The Fridge That Never Was

When my husband and I moved into our current apartment, we listed two (count um, TWO) type written pages of items that needed to be fixed. Several were of urgent need and others were less urgent and still others were things that we would like to see fixed but weren't causing problems. The ONLY item on the list to be fixed was the ceiling fan in the master bedroom, and that only after many phone calls and begging and pleading. There are safety plates missing from the electrical plugs, we were told that all the flooring would be replaced, they only replaced the carpet, leaving the vinyl which is yellowed from the previous tenants smoking and full of holes. We were told that screens for all the windows were "on order", they have never arrived. The fridge does not close/seal correctly, thus wasting electricity if you are not careful to push the door shut from all 3 sides. The paint job was terrible and many places were missed. The whole place still smelled like smoke!

Now, I was deep into finishing school and planning the wedding, so most everything else was left alone. I just did not have the time to do all the begging, pleading, phone calls, and letter writing needed to get anything done. Then the bathroom sink begin to leak... hot water... I called the maintenance guy on a Friday morning and no one called me back. On Monday I called the landlord, no call back. He did finally call me back on Tuesday and gave me the phone number of a plumber. While I had the landlord on the phone, I mentioned that it had been a few months since he told me that the new refrigerator would be arriving. He told me that the one that he had ordered was on back order and it should only be a few more days. I think that this man must either be very dumb, or just used to dealing with dumb people. Anyway, the plumber came out a few days later and the leak was fixed - really not the point of this post, but it still burns my ass that my hot water dripped for 5 full days at the rate of 1 cup full every 20 minutes! Yes! I timed it! You want to make something of it?!?!?!

Yesterday afternoon about 3:30pm, I received a call from Lowes, letting me know that they were going to deliver the new fridge this morning between 8-noon. When I tried to figure out who scheduled this and why I was getting such late notice and how I might be able to re-schedule, he was very rude and basically told me that he was doing me a favor even calling. He told me to call the retail store in the morning and ask for this certain guy. When I asked for his name he would not tell me - this tells me that he knew he was being nasty!

I got up this morning and started making phone calls to all 3 of the local Lowes stores. I attempted to call the landlord (to find out which store he got the fridge from) but his phone was going right to voicemail. None of the 3 stores could find a record of my delivery. I arranged for my husband to stay home while I went into work to put together the important morning status report and then I would come home to wait while he went into work. During the drive to work, while at work, during the drive home and during my 3 full hours of waiting I was still trying to call the landlord.

At about 5 minutes before noon, I called the stores again and finally found the store where the certain guy worked, but he was out sick... I asked to speak to his boss and when he came on the phone I explained everything including that now it was noon and I had missed work and no one was there. We put me on hold and when he came back he told me that the landlord had called late yesterday evening to reschedule the delivery for after the end of October and he would call to reschedule.

I am livid! Not only was Lowes rude and unhelpful both yesterday and this morning (the final guy was very nice and it turns out it was not Lowes fault at all), but I wasted half a day that I could have been working, wages that my husband and I both would have lost (were we hourly) come to $301.28, not to mention the missed meetings, late reports and everything else. I am going to tell him that I am taking the $301.28 out of next months rent. I am sure that there is some agency or government body that I can complain to about this! We seem to be a sue happy country, maybe I can sue for a few million in damages for mental and emotional anguish!

I have left an urgent message for the landlord - it is going on 31/2 hours without a response from him. I did not tell him what I was calling about, I just told him who I was and asked him to call me right away. Now, if that was a message on my voicemail, I would be thinking that the place was flooding or something and I would be calling right away - nothing from this man.

I think that I dislike him very much. You know that we have never met this man? He had an agent show us the place and sign the lease. I doubt that he has even been on the property to see what a dump it is. He must be used to renting to people who don't mind living in filth, if the last tenants are any indication. How can he run his business this way? I would think that it would be a landlords dream to have clean, non-smoking tenants who pay on time and have a history of long term rentals. We were 2 years at our last place, only leaving because it was being sold as a home not a rental. The place before that we lived for 5 years! Again, only leaving when the landlords changed and rented the other unit to drug dealers - two slashed tires later, we felt it time to move!!

My husband says that I need to calm down and stop being mad, that being mad does not solve anything and make things better and he is right - that is one reason that I have this blog, I can let out all my anger, or pain or whatever without hurting anyone.

Fuck it - we are buying a house soon anyway and then we will be out of there :)