Another Attempt To Use Grammar In My Communications

My wife and I are the on-site managers for the complex in which we live. For the most part, this job has been perfectly fine with only a few hiccups in the process. However, this week we had a rather severe issue come up with our own apartment, and we were met with and unsavory result in our experience with management and getting the issue resolved. The following is an unedited email/letter voicing our concerns with how the situation was handled by our "supervisor." I will admit that I did not write every word in this letter; however, I did write the majority of it and passed it on to my editor, a.k.a. my wife, before the final edition was published.....er...emailed.

Oct. 1, 2010.

Suzette,

I am writing you to express my concern with the way our recent air conditioner issue was handled by Kasey. As you know, we had problems with our air conditioner at the beginning of summer. Our first problem was resolved with Kasey's assistance in a timely manner. Our most recent problem, however, was handled very inefficiently and has caused us great frustration.

Emily and I each contacted Kasey on Tuesday before the close of the business day to inform him that our AC wasn't working. I gave him specific information about the problem and my opinion on possible solutions. He told us that he would make a call and have someone there on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Emily and I stopped by the office to encourage Kasey in person to get someone out as soon as possible to fix the AC. He assured us that someone would come that day or the next. That evening before the close of the business day we emailed Kasey again since no one had come, and he told us that a man named David would come on Thursday. (Please keep in mind that each day we expected that someone would really come; thus, we arranged our schedules to ensure that Emily or I would be home at all times.) When no one came on Thursday, we contacted Kasey again via email. He said that no one had time to come until Friday at noon and that "a company" would also be cleaning the duct work when they came. When I asked him which company we should expect, he told me he didn't remember their name. That is when we called you to ensure that someone would indeed come on Friday. The reason why I am frustrated with the way this maintenance issue was handled is because, from my perspective, Kasey told us that our issue was being addressed but it obviously wasn’t. Even if he had known on Tuesday that he couldn’t get someone out here until Friday and he had been honest and forthcoming about it with us, then at least we would have known and would not have had to hope each day that someone would come and would not have had to follow up with him each day about whether or not someone was coming. His lack of professionalism and honesty in this matter is disconcerting, especially since it means that we had to inquire about this issue every day and finally had to call you in order to get something done even though we know that we are supposed to work with him for such issues; so we now feel that we always have to call you if we want something done (i.e. our checks, the bicycle racks, the trees, and now our air conditioner). What was Kasey doing all of the days prior when he assured us each day that he had already called someone about this issue—did he really feel that he needed to lie to us about this instead of telling us that he hadn’t really called anyone or needed to discuss the matter with you first? I understand that we are not the only tenants who need help and that Kasey is very busy, but why did he mislead us for several days about people coming instead of telling us the truth?

I think that part of the reason that Kasey did nothing is perhaps because he thought, "it's just an air conditioner--it's not a big deal not to have it working for several days when it's now October, right?" Well, if it were just Emily and me that would be true. (We lived in another apartment that didn't even have AC and made it through an entire summer and Emily was very pregnant at the time!) The reason we are so adamant about getting the air conditioning fixed now is because we have a 1-year-old son that has a severe skin condition called eczema. We have worked hard over many months to control his problem. We have found that when he is exposed to extreme fluctuating temperatures/summer heat for prolonged periods of time, he breaks out with a rash that covers practically his whole body. This is our concern--our son--a helpless, nursing baby. This is why having an air conditioner to regulate the temperature in our home is so vital to us. To live in a place where we pay to have air conditioning and then not to have it function properly for almost a week when it's 85 degrees outside and approaching temperatures similar to that in our apartment during the day and 85-90 degrees inside our apartment at night is unlivable for our son.

While I do appreciate your efforts in our behalf, it is aggravating to learn only today, three days after we made the original maintenance request that nothing can be done until Monday(almost a week since we first contacted Kasey). Changing out a condenser is a 2-4 hour job, and if Leo or someone else had been notified to come sooner than today, we would not have to go through the weekend in the 3rd floor oven we currently call our home.

I know from experience that when a compressor goes bad, the best thing, and often the cheapest thing to do, is to replace the entire condenser. However, just so you are aware, if the issue of the white dust that is rapidly plugging our filters is not addressed also (which will not be solved by what Leo plans to do on Monday) it will continue to put strain on the AC and furnace which will undoubtedly result in additional, necessary repairs and purchase of equipment or parts in the near future. I hope that this issue will not also be ignored or delayed even though our air conditioner will (we hope) technically be fixed as of Monday.

I am appreciative that something has finally been done and we are truly grateful to you for your help with this matter. Indeed, we have asked Kasey for help many times over the last few days and we have not meant to be pests, but rather hoped to help him by reminding him of our needed assistance and keeping him informed that no one had come in case he really had called someone and needed to know that they didn’t show up, as the manager. If our efforts to get assistance are in vain and we are told that we can’t call companies ourselves for help with such things, what are we to do but be frustrated and forced to call others besides Kasey for help?

As the on-site managers, we like to tell potential renters that the management responds in a timely manner to all maintenance requests. I'd love to be able to say that again soon.

Thank you for your consideration of the thoughts I have shared and your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Andy Belnap