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Tales of the stupid part 2
12 years ago
One of the podcast I like to listen to has a funny recurring item called “Tales of the stupid”, where the cast tells stories about particularly stupid people they encountered in their personal lives.
Let me tell you a "tale of the stupid" from mine.
This tale of the stupid happened very recently and the stupid in this case is my landlord a big company that has seems to be collapsing under its own bureaucracy and incompetence.
The trouble began when I had just bought a new washing machine, ah finally after months of saving commission earned money and dragging my clothes back and forth to the laundromat there it was my wonderful new Samsung washer.
My happiness would soon be gone.
After using it the first time my downstairs neighbor came complain about water leaking from the ceiling
Soon we discovered the problem, my washing machine is located next to my kitchen sink and there is a special pipe to put the hose for the waste water in, that pipe was overflowing, it had become clogged up.
No problem I thought, I pay some extra money on my rent as “service cost” just for stuff like this, just call the inspector from the landlord and he will send a plumber round to fix it.
But the inspector came round himself first this time and he refused to believe there was anything wrong with the pipe.
“You must have just spilled some water on the floor” he said “you have to be more careful”
I told him I WAS careful it was that clogged up pipe that was the problem.
He refused to believe me and told me everything was fine and I should just use my washing machine like normal.
So I did, with predictable results...
“Ring!!!!!” “oh look its the doorbell I wonder who it is” , “oh hi neighbor what do you say still more water dripping down, well lets just call the inspector again shall we”
Still the same answer, “nothing wrong with that pipe.”
No help, no matter how much me or my neighbor complained or begged they wouldnt believe us.
It went on for days, then days became weeks then weeks became months.
I’m happy to say that trough all this my neighbor was always reasonable, she understood I wasn't the problem here, she even told me not to worry.
But by now the wood board of my kitchen counter was sucking up all the water and began to slowly fall apart, fungus began to grow all over it became really disgusting, I had asked my social worker for help but even he couldn't get it trough to them.
Now I’m a diabetic and stress is very bad for my blood sugar levels and I try to avoid it as much as possible but this was really starting to get to me, my kitchen and my neighbors kitchen were slowly falling apart!
So why not call a plumber yourself you may ask, well I couldn't, legally all maintenance and repairs to the apartment complex where I live has to be approved by the landlord and be done my their own sub contracted maintenance personnel.
Finally after lots of pressure from my social worker several people from the landlord came round, by now the kitchen counter was beyond repair they decided that it had to be completely replaced... on their cost, at least THAT was a small victory.
But did that solve the problem, oh no, the ordeal wasn't over yet.
I asked the guy who build in my new kitchen counter if he was fixing the pipe too.
He didn't even know what I was talking about and said I should just use my washer.
Again I used my washing machine, again it rained in my neighbors kitchen again she came to complain.
I told her that I was just ready to completely give up, I told her I would let them do ANYTHING to fix the problem but that they just refused to see reason.
I told her I was just ready to go and look for another apartment, cause the stress was beginning to seriously mess me up.
I think that afternoon she must have send death treats to my landlord cause the next day they finally send a plumber
He took one look and said: “now there’s your problem, that waste water pipe is all clogged up, i’ll call my buddy to unclog it for you.”
And he did, 5 minutes work.
Problem solved.
After more than half a year, what seems like hundreds of phone calls by me my neighbor and my social worker my kitchen and my neighbors kitchen being needlessly destroyed and rebuild, and my blood sugar levels being fucked up by the stress, it was finally over.
All this because they just didn't want to listen to us.
PD.
Let me tell you a "tale of the stupid" from mine.
This tale of the stupid happened very recently and the stupid in this case is my landlord a big company that has seems to be collapsing under its own bureaucracy and incompetence.
The trouble began when I had just bought a new washing machine, ah finally after months of saving commission earned money and dragging my clothes back and forth to the laundromat there it was my wonderful new Samsung washer.
My happiness would soon be gone.
After using it the first time my downstairs neighbor came complain about water leaking from the ceiling
Soon we discovered the problem, my washing machine is located next to my kitchen sink and there is a special pipe to put the hose for the waste water in, that pipe was overflowing, it had become clogged up.
No problem I thought, I pay some extra money on my rent as “service cost” just for stuff like this, just call the inspector from the landlord and he will send a plumber round to fix it.
But the inspector came round himself first this time and he refused to believe there was anything wrong with the pipe.
“You must have just spilled some water on the floor” he said “you have to be more careful”
I told him I WAS careful it was that clogged up pipe that was the problem.
He refused to believe me and told me everything was fine and I should just use my washing machine like normal.
So I did, with predictable results...
“Ring!!!!!” “oh look its the doorbell I wonder who it is” , “oh hi neighbor what do you say still more water dripping down, well lets just call the inspector again shall we”
Still the same answer, “nothing wrong with that pipe.”
No help, no matter how much me or my neighbor complained or begged they wouldnt believe us.
It went on for days, then days became weeks then weeks became months.
I’m happy to say that trough all this my neighbor was always reasonable, she understood I wasn't the problem here, she even told me not to worry.
But by now the wood board of my kitchen counter was sucking up all the water and began to slowly fall apart, fungus began to grow all over it became really disgusting, I had asked my social worker for help but even he couldn't get it trough to them.
Now I’m a diabetic and stress is very bad for my blood sugar levels and I try to avoid it as much as possible but this was really starting to get to me, my kitchen and my neighbors kitchen were slowly falling apart!
So why not call a plumber yourself you may ask, well I couldn't, legally all maintenance and repairs to the apartment complex where I live has to be approved by the landlord and be done my their own sub contracted maintenance personnel.
Finally after lots of pressure from my social worker several people from the landlord came round, by now the kitchen counter was beyond repair they decided that it had to be completely replaced... on their cost, at least THAT was a small victory.
But did that solve the problem, oh no, the ordeal wasn't over yet.
I asked the guy who build in my new kitchen counter if he was fixing the pipe too.
He didn't even know what I was talking about and said I should just use my washer.
Again I used my washing machine, again it rained in my neighbors kitchen again she came to complain.
I told her that I was just ready to completely give up, I told her I would let them do ANYTHING to fix the problem but that they just refused to see reason.
I told her I was just ready to go and look for another apartment, cause the stress was beginning to seriously mess me up.
I think that afternoon she must have send death treats to my landlord cause the next day they finally send a plumber
He took one look and said: “now there’s your problem, that waste water pipe is all clogged up, i’ll call my buddy to unclog it for you.”
And he did, 5 minutes work.
Problem solved.
After more than half a year, what seems like hundreds of phone calls by me my neighbor and my social worker my kitchen and my neighbors kitchen being needlessly destroyed and rebuild, and my blood sugar levels being fucked up by the stress, it was finally over.
All this because they just didn't want to listen to us.
PD.
Forget all that stupid they were forcing you to go through. Forget the rules. It's not like THEY were sticking to them by fixing the problems they had. You should have just called in a plumber, advised him of how it was *technically* not supposed to happen, and so not to be too obvious about it, got the job done in 5 minutes.... boom. Done.
Sometimes the easiest and best way to deal with stupid is to dodge around it.
He had seen landlords pull stuff like this before with other people he helped and wanted me to stay in as strong a position as possible just in case we would have to go to court about it.