Friday, December 18, 2015

In which Ted does indeed write a nasty, angry email to Primo, claiming that his travel expenses would pass audit (not from the IRS, they wouldn't - his expenses are not a tax deductible item from the estate), and he has to say a few nasty things to Primo, which makes me wonder if he has any idea about how power works and the fact that Primo has it and Ted does not

Subject: Reimbursable FL travel costs
From: primo
To: ted

Ted,

I wanted you to know that I received the email about your travel expenses. I've spoken with the estate lawyer, who said that it should be possible to reimburse you for reasonable travel costs as long as the other family members (i.e., Jack and his kids) are OK with it and we offer them an opportunity for reimbursement as well. (Their costs were much lower, of course, but Jack certainly had some mileage expenses and Micheal paid for gas and/or bus fare when he traveled to the funeral.)

We are currently in the process of transferring the trust assets into a new account from which I will be able to disburse funds as trustee. (I am not able to use the existing checks or to move any money from the original trust account.) After the transfer is complete and we agree on a reasonable amount, I should be able to reimburse you.

Primo



Subject: Re: Reimbursable FL travel costs
From: ted
To: primo

Thanks, Primo. All of my travel costs are reasonable and will pass audit. Several of your phrases, e.g., “should be possible” and “other family members are OK with it” raise red flags.

Please consider my expense filing below as “a reasonable amount.” And please stop using the construction “should be able to reimburse you.”

Jack's mileage expenses and Micheal's gas/bus fares are of no concern to me, as long as they are documentable and can pass audit. I have no reason to expect that you would fail to exercise your fiduciary duty to our father’s estate regarding his will, his wishes, and and codicils he entered into.

cheers

ps) I’ve always wondered why you sign your name to an email that you obviously sent

pps) “currently” in the process is redundant 

23 comments:

  1. TED IS THE WORST.

    I don't understand being mean to someone who is just trying to present the facts. Primo's email was fair and perfectly written. Ted likes being combative and condescending at every turn. I honestly wonder how Ted doesn't get punched in the face on a regular basis.

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  2. He doesn't sound particularly angry but what a nasty, pompous a$$ he is. I think he knows his requests are illegitimate, otherwise, I don't think he'd be parsing Primo's statements and being so defensive. Can't wait to hear what Jack and his kids have to say.

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    Replies
    1. "So if we say okay to this, Michael gets 200 bucks, but Uncle Ted gets 2000 and we each get $500 less? To go to his own dad's funeral?"

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  3. "Raise Red Flags"

    in TedSpeak this means "OMG! I MIGHT NOT GET MY WAY! Maybe if I act *even more* like a bully, that'll work."

    P.S. Ted, you really do NOT want to start a grammar and etiquette war. I'm not even a great grammar person and I could take you down hard.

    - AC

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  4. What a horrible jerk. Really. He's awful. Nasty as nasty can be.

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  5. I'd love it if the beneficiaries vetoed his expenses. (I don't know if Jack will stand up to Ted - I can see why he's so adverse to conflict, growing up in a home with Sly and Son of Sly. It must've been hell!)

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  6. Wait...everyone I know signs their emails, even when it's obvious that they sent them to me. It doesn't matter if it's work, personal, or business: everyone signs the bottom or has a signature that automatically does it. I think Ted is doing it wrong.

    Telling Primo to consider his expenses reasonable doesn't make them reasonable to everyone. Heck, no one in my household finds them reasonable. (I've been keeping my husband up on the happenings, and he's just as flabbergasted as I've been at the audacity shown.)

    And I'm with Cat: Ted shouldn't be criticizing the way anyone writes emails or uses grammar. He's worse than almost anyone I've read, and I used to teach 8th-grade English!

    "Currently in the process" is not redundant. Take this sentence, for example: "We were previously in the process of reimbursing you until you became a jerk-face and we decided it wasn't worth it."

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  7. Dear Ted P.S and P.P.S are redundant unless you are hand writing a letter, just go back and add that information to the body of your email.

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    Replies
    1. Well, maybe if he SIGNED his email, he could use P.S., etc....

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  8. Ted just gets more and more unbelievable! SO hoping he will soon be out of your lives for GOOD!

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  9. Ted is an a$$hat. I am sure his kids would never deny him part of their money but I hope Jack's kids do not give in so easily. And Miss Manners says the worst manners are those correcting others manners.

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  10. Is Ted a real person? He seems more like an unsavory Dickens character. Maybe he will be visited by three spirits Christmas Eve.

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    Replies
    1. This made me burst out laughing!

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  11. Passing an audit is not something magical. It does not confer any automatic stamp of approval to the expenses.
    And if Ted gets paid Primo should get paid. For every expense starting when Sly fell on Doris.
    And as far as the word currently, Ted is wrong. It is not redundant, at most it was unnecessary.

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  12. 2l9jyvp.jpg

    I'm imagining a group of blog readers armed with pitchforks descending on Ted.

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  13. The photo did not publish...It's an etching of women with pitchforks and a cannon, marching purposefully...

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  14. The fact that Primo has control of all the money is obviously driving Ted CRAZY, especially as Ted is so obviously much smarter than his brother. Given these very trying circumstances currently in the process, it's awfully generous of Ted to continue to help educate Primo grammatically and legally. What a prince!

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  15. *splutters for a while*
    I keep having visions of Sly, in some afterlife netherworld, wiping a tear of pride from his eye. "One turned out to be an arsehole, I'm so proud!"
    J x

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  16. I wonder if Ted and TW are panicking because they've been counting on a large inheritance from Sly to keep them afloat. Or he's just greedy and insufferable.

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    Replies
    1. This gets my vote! I'm guessing Sly promised Ted the world as an inheritance and then never got around to changing his will, and Ted and TW have been counting on it for so long they're screwed.

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  17. "And please stop using the construction “should be able to reimburse you.”"

    In the "writing scripts" category:

    "Okay, Ted. What words would you like me to use to tell you that I cannot guarantee that all of your expenses will be reimbursed?"

    - AC

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  18. "ps) I’ve always wondered why you sign your name to an email that you obviously sent." Because that is what polite people do. They open and close with a salutation. Apparently Ted missed that memo.

    P.S. The appropriate punctuation for p.s. .is periods, no closing parentheses.

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