Unhinged

Who ya gonna call?
Wednesday, March 02, 2011, 10:18 PM

What's the point of having a blog if I can't bitch and rant?

You know what stinks?

Being made to feel as if you are the bad guy when you have to complain about something.

At 5:20 p.m., there are repairmen outside my front door in a hallway that has a CEMENT slab floor. A bunch of plumbing/cutting tools (lots of stuff I can't identify by name) are stretched all along the front hall and the back hall in front of my apartment. There's a bunch of extension cords, too.

Can you say accident waiting to happen?

The asbestos ceiling was recently removed from the hallways, so I can see exposed metal in the ceiling. Which is fine, that's not what bothers me. What gets me is that it sounds like the repairmen alternate between hammering the cement floor, whacking metal with metal, and yelling at each other.

It's loud. It's annoying.

I'm told they are off at 6:00.

But they're not.

At 7:30, the foreman tells me, "I'm having issues with my wife."

?

And they're staying (he says maybe until 8:00).

I try to explain to him problems with his wife have nothing to do with the plumbing work, and that I'm going to call security if they are still working past 8:00.

So I call for help, because I have a feeling nothing is going to go right.

I call the apartment complex's answering service. They ask for my contact information and say I'll get a call back.

I call 20 minutes later because I still haven't received a call from anyone. The answering service says they "just" relayed my contact information to whomever, and would I like them to put in another call?

Um, no. I'm hoping just once will do it. And okay. I'll continue waiting. I just want to make sure the repairmen don't plan on camping out all night. The floor's awfully hard out there.

The repairmen are still here at 8:00.

No one's called.

The answering service sounds like they're getting tired of my calls. That's funny, I'm getting tired of having to call.

The answering service has spoken with the building's maintenance department, who has spoken to the repairmen. "Ma'am," I'm told, "They need to repair the plumbing so you can have water tonight."

Which is the first time I'm hearing of this because as of 7:30, the foreman said they were staying because he wasn't getting along with his wife.

And then no one bothered to call me back, even after I was told twice that someone would call me back.

So I'm skeptical with a capital S. I feel like I'm getting the run around and this is when I really start getting upset.

I'm told no one will be around to give me a call back until 9:00. I'll have to wait for Security, and place another call then. Meanwhile, the repairmen are supposed to be done at 8:59.

Yes, 8:59. For some freakin' crazy reason, it stood out as odd in my mind.

"That's nine o'clock," I say.

"Eight fifty-nine," the girl with the answering service corrects me.

cough

It's 9:23 and guess what?

They are still here.

The water is still not working.

I just spoke with the answering service again. I know they don't want to hear from me any more than I want to call them, but I'm going to see this through. I ask if they've been able to speak to anyone on security. They say yes, and that they gave the person on security my information at 9:06.

I haven't received a call, though.

What's up with that?

It's 10 now.

Still no call. Still no water.

Well, I guess it's a good thing the water pipes aren't LEAKING. Or, that there's nothing that really does require immediate attention.

I want a break on next month's rent. Wish me luck.

7 Did the Unhingey Jiggy

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