| 8/27/2006 |
I'M ONLY HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS
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I hate my apartment.
Too harsh? OK. Fine. I just hate the maintainance people who keep the apartments up and running. Because... they don't.
In the (barely) two months that I've lived in my place I've already had to call in three times for various problems with my apartment. The were nice at first, but the issues and the people responding to them have been more and more annoyed/annoying.
The first time the guy came out to repair my bathroom door handle and the garbage disposal. During my pre-move inspection I noticed that it made a horrible rattling sound. The door handle was easy to fix. The garbage disposal turned out to be a nail or screw of some sort. He didn't say it, but I distintcly got the feeling that he was looking at me as though I had something to do with it. It's understandable. I had packed boxes sitting all over the place. So the possibility existed that I might have accidently dropped something down the drain. Except, I'd noticed it before any box had been moved in. He was just now arriving to fix it.
The second call was a little more drastic. During one of Omaha's 100+ degree days, I was getting groceries. When I got home I found that my key didn't work in my deadbolt lock. Only my regular lock. So I was stuck with groceries in my car (some frozen items) for about an hour before I was able to get in. As I called the after hours number I was told that technically it wasn't a maintainance issue and that I would have to call a private locksmith.
Why get a locksmith? I didn't lock myself out. The apartment's locks didn't work. After convincing the answering service of my need, I got a call from the on-call maintainance worker and re-explained why it wasn't a locksmith issue. On top of it, he was unsure of who I even was. There was no way he could verify that I was the actual person who lived in the apartment. So technically he wasn't supposed to let me in. I told him I'd only lived in the apartment a couple of weeks. He asked if I had my lease with me to verify that I was the renter. Yes... IN the apartment that I'm locked out of. I told him who I worked with to sign a lease. He took that as a 'good enough' and came over to let me in.
Working on the lock I explained that I was leery to force the key and snap it off in the lock. But that's what he had to do. If the key didn't work and it broke off he'd have to cut the lock out of the door. If the lock needed to be replaced he'd still have to cut the lock out. So.. might as well give it a college try. After some serious muscle behind it he got it to open. I asked if the heat could have been part of the issue. He wasn't sure, but he'd look into it in the morning. I did get a new deadbolt, but only after reminding them about the issue.
And now the latest saga. I am watching TV when I hear a rattling noise and a gurgle coming from the kitchen. It sounded like a neighbor was using his/her garbage disposal and it was backing up into my sink. I call after hours maintainence. The answering service is polite and takes my message to page the worker on-call.
He calls and starts off on a bad note. "Where do you live?" I tell him my address. As I'm doing it he cuts me off when I get to the street name that he needed the street name because with just a building number he doesn't know where I am.
Ok... obviously... "You didn't give the answering service your street name."
"Yes I did."
"No you didn't. They didn't tell me."
Like it's my fucking fault they didn't tell him?! Shit...
"Ok. Look I'm sorry that happened, but here where I live."
"What's the problem with your disposal?"
I explain the issue to which he then corrects me.
"That can't happen. You live on the second floor. It wouldn't push water up. It would only go down."
"Well, I'm telling you, I can hear my neighbor running their disposal and at the same time water (and misc.) is backing up into my sinks."
We go a couple more rounds with the address, before returning to the issue of the disposal. He agrees to come take a look at it. In the mean time I do my best to keep the water down. If I run my disposal it seems to go down a little, but not really... because then the neighbor runs theirs. So it's just a see-saw battle of sinks.
When he shows up he is nice. But it's that kind of nice where you say it with a sickening sweet tone. I thank him for coming over to which I get a grunt. He drags in a shop-vac and a tool box. I explain to him what was happening and he says that he checked the neighbors disposal and her sink was doing the same thing. (So I wasn't lying? Amazing!)
He snakes my sink for what seems like a REALLY long time. I half-expected him to some how drill THROUGH something. Either that or he was in my kitchen making blended drinks. Because... it was a long damn time before he emerged from under the sink with word of what he'd found.
He said he did the best he could and it should work now, but that with these type of apartments you can't make any guarentees. Lucky me... |
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I posted this @ 8/27/2006 05:19:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
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