the busy period of Christmas (including Christmas Eve, Day, Boxing Day, NYE and NY Day with no time off) just to be let go as soon as it was finished.
I had specifically asked if it was seasonal work only (as I would have gone for the other offer I had) and was assured that it was a permanent position. My work had been spot on. My tasks were done much quicker than expected, were always as they should have been and i even made improvements that they liked and took on. (Boss saw me doing something that sped a process up twice as fast and was thrilled.) so Boss ended up with a sucker who worked all the shitty days over Christmas, used my knowledge to maximise profits and then just said they had no more work for me as soon as the busy period was done.

[quote BerniesMittens]@magicstar1 so they catered for the actual wedding. The guests who expected to have free food etc the day after (when most brides and grooms have gone on honeymoon) are the cf’s here![/quote]
I don't think that is what the poster said. The guests had been encouraged to take rooms at the hotel (probably cutting the costs down for the B&G). They were not informed that the following day, the hotel they had been expected to stay and pay for, would not be opening their restaurant for those guests to buy their meals. The B&G had known that and had organised a meal to be served only for them and their close family.

The CFers were the B&G and the hotel who were not catering to guests. What kind of hotel has a restaurant but doesn't open it for guests and doesn't warn guests they won't be able to eat there?

Years ago, I set up a marketing co managing online advertising for small businesses.

I had a client that was a sports club. The guy I dealt with was a nightmare, very demanding but I handled him ok.

One day he sent me a proposal he had got before he signed with me from the biggest marketing co in the country. He told me he hadn't signed with them as they were very expensive.

The proposal was full of ideas for graphics, images of people playing the sport, taglines, that sort of thing. 10+ pages. None of it had been supplied by the club, it was all theirs.

He asked me to replicate it, using their creative ideas, thinking I could do it on the cheap.

I refused, saying it's copyrighted intellectual property.

He threw a big strop, waving his dick around, "I employ YOU and you do what I tell you" sort of thing. I still refused, even researching the marketing co's own terms saying they retain the rights of anything produced.

He ignore this and tried to strongarm me. Threatening to pull the contract with me and bad mouth me to everyone he knew. In the end I went over his head to the chairman (who was lovely) and explained that legally I couldn't do what was asked and we could both be sued by this co with deep pockets and shit hot lawyers. He smoothed things over with dickhead and we did something else.

At contract renewal time they wanted to continue working with me. I politely declined

Went for a meal with DH’s brothers, and one BIL’s in-laws and wife.
The restaurant was really expensive, so we chose the cheapest thing on the menu, but BIL and his IL’s and DW had aperitifs, starters, most expensive main courses, dessert, cheeseboard and digestifs. We each had a couple of glasses of wine from the 6 bottles ordered, but when it came to the bill, BIL and family wanted to split equally by 7. We and other BIL were definitely done over! Won’t be accepting any further invitations to go out for a meal with them!

The guests had been encouraged to take rooms at the hotel (probably cutting the costs down for the B&G)

This is why I cringe whenever an invitation mentions "special rates to stay at our wedding hotel", knowing perfectly well I'm probably chipping in for the B&G's room and probably much else as well

To be clear I don't in the least mind helping out ... what I do mind is something being presented as other than what it is

@BerniesMittens BloodyDarrener has explained it perfectly. Nobody wanted a free meal...just the option to buy their own dinners. B&G hadn't bothered to tell people there was no restaurant, but sat downstairs in a private room with about 12 family members stuffing their faces. Some of these guests had travelled from other countries and I was embarassed to see them treated like that.

@Puzzledandpissedoff I agree. I hate staying in the wedding hotels too. For our wedding we didn't use a hotel, we hired a venue. I booked every b&b in the area and we paid for all the parents, family, bridesmaids / groomsmen and partners. We even paid for elderly neighbours accommodation...it was the right thing to do.

That was very generous of you, magicstar1

TBH I've no objection to paying for myself, and even appreciate pointers as to what's available nearby; it's just being shoehorned into paying for others on the pretence of something else I mind

Not to mention the hotel was in a remote area.
The onus should be on the B&G to at the very, very least make their guests aware that the hotel kitchens shut on the 2nd day of their stay. Forewarned is forearmed as they say. They left their guests in the lurch, in unfamiliar grounds, hungry. How awful!

My friends actually charged their guests more than the hotel charged for a night.

I declined to stay when she told me I needed to pay for two nights even though I was only staying for one because she'd booked the entire hotel for the two nights and didn't want to pay for the empty room herself.

I don't know if it's CF territory or just bad planning but we went to a wedding as evening guests and they had a hog roast. Unfortunately there was nothing at all else on offer and it meant that the evening and day guests had one small pork roll each. We had dinner before we left but the other guests hadn't eaten since the wedding breakfast around 2pm. A lot of very hungry people.

This is one I've posted about before but it still leaves me shocked to this day when I think about it. This is actually my friend's story not mine.

Friend gets married to her DH who is from a non-western culture, including the tradition of money being given at weddings instead of gifts. Totally fine, all the guests understand that.

A few months go by after the wedding and friend and DH start getting messages here and there from guests/family members who attended, just checking that they received the wedding money. Alarm bells start ringing as Friend and DH had already sent out all their thank you cards and didn't realise many more guests had given money at the wedding.

The MIL had been in charge of accepting the money gifts and as you can guess, she'd stolen a decent amount of the money for herself. My friend estimates somewhere between £7-10k! MIL never admitted anything but it turns out she has a history of doing stuff like this, in fact she did the exact same thing at her older daughter's wedding (my friend ended up being furious at her DH for not warning her about MIL's stealing habit!). In case anyone wonders, friend and DH paid for the wedding by themselves so the MIL couldn't argue she was reimbursing herself.

