On the Stage

Boy did we have a toilet issue last night!

Don’t ask me how, but we didn’t have a plunger (this information will come in handy later).

So, it starts filling with water and then takes forever to drain but doesn’t take out the nasty with it. So, I do everything I think I can do to fix it, because we’re ALWAYS having problems with our toilet, and nothing works.

Now here is another piece of information: our apartment complex got bought out by a different company, Haverkamp Properties, and all we got telling us this was a fuckin’ piece of paper stuck in our door jam. No PHONE NUMBER no NAMES no ANYTHING but to let us know to make the rent checks out to them.

So naturally something breaks. I go ONLINE to find the damn phone number, which I shouldn’t have to do, and call it up, mind you the ONLY number listed anywhere. You have to call this one number for everything. No one there, of course not, it’s 6 pm. Get this message, 4 options, I take the “it’s an emergency like running water or an emergency” option and wait for someone to talk to me.

A guy gets on the phone and asks me what I want. I told him what was going on with my toilet and he said it sounds like it’s clogged and to use my plunger, I tell him we don’t have one, he says to get one and if that doesn’t work to call.

So I go get one and work on it, can’t get it to work at all.

Call him back at 10:50 PM because none of us have got to go to the bathroom and Kaia is crying because she has to go to the bathroom but won’t go until we flush it (remember she’s three and hard headed as HELL) and I get the same guy.

Long story short, because it pisses me off and I couldn’t put it into words and I’m tired, he says there’s nothing he can do until the morning, normal maintenance hours are 8-4:30 unless it’s an emergency like running water, etc. This is a toilet dammit, it’s not like my friggin SINK is clogged, this is a human function that needs to be done by myself and my family. I say “well, if I flush it again the water and shit and piss will overflow and then would that be an emergency?” he said “yes, but I don’t think you want to do that” I say “I don’t think I want to do that either, but I want my toilet fixed.” I explain people needing to use the toilet and we argue back and forth he says “normal maintenance hours blah blah blah BLAH” and I say “So you expect my toilet to break between the hours of 8 and 4:30?” which is just a ridiculous statement by him. He also says “Well, this sounds like an ongoing thing, you should have called earlier” WHAT?! I called at 6 pm when it first happened, do you think ti was happening before that but I just thought “eh, my toilet is clogged with piss and shit, but what the hell, I wont worry about it yet” I DONT THINK SO. So, another stupid comment shot down.

After arguing and talking between myself and him and then my sister(posing as Veronica) and him and threatening he finally says he’ll come over even though he’s not maintenance. Fine, whatever.

He gets here with a toilet plunger and DAMMNED IF HE DOESN”T UNCLOG IT (after plunging so hard that he slopped poop/pee water all over my damn floor), which just pisses me off to no end. He had a better plunger than me and when he’s done he says “You shouldn’t buy a plunger like that next time” and then says “Oh, and just keep this in your head, clogged toilets cost money to the tenants because it’s not our fault it’s clogged. But I’ll let it go this time.”

Oh, ok, I’ll “keep that in my head.”

Did I mention he is about 20-23, he is not older me, this much I know. And when someone came over to check to see if our heat was left on over Christmas, even though they came way after Christmas and we were back at our apartment, the kid couldn’t have been more than 18.

So, I despise Haverkamp Properties and will tell everyone I know. I need to complain to someone big and tell them how displeased I am with everything, and there’s more than their shitty maintenance (a whole laundry lists of things they’re doing wrong or not doing including a broken security door, what’s the use of the security door and key if the thing is broken?) and their shitty contact information and their shitty snow removal, I need to tell them I am never coming back to these apartments and I will tell everyone I know.

But, I don’t know if I have enough balls to do that and I know they wont care. Also, it was only a clogged toilet and it was our fault, so they do have us there, so they’ll probably just shove that in my face. Even though, beside the fact that I couldn’t get it, it was a clogged toilet that needed to be fixed and not wait until 8 the next morning. I have a family that needs to go to the bathroom, it’s a necessary tool to everyday life. If I as a tenant have a problem then they as apartment owners/maintenance/staff need to fix it. It’s not my job to go hire a plumber and pay him, and if I had to, you bet I’d have taken it out of my next rent. Now maybe it ended up being something stupid, but that’s just part of the job of having tenants and owning apartment buildings. If I was in my own house I’d have to fix it myself, but I’m not, I’m in their building and I’m paying them a shitload of money to do their job.

Ugh…our last building maintenance was SO terribly bad, thought it might be better, but apparently not…