Pretty Ticked

So, we got the keys to the new place a little over a week ago, and it was dirty, and there was no hot water, and a few things needed fixing, like for example, the back door doesn't lock. So we put in the "shit that's broke that we didn't do" form that friday, and mentioned that the back door doesn't lock, and went about our cleaning business. Come monday, we go back up to the apartment people and say, hey, the back door doesn't lock, we need to have that fixed before we can move in, and while you're at it you can clean our place as you are contractually obligated to do, and fix these other few things on this list here. And by the way, please call me when you send the maintenance person by, so I know when we can start moving things in, which we can't do with a broke-ass door.

So last tuesday (i.e. a week from when we started paying rent), they call me up and tell me they're sending maintenance over. Great! I start planning all the moving in that we're totally going to start doing - we're behind schedule by a week at this point, but with hard work we'll make it.

Then we go there after work, and nothing is fixed, and nothing is clean. The back door still does not lock.

So I call on wednesday, and am told that golly gosh, they don't know why maintenance didn't get to it that day, but they're going to send them right back out, you betcha!

Wednesday night, new home still broken and dirty.

So today I tried a slightly different tactic. I called. And I called. And I called again. Every two hours, I called to check on the status of our work order, explaining that people were coming up from Houston to help us move in, that we couldn't move in if the door doesn't lock, that we have so far lived through one week at the new place in which we paid rent and were not able to move in because of the unlocked door; and the secretary told me that yes, definitely today someone would be by, she would watch for the maintenance person, she would make sure of it. I told her I would continue to call.

So it's 4 p.m., and I make my call, and it's a different person at the desk (which happens). Now I'm told that not only did maintenance never make it to my place today, being very busy, which I can understand, but they should maybe, probably, will try to be there tomorrow. I told the secretary as calmly as I could manage that people were coming from out of town to help us move, that we HAVE to be out of our old place, that we can't move in if the place is not secure, that we are paying rent on a place we can't move in to, and summed it all up with the fact that I would be calling more tomorrow, much much more, to keep track of progress on our maintenance request, and that if it was not finished by the time we got out of work on friday we were going to lodge a complaint, because we can't move in even though we paid lots of money for the exact privilege of doing so.

I told the secretary that I was not mad at her, that I knew this is not her fault, and that I do understand that the maintenance people have a lot that they're doing, but if we can't move in by the end of the month, I'm going to expect that two weeks of rent refunded, and could she please pass that message along. Yar. I hate making people who are not at fault pass along messages like that, since they're, you know, not at fault, but I also know it's the fastest way to get the job done. I mean, if they give us even half the prorated rent back, we can afford to rent a storage thing for a month, and move all our stuff in there until the new place is ready. That would at least be something.