Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 17:09:42 -0800
Reply-To: "Thomas D. Hanlon" <hanran@EARTHINK.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Thomas D. Hanlon" <hanran@EARTHINK.NET>
Subject: Re: Birth Certificate Requests Received to Date
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Listees,
This note is in mitigation of and/or possible explanation of how Richard
Golen
may have gotten himself, in some eyes, into the role of fugitive from
justice in
the matter of vain attempts to obtain Vanagon birth certificates (BCs)
from VW Wolfsburg. BTDT.....
During the same summer as that in which RG agreed, generously, I
thought, to act
as agent (I think) for the BCs acquisitions, I traded a Listee for
mutual use of
Westies. I used his Diesel Joker in France, Benelux, and Germany. The
Listee used
my 1.9 WBXer Westfalia van in California, Nevada and Arizona, earlier in
the same year.
As part of an extended tour of Europe, including the 55th D-Day
Celebration in
St. Mere Eglise, Normandy, where my regiment jumped the night before the
landings, (No, I wasn't there. I was home in bed, a small boy. I served
in the
unit, eventually, in the post-WW2 era.), I went to the VW complex in
Wolfsburg,
Germany, to tour the factory and to buy two BCs, about which I had
learned
through Richard Golen's postings on the List. At the end of a
Disneyland-like
experience on the tour, I went to the gift shop in the Museum, and at
the appropriate
desk there, I ordered two BCs, one for my van and one for my Listee
Trader's van. I
paid the fee, gave two addresses for mailing of the BCs, one for my van,
and
another for the Listee's.
The receptionist was a rather disinterested young lady, as I have noted
earlier
in another note to the List on this subject, but she is probably one of
the more
strikingly beautiful women I have seen in years. She gave me a receipt,
which I
still have, and, unsmilingly, she sent me on my way. The 20 Marks, cash,
as I
remember, went into what appeared to be a petty cash box.
In one of the few cases of Teutonic inefficiency that I have
experienced,
neither I, nor my fellow Trader Listee, has yet to receive a
certificate, even
after I sent one letter in English and in my best pidgin German. The
auditor must not have had to reconcile the books for the cash
transactions. So, I've
written off the expense, as an unfortunate lesson learned, an action
which I
suggest to those who have some empathy for Richard's plight. If he were
a profit
maker, I'd hold him to a different standard. In his behalf, since he is
awould-be
contributor to the mutually-beneficial purposes of the List, I'd suggest
that each
of you write a letter in his behalf to the the Customer Services
Department of VW in
Wolfsburg, Germany, explaning his disfavor in your eyes and suggesting
that the
VW folks do "the right thing" by all of you.
And, for Richard, learn, too, a lesson I remember as an Irish probverb:
No good turn goes unpunished.
(Usual disclaimers apply. I do not know Richard, other than through his
attempted good works for the List.)
If anybody knows an e-mail address for VW Wolfsburg, and can write in
German,
please provide a template which we can use to petition VW to send the
BCs to the
victims.
BTW, I'm interested in trading, again, with Southern or Eastern
Europeans, South
Americans, Kiwis and Ozzies, Irish, Japanese, or anybody other than
Yanks and
Canadians. I tour in North America, frequently.
I prefer your summers or warm autumns; you can reserve any time of the
year in California. I traded with a Scot this Fall; he in my summer.
References provided.
Tom Hanlon
Palm Springs, CA
84 Westfalia
Richard Golen wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I just want to clarify a few things regarding the "birth certificates"
> which I offered to obtain in June 1999. I took a stack of requests to the
> Museum in Wolfsburg in June. I was told that, unlike previous years, the
> museum could not accept large numbers of requests all at once. They took
> about 20 or 30 of the requests, and told me to send the rest later in the
> summer.
>
> This was at the time the museum was preparing to open a second exhibit area
> at what would become Autostadt, and the folks at the museum said they were
> very busy getting that project going. That was their reason for not taking
> all of the requests.
>
> When I went back to Germany later that summer I sent the rest of the
> requests and the rest of the money to the museum via Deutsche Post. I
> assumed that would be the last of it. In the early fall, judging from the
> email I received, some folks received their certificates and others did not.
>
> I asked those who didn't receive their certificates to wait a bit longer.
> Later, after receiving a number of nasty emails and one or two threats I
> decided to not to respond to any further emails on the subject. Perhaps, in
> retrospect, it wasn't a smart move on my part.
>
> As to what happened to the rest of the certificates, I really do not know.
> I did my best to do something for a group of VW owners. I had been able to
> obtain in previous years certificates for over 100 owners. If you think,
> as Bill does, I ran off with the money, nothing is further from the truth.
> All of the money went with the certificate requests to Wolfsburg.
>
> What happened to the last batch of requests that was mailed is anybody's
> guess. I'm sorry if you didn't receive your certificates, I don't know what
> else to tell you, other than I apologize for any trouble or inconvenience
> that I may have caused.
>
> Ric
>
> Ric
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