My World and Welcome to It!

These are my thoughts and opinions about life in general. I also get daily prompts from DSP which inspire me to write. If I throw in some scrapbook pages I've done, photos I've taken, and stories about me, you will have an idea about my loony life!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Rental House Woes

strangel (Warning – whining alert!)

Just when I thought things were looking up with the rental houses, the other shoe has dropped. I was so excited that we have a tenant in our last empty house. The heat pump has been installed and they are finishing up the wiring in the garage this week. All we have to do is turn in receipts to the insurance company and fight about getting reimbursed and then we would be done! Hooray!

Then today we get a call from the contractor. (Can you tell this is heading downhill?) He lets us know that they had to move the hot water heater from in front of the breaker box because years ago when it was installed, there were no building codes to follow. Now we have to have the electric inspected during the heat pump installation but it won’t pass code until we move the hot water heater. When they moved the hot water heater, apparently it was so old that it was rusted (can you see where this is going now?). You guessed it! It now leaks.

We now have to buy a new water heater. This is beginning to remind me of the movie The Money Pit.

We go to Lowes and price hot water heaters. I push the “help” button and wait for someone to arrive that will impart great wisdom about hot water heaters.

Instead this girl arrives talking on her cell phone. Unfortunately we were inconveniencing her and she tells the person on the phone that she has to get back to work. I really hated to interrupt her phone call at her place of business to ask her for help, which she is getting paid to do but I do.

But the actual thing that pushed me over the edge was when I asked her questions about tankless hot water heaters and her answer was to ask me a question. She asked me if I had done my research or gone online to figure out how tankless hot water heaters work because that is what I needed to do.

My husband said he saw my “claws” come out and he actually took a step back because he suddenly became afraid, very afraid!

But my manners took over and I calmly asked her to look up information on her computer and insisted on her doing her job. Even though I had no intention of buying anything from her or this store because she was useless! When I felt like I had wasted enough of her time and kept her from returning to her earlier phone call, I finally left her alone and left with a huge smile on my face.

Maybe I’m not cut out to be a landlord. Maybe I should be in charge of customer service at building supplies stores.

Original image: 'Strangling statues'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48266396@N00/254910627 by: David Sim

2 comments:

Liz McCoy said...

Oh my word that is beyond ridiculous!!!!

Stephanie said...

I am sorry that you had that experience. We generally get very good service at Lowe's. I'd rather shop there than at Home Depot. I hope your issues end soon so that you can move on to the next adventure.