Another classic MIL stunt (same MIL) was when she presented her oldest daughter's fiance with an itemised bill for rent, clothing, food, birthday presents etc. that she claimed she had spent on her daughter since her 18th birthday. Somehow MIL believed that her daughter's fiance should reimburse her for all of it! The daughter was 26 years old and hadn't even lived at the family home since she was 18!

At work we have a car park for employees. It's council checked and people get fines if they are caught in there without a permit. You can get a permit for visiting if you're not permanently working there.

Often people get very indignant at getting a fine and appeal, normally because they "didn't know it needed a permit", despite there now being 3 large signs that say it-you can't miss them, the car park only has space for 18 cars.

Not very long ago I got a call from parking services to say they had an appeal. These people had come into the car park on a Saturday morning, not got a permit, and then been locked in, as the car park, (as clearly said) closes at 1pm on Saturday. Then they'd been given a fine.
They told the parking services that we were backing their appeal and had given our CCTV to show that they were locked in so couldn't get out. They enclosed 2 pictures not from our CCTV but clearly from the residential houses opposite-clearly they were visiting them.
Due to covid, the people issuing permits were sitting around 10 yards from the cars parked (I have that on our genuine CCTV)

But the main part of their appeal was that it wasn't fair as they had regularly parked there without a permit and not been fined before.
We had a bit of a chuckle on the phone together wondering if they could be fooled into answering the question "how many times have you parked there without getting a permit?" SO we could suggest they could be fined for each time!

The summer before uni I worked for an agency who placed me working with the local council. The job was basically dealing with bookings and enquiries for hiring the local community halls and the likes. It wasn’t a massively taxing job - get the form, check the dates, put it on the system, send confirmation and file form. The only tricky bit was putting it in the system as they had a stupid, ancient computer system that needed 55 steps when a decent one could do it in about 4.

They took on two of us as the woman who did the job normally was going on two weeks holiday three weeks after we started so they felt it wasn’t wise to only have one temp replacement. The other woman was a nightmare. She’d lied about computer experience, had a dreadful phone manner and her filing skills were a nightmare (if you had a form for St Francis Community Hub in Anytown it was a guess if it would be files under S F C H or A...) so it basically landed all on me.

I did well, mainly thanks to the fact I had a notebook that I’d written every single step of each job, and they kept me (still on my £4 per hour agency job) once the main woman came back as there was a big department re-org coming up.

Come to the time of the re-org and they’re looking for two full time staff and eight part time staff. I interviewed, got high praise, but then told I hadn’t got the job. However, they wanted me to stay on where I was for three months while the woman who ran the dept set up and trained the new team. I was also told there was going to be a second round of applications then too and I should definitely apply. I was really disappointed - how could I have fucked an interview so badly that eight people with no experience had done better than me. I was so upset I asked the agency to place me elsewhere quickly as I didn’t want to be snowed under working alone while the other was off training the team.

On my last day one of the big bosses who’d interviewed me came from the civic centre furious with me because it was apparently obvious that they needed me to run the show while they trained the new staff and I’d let everyone down by quitting. He was then even more furious when I refused to hand over the “training manual” (my notebook) to be copied and given to their new starts as that was also in the plan and I was being a “selfish little bitch” for not letting him have it. He complained to the agency and only the fact I had been getting work through them since I was at school convinced them not to kick me off their books.

If they’d just told me the plan I’d have stuck it out. I just lost all my confidence and was embarrassed thinking I’d flunked my interview

I love a good CF story!

My children attended the same school as an old school friend of mine. She was asked to work a couple of shifts finishing after the school pick up time, thinking this was a one off I agreed to pick her kids up and keep them at mine until she finished work. This ended up going on for about a year in the end as I didn't have the balls back then to say no. It was a PITA as it meant I had to walk on those days instead of using my car as I didn't have enough seats in mine for the extra children.

Her kids used to be horrible to mine and would pinch food from the cupboard. She eventually stopped collecting them from my house, instead leaving her DH to pull up outside my house and toot the horn. I let this go on far too long as I was worried about being seen as petty.

I was pregnant with my third and when I went into labour I told her that I couldn't pick the kids up that day and that my mum would collect mine, she asked if my mum would mind hers too. Told her no, got no reply but I didn't care as I was kinda busy. Didn't hear from her for 24hrs until I sent the round robin text to say that baby had been born and all was well. She replied to ask if I could pick her kids up from school that afternoon. Didn't reply and never heard from her again! When I did the next school run I saw some other sucker collecting her children!

Years ago it was my friends birthday. She didn't drive so I picked her up (from a different town) the plan was to drive back to mine, drop off the car, then walk into town to meet up with others for a drink. As she took so long getting ready we were running late she thought it best if I drop her off and walk into town by myself in the dark. I just drive home, got out of car and said it wont take us long. Haha sod that, I'm having my night out too

My mum had a friend who asked if I could take her daughter to an event and look after her for a few hours and she would give me £20. I was a teenager and wanted to earn some pocket money so I agreed to do it. Turned out the £20 was for her daughter's lunch and shopping and wasn't payment for me. I was nearly out of pocket as her daughter wanted to buy some pricey things (but I would have asked for the money back if I ended up going into my own pocket). My mum stopped being friends with this lady not long afterwards as she did it to my mum as well.

@Camphillgirl

My daughter owns a house in France and she and DP we’re going there on holiday. DP’s friend asked if he could come as well and bring GF. DD agreed and every day provided food and wine. They never offered to pay or helped wash up even. When they got home CF asked her to contribute half the cost of his car park fee.

CF abound when you live somewhere exotic or different. We live in the U.K. but my family is from abroad. I have relatives who would never come visit me when I'm at my parents' for the summer holidays but who are DESPERATE to see me when I'm back in the U.K., conveniently close to London with very good transport links...