Ok, last time, my boss won the stupid homeowner contest. This time, the other company's Owner won.
When one homeowner was told by another homeowner that the staff and public safety had been chasing a wounded fox around the property, her response was "We don't have wildlife here. This is a GATED community."
There's nothing else to say after that comment.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
You Just Can't Fix Stupid-part 1
Most of my job entails solving problems. People call me with a roof leak, and I send a roofer out to fix it. Someone has a problem with a neighbor, I send a letter to the neighbor to remind them of the rules. Landscaping request, I handle it. You get the idea. Unfortunately, sometimes I get those calls that I just have to shake my head and say "I'm sorry, I can't fix stupid." Of course, I don't actually say that, but sometimes I would like to. Here are the most recent stupid moments.
We recently sealcoated the driveways at one of the properties where I work. The sealcoaters always put up stakes and tie rope across the entrance to the driveway to let everyone know to stay off the driveway until the barricade is removed. One homeowner, apparently thought this only applied to cars. This homeowner allowed his child (about 4 years old) to repeatedly drive down the sidewalk from their door, across the driveway, make a loop or two, and then ride back down the sidewalk to the front door again. Needless to say, most homeowners would have stopped the child after the first set of tracks across the sidewalk. Not this homeowner. There are at least 6 sets of tracks across the drive and sidewalk. They are being charged for the cleanup.
Another property I work on is called a mid rise. This is a 6 story building with an elevator. Not a high rise, but not a walk up. This building has a trash chute for homeowners to dispose of their trash without having to go to the basement and track their garbage through the hallway and elevator. One bright homeowner decided to put out his cigarette and empty his trash. As he (I say he because I can't imagine a woman doing this, but we were unable to identify this genius.) was emptying the trash, he picked up the ashtray and emptied that into the trash bag. Yes, the one with the just extinguished ashes. The bag went down the chute and smoldered for a while, sat in the garbage bin in the basement, and then finally caught the trash room on fire. This set off the sprinklers for that room, shut down the trash chute and called the fire department. It happened on a weekend and I refused to pay overtime for anyone I didn't have to. We had to pay to get the sprinklers back up and running and to have the fire system re-set, (total about $1000) but I didn't have to have the trash chute repaired and opened, so I called the company on Monday and told them to get to it when they could. There was no way to identify the culprit in this situation, so all the tenants of the building got to deal with no trash chute for three days.
Finally, the last I can't fix stupid is definitely one that takes the cake (until the next time). We had a sewer backup in one of the homes. I called the plumber and had the issue corrected right away, but there was still the backup "stuff" in the utility room. The homeowner is hard of hearing, so I scheduled a cleanup while she was in my office. I asked the company if they could come out that afternoon which they were able to do, but the homeowner said no, that wouldn't work, so we set it up for the following afternoon. (I have had this happen to me, and I can't imagine living with that stench for an entire day, but that's what she wanted) So, the contractor called me just shortly after arriving to the home. Instead of using her front door, the elderly woman had gone from her garage, through the utility room, into the rest of the house several times before the cleanup. She was wearing fuzzy slippers and tracked all the "gunk" throughout the rest of the house. Now, this stuff was all over the carpet in each of the rooms and she had decided to lay down on the couch with her fuzzy slippers, so the stuff was now all over the couch, too. She was demanding the contractor clean it all because it all. The contractor asked me what he was supposed to clean. I told him to clean the original backup and let her deal with the rest. The homeowners' association would pay to clean the backup mess. Perhaps the woman's individual homeowner's insurance will pay for stupid, but the association will not. BTW, the couch was out on the curb that following trash day. I don't' know if she got a new couch from her insurance, but it was apparently not cleanable.
We recently sealcoated the driveways at one of the properties where I work. The sealcoaters always put up stakes and tie rope across the entrance to the driveway to let everyone know to stay off the driveway until the barricade is removed. One homeowner, apparently thought this only applied to cars. This homeowner allowed his child (about 4 years old) to repeatedly drive down the sidewalk from their door, across the driveway, make a loop or two, and then ride back down the sidewalk to the front door again. Needless to say, most homeowners would have stopped the child after the first set of tracks across the sidewalk. Not this homeowner. There are at least 6 sets of tracks across the drive and sidewalk. They are being charged for the cleanup.
Another property I work on is called a mid rise. This is a 6 story building with an elevator. Not a high rise, but not a walk up. This building has a trash chute for homeowners to dispose of their trash without having to go to the basement and track their garbage through the hallway and elevator. One bright homeowner decided to put out his cigarette and empty his trash. As he (I say he because I can't imagine a woman doing this, but we were unable to identify this genius.) was emptying the trash, he picked up the ashtray and emptied that into the trash bag. Yes, the one with the just extinguished ashes. The bag went down the chute and smoldered for a while, sat in the garbage bin in the basement, and then finally caught the trash room on fire. This set off the sprinklers for that room, shut down the trash chute and called the fire department. It happened on a weekend and I refused to pay overtime for anyone I didn't have to. We had to pay to get the sprinklers back up and running and to have the fire system re-set, (total about $1000) but I didn't have to have the trash chute repaired and opened, so I called the company on Monday and told them to get to it when they could. There was no way to identify the culprit in this situation, so all the tenants of the building got to deal with no trash chute for three days.
Finally, the last I can't fix stupid is definitely one that takes the cake (until the next time). We had a sewer backup in one of the homes. I called the plumber and had the issue corrected right away, but there was still the backup "stuff" in the utility room. The homeowner is hard of hearing, so I scheduled a cleanup while she was in my office. I asked the company if they could come out that afternoon which they were able to do, but the homeowner said no, that wouldn't work, so we set it up for the following afternoon. (I have had this happen to me, and I can't imagine living with that stench for an entire day, but that's what she wanted) So, the contractor called me just shortly after arriving to the home. Instead of using her front door, the elderly woman had gone from her garage, through the utility room, into the rest of the house several times before the cleanup. She was wearing fuzzy slippers and tracked all the "gunk" throughout the rest of the house. Now, this stuff was all over the carpet in each of the rooms and she had decided to lay down on the couch with her fuzzy slippers, so the stuff was now all over the couch, too. She was demanding the contractor clean it all because it all. The contractor asked me what he was supposed to clean. I told him to clean the original backup and let her deal with the rest. The homeowners' association would pay to clean the backup mess. Perhaps the woman's individual homeowner's insurance will pay for stupid, but the association will not. BTW, the couch was out on the curb that following trash day. I don't' know if she got a new couch from her insurance, but it was apparently not cleanable.
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