My catalytic converter was stolen from my Prius that was parked underneath the security camera in the parking garage at work- where I always park- on the night of July 2nd to 3rd.

Since it was a holiday weekend my insurance had trouble arranging a tow so I left the car for a couple of days and had it towed to the dealer on July 6th.

Insurance approved the repair on the 12th and I called my service manager on the 12th to authorize the repair as instructed by my insurance company. My service manager didn't answer the phone so I just left a message.

I called again on the 14th. No answer. Left a message.

I called again on the 15th. No answer. Left a message.

I called again on the 18th. No answer. Left a message.

Also on the 18th, I tried to reach literally any one else at the dealer. I asked if my service manager was on vacation or something and if anyone else could tell me if my authorization to start the repair had been received. I got transferred around and sent to voice mail or and hung up on 4 times. I never got an answer. The best I got was someone who actually went and looked for my service manager and then transferred me to his phone where I got his voice mail again.

I just have two simple questions:

1) Have you received my authorization to repair? And,

2) do I need to come make my co-pay to begin the repair process?

I did not and never have even tried to ask 'how long will the repair take,' because I already know the answer to this question and it is 'we don't know'.

I called again today- the 19th. No answer. Left a message.

Then I had my husband call.

Weird. They answered immediately. It was not my service manager who answered the call. This service manager checked my account and told my husband that the part was on order and that my service manager had been on vacation.

I complained to my husband about the many times I have tried to call and showed him my call logs. My husband said "Well, it's a man's world."

This is my 4th Prius. I bought them, not my husband.

Dear assholes at the Toyota dealership: If you can sell me 4 cars without my husband's intervention, you can also tell me if my repair is underway without having my husband intervene. I should not have to have HIM call to find out if MY repair is under way.

That is all.

I know this is a long-shot but I have two pieces of smallish furniture that I'd like delivered to someone in Oregon. This person lives along the coast about mid-state but could drive to Portland or Salem or Eugene or any place really (but maybe not the eastern part of the state depending on the season and snowy conditions in the mountains) for pick up.

I looked into shipping these items but it's crazy expensive to pack and ship them (one is odd-sized and the other is a little bit heavy) so I thought I might just toss this idea out here to see if there were any folks heading Oregon way that would be interested in working out some kind of arrangement to carry one or both of these items along with them as they go.

One piece measures 20x26x30 and the other 8x35x35. This second piece has a decorative but fairly sturdy lattice front. It's not terribly delicate but I would package it to protect the front from potential damage. The other is a fairly sturdy chest. Neither item is of much value other than sentimental value to the Oregon resident.

I was chatting with a coworker about her divorce that was finalized on Dec 20, 2017. She was expecting to be divorced and happy to be divorced, but she was puzzled that she was never notified about the divorce, never received any documents or requests for information, and never took any action such as appearing in court or signing anything. She said the only notification that she got about the divorce was a copy of the final judgement (if that's the right term) that her ex-husband sent her in an email.

She never hired a lawyer because while she knew they were planning to divorce, she didn't know that he was actually in the process of divorcing her. She said she didn't know any of this was going on until her ex sent her the email with the copy of the court order and by then the whole thing was over (which she was generally happy about).

We were talking about her concerns regarding the divorce: She wondered if it was legitimate since she had so little to do with it and has "zero" trust in her ex-husband at all.

We tried looking for a record of the divorce on the Harris County District Clerk's website. We had difficulty finding it so I asked to see the document that her ex sent to her via email. She was willing to show it to me.

The document looked like a real Harris County Court Record document but we still had trouble finding the case. We eventually found the divorce record by searching for all cases filed under the name of the attorney and his BAR number that were listed on the divorce decree.

We were able to find the divorce case this way. (All of this difficulty in finding the record may be just due to my inexperience using the Clerk's website and some quirkiness of the site.)

So we found the case and she's satisfied that she is actually legally and legitimately divorced from her ex, who has since returned to his home country. Yay for her!

But-- she said that while they didn't have children or property to divide, she did get stuck with her ex-husband's credit card debt when he left the country. She paid that debt understanding that debt accrued in marriage is the responsibility of both parties and since her ex left the country shortly after the divorce, she just got unfairly stuck with his bills. (I don't know how much debt he left behind. I just called her to ask but she's not in right now).

Both of us are puzzled about how her ex-husband managed to divorce her without her participating in the process. She said that had she known about his filing for the divorce she certainly would have attempted to get at least half of the credit card debt from him in the process.

The records at the HCDC website are restricted (That's unusual when kids are not involved, isn't it? Or is it not unusual?), but we can see the various filings.

There is the original petition, a family process pick up form, an amended petition, a citation (executed), a certificate of last known address, a non-military affidavit, a proposed final order, a notice to all litigants, a default judgement signed, and two notices of activity listed as the filings in the case.

Under the "Services/Notices" tab on the HCDC website, it shows that the "service/return executed" of the "amended original petition" was "issued", "served" and then "received by the clerk", and there is a tracking number- all of which seems normal as far as we can tell- but under the "deliver to" column it says "attorney pick up".

What does this mean? I think it means that her ex and his attorney attempted to notify her of the divorce proceeding by certified mail but that the letter was returned as undelivered and that her ex's attorney then collected the undelivered certified letter.

(Special note: she never moved from the home the couple shared while married so her ex certainly knew her address.)

So our question is: How is it possible to divorce someone without their participating in the process?

Is this normal or common?

She's thinking that her ex-husband and his attorney conspired to keep her uninformed of the divorce so that her ex could leave the country and leave her with his credit card debt.

I suggested she call the State Bar to ask if this case was handled correctly but neither of us know much about the legal process and I doubt there is much that can be done about it at this time anyway, but doesn't it smell like something unethical happened here?

I'm thinking someone owes her half of her ex's left-behind credit card debt and that perhaps the attorney should offer to pay since the ex is long gone. If that off-base?

Thoughts?

A family member moved to another state a several years ago and left me a white elephant, I mean a piano, that this person said they 'might' want again later.

Nobody here plays or plays enough for me to keep this piano any longer and I've gotten formal permission from the owner to let it go. I'd try to sell it but I don't see much of a market in used pianos.

The piano is an older Cable Nelson baby grand. It measures about 4.5 by 5 feet or so and comes with a handy-dandy piano bench.

I last had it tuned about 4-5 years ago. It is worn, or "well -used", especially on the keys, but is tunable and playable. I did have some of the ivory veneer replaced with the last tune-up but it appears one veneer has escaped since then.

Who, if anyone, would like this nice, old piano? Alternately, who has some suggestions regarding how to get rid of an old piano?

I cannot help move it at all. I'm old and crotchety and do not own a truck of any kind. Pics: https://imgur.com/gallery/4Kcwoke