No Hot Water

[Onar]

Hello everyone! Been a while since I stopped by, but I got one I needed to share, and there was no immediate outlet available. Quick setup: I work a call center for many different companies, half of which are property management.

These calls take place after 11pm, Tuesday evening. Here we go.

Warmup Call 11:05pm

ME: (Heating and Oil Company) After Hours Emergency line, which state are you calling from?
SC: What? Oh, <gives me a city and county> (while handy, I need the state first, which is why I asked for it first, but moving on...)
ME: Ok, and were you calling for Fuel or Service?
SC: <mumble> Oil.. I had the number here somewhere..
ME: Ma'am?
SC: Oh I'm just looking for the office number for my area, thought this was it.
ME: Yes, after office hours all the offices forward to the emergency line
SC: Oh, they're closed? *click*

... It's after 11. In fact, it's getting close to midnight. Yeah, they are closed. Thanks so much for hanging up on me though, without so much as an 'Oh! Thanks anyway'. I could have gotten that order put in for you, not a problem. Goober.


Main Event 11:20pm

Ok, previous to my getting this call, this lady had called us around 10pm and spoke with some one else. She is a resident at an apartment complex and she reported no hot water. Normally this is something we would contact maintenance for and have them work on right away, however for this particular property those are held for the office in the morning. Either by mistake or kindness our operator dispatched to maintenance, and they advised that each unit has it's own water heater, and it's the tenants responsibility to fix it. We leave a note on the account in case she calls back.

<ring...>
ME: XYZ Apartments, how may I help you?
SC: Yes, I called over an hour ago about no hot water, and haven't heard from anyone.
ME: <looks up her first call and sees that we talked to some one> Ah yes I see that here, and we did talk to maintenance.
SC: Oh, well I hadn't heard from anyone.

ME: <noticing the note in the upper part of the account with her name on it, checks dispatch instructions and sees that the message should have been held in the first place> Yes, we spoke to maintenance, they advised us that each unit has it's own small water heater, and that it's the individuals responsibility, not managements..

SC: Well why didn't they call me?
ME: Because it's not their responsibility.
SC: I don't know what to do, can't you call them back and have them call me so they can tell me what to do?
Me: <pause>... No, it's not for them to handle.
SC: Well do you know some one I could call?
Me: Not off the top of my head, but I would suggest looking up a plumber in the phone book.
SC: So you mean I have no hot water?
Me: ... ???
<disconnects call before verbal abuse of caller ensues>


The first chunk of that may not seem sucky, but her tone of voice just REEKED of helpless. And why, WHY would you ask me if you have no hot water? YOU called ME. It's YOUR water. It's WHY you called. When did you become confused?

I understand not being aware that it would be your responsibility. And I can even go so far as to understand that you wouldn't be certain how to go about getting it fixed. I was kind enough to offer you the solution of a plumber in the phone book without making you feel like a dummy. Now I realize that you're probably a perpetual state of dummyhood anyway.

*sigh*

[cinema guy]

Dog forbid you have no hot water!

In a previous flat, my hot water breaks down in February. I call a plumber, plumber needs to order a part, gets wrong part, takes two weeks to get water fixed. I survived.

[bean]

Wait what? This is the first I've heard of a tenant being responsible for their hot water heater... usually stuff like "hot water heater" is included in the rent.. unless it's a case where the tenant owns the apartment/condo.

I believe that in TX, a dwelling can be deemed uninhabitable if there's no hot water.

[shenzee]

Warmup Call 11:05pm

.
ME: Yes, after office hours all the offices forward to the emergency line
SC: Oh, they're closed? *click*

... It's after 11. In fact, it's getting close to midnight. Yeah, they are closed.

I work for a property management company and we don't have an emergency line, but when people call in after hours they will get a recording telling them to leave a message and then call the following number for emergency maintenance. Like all SCs, they fail to realize that someone isn't in the office to check these messages, which is why we give the emergency number for them to call.
Of course they don't listen and fail to call the emergency number, instead choosing to leave several messages that it is X time on X day (usually a Saturday night when we aren't back in the office until Monday morning) and they've left FOUR messages with us and noone is calling them back. Well we do have lives, and do not sit here 24/7 waiting for your all important phone call. Some are shocked to hear this when we return their phone calls.

[Onar]

Wait what? This is the first I've heard of a tenant being responsible for their hot water heater... usually stuff like "hot water heater" is included in the rent.. unless it's a case where the tenant owns the apartment/condo.

I believe that in TX, a dwelling can be deemed uninhabitable if there's no hot water.

Yeah, this is not a typical situation. It seems to have to do with the fact that rather than having boilers that give hot water to everyone, each unit has it's own small water heater. I don't specifically recall if this account was for condos, but probably was. There's a couple accounts like that where pretty much everything is the renters responsibility, outside of natural disasters anyway.

[Horsetuna]

I had one prevoius landlord tell me that I had to pay to get all the phone lines hooked up to one phone in my apartment - the previous tenant had two separate lines. So I only had ONE working phone jack in the bedroom.

I dunno, that's not right I think... that's like making me pay to get new carpets because the old tenant decided to rip part of one up and put down a different color or something.

[Gerrinson]

I dunno, that's not right I think... that's like making me pay to get new carpets because the old tenant decided to rip part of one up and put down a different color or something.

The other option would be to just say "No problem, I only have one phone, why do I need more than one phone jack?"

I can't complain too much about my current landlords except that they control the heat and they seem to like it cold. But since my rent includes heat, electricity, hot water, garbage removal & snow removal, there's only so much complaining I can do.