So this has been my week. When would you have snapped?
On Saturday morning my wife told me “we have no hot water”. Ok... Need to call the plumber... So I called the letting agency and they sent in a plumber that morning.
The guy comes, starts looking around, and asks “have you had someone else work on this recently?”. “Yes, it broke a couple of months ago...”. “Right, you need to have the same guys come back because I don’t know what they did!”. And he packed his tools and off he went.
We called the agency and they told us someone else would be coming by at 1pm. “Good”, we thought, “we’ll put the little one to sleep at 12:00 and when they come, he will have had at least a good hour’s sleep!”. At 12:15 the guy rings and in he comes banging on every piece of metal he finds and talking really loudly outside my son’s bedroom despite my repeated requests. As it turns out, the last time someone had done work to it, a wire was left loose and that blew the PCB (I had to google it). “Sorry, I’ll have to shut off the whole thing and order a new PCB. We might have one in stock! I might even be back today with it! Or maybe Monday. If we need to order one, it will be Wednesday at the latest!”. So that was me without hot water or heating.
I didn’t hear from them again that day.
What I did hear was a strange dripping sound that night after 10pm. I went to see what it was and found my hallway flooded from water coming out of a radiator. At 11pm I had someone over again to stop the leaking.
On Monday there was no part, but there was an email from the agency saying one of the engineers had taken offence at my request not to speak loudly in front of my sleeping son’s bedroom. We were told the part would be delivered on Tuesday and someone would come over on Wednesday at the very latest.
In the meantime, with temperatures reaching 5ºC at night, I’m waking up at night to turn on the heater in my son’s bedroom to keep it warm, and I’m boiling pots of water every morning just so we can wash ourselves.
So on Wednesday... “I’m really sorry, the order was dispatched today, it will be delivered tomorrow!”.
This is when I start sending increasingly angry emails.
On Thursday we are told “I really don’t know what’s happening! There must be something with the mail! The part hasn’t arrived yet!”.
Which brings us to Friday. I started calling them in the morning saying I wouldn’t be left another weekend without heating or hot water. “I’m waiting for the contractor to get the part!” the agent says. “I don’t care what you do. This is really starting to become ridiculous!”.
So we’re told that the engineer will come in within the hour and 3 hours later, at 6pm, he arrives with the part. After a while of banging things around he goes up to me and says: “You know what! This part that we just bought, it’s to replace the one that was burnt. But what caused it to be burnt is this other part, see? We need to order one of these. But I’m sure it won’t take long!”.
😐
So today I woke up and noticed it was quite chilly... I went to check the boiler and... yeap, it’s broken. No heating, no hot water. 6º outside. Back to boiling pots of water.
My problems seem to be small compared to this, because we have it warm, the heating works, the sky is clear and the sun shining.
There is the small problem of part of the floor having to be removed because it got wet and warped, the wall having to be cut open and closed up again, then we have to get new book cases (which have different measurements than the ones we had, so we have to cut them to size), then I have to put back what is left of my library.
If we are lucky, work on the damaged parts of the room will start next week.
Is it sorted yet TJ?
Well after reading this about the heat and the water, really don't think I can say many bad things about the folks I rent from, they're a city property management company and never would they leave me like that day after day after freaking day and I can't believe they did that to you with a baby in the house! Then some asshole takes offence that you asked him not to wake your son? This sounds like an unbelievable nightmare to me, waking up freezing here in Canada without even being winter yet, I'd wanna die.
1:30am. I wake up sweating. look at the thermostat and it’s 29.5ºC inside. The monitor says the heating is of, but it’s not. I have to go to the kitchen and shut off the boiler completely. Too late... Daniel wakes up with the heat. He spends an hour awake. I still managed to sleep between 5am and 6am. So not all has been lost.
@berlintramp I am so sorry... I would have been devastated.
A few years ago our geyser burst. I did not know it was directly above my CD collection. Thankfully, the bulk of the water went down the wall behind the CD cabinets so they got wet but not the CDs themselves.
Having felt really sorry for @Tom Joad and his trials, I now need some sympathy myself. This morning I noticed one of my books in the living room book cases looking odd. Upon inspection, it wasn't one but about a hundred, fitting in tightly, that had got wet during the summer by a leak in the air condition and were moulding quietly on the shelves.
We spend all day sorting and seperating the good ones from the irretrievably damaged and I am mourning those volumes that had to go. Some needn't be replaced, and many can't be replaced because they're out of print.
I have read through this entire thread but not commented.
I honestly don't want to make light of anything you've gone through, truly I don't. But I swear that it's out of threads like this that hit sit-coms arise.
I can't say much about the radiator (what we call a geyser?) but I can, as someone who spent a few years in the car industry as a car salesman, say that when it comes to buying cars, new or second hand, you trust your gut. Always. Walk away if your instinct tells you to walk away. Rather the frustration of being Carlos (old car industry joke) than spend years with a troublesome car you don't like or don't enjoy driving.
So I thought I’d buy a car.
Ready?
After looking around for a good while, we found a used car that was good and within budget.
We went to the dealership and everything looked good. We were going to do a credit and we’d take it. Easy peasy! Well, not so fast. “I’m sorry, that car has just been sold online!”.
They did have another one, though. It had just come in so it needed some work done still, but it was pretty identical to the other one. “We’ll take it!”.
After one suffering hour trying to avoid buying things I don’t need with my son now in full yelling mode, we do all the checks and apply for credit leaving a £750 deposit. “Now you just wait to hear from finance and the car will be ready by the end of the week!”. This was Saturday. No, not last one.
The credit was approved and the following Saturday we were sent all the paperwork we need to sign. When we’re reading through the contract, we noticed it jumped from point 5 to point 9 with a blank page.
So we send an email saying we won’t sign a contract from which 3 points are missing.
So he replies, very surprised, saying “that’s just the way they come out of the printer. No one has ever complained!”.
So we reply: “in that case, we’ll be wanting our deposit back”.
So he replies “I have just called the finance company and they’ve told me it’s just a printing error.”
“Well, tell them we want a proper version!”
“Yeah... I can’t speak to them right now... we’ll have to wait until Monday!”
Call me cynical, but I have my doubts he even talked to anyone.
We found the money elsewhere and we thought we’d just bypass the whole finance thing and just pay for it. After a whole back and forth because they were actually charging us more for paying cash, they ended up coming up and it’s a fair price after we, again, told them we’d go elsewhere.
Everything settled! “So when can we collect the car! We were told it would be ready by the end of last week!”.
“Yeah... It might not be till the end of this week...”.
Serenity now!
I wanted to drive the car before I actually bought it (call me difficult) and after having to tell them I wouldn’t be paying for it without test driving it first, we agreed I’d go down there first thing this morning for a test drive, make the payment and bring the car home. I set up insurance, bought a baby car seat and at 9:00 there I was.
45 minutes later someone comes and tells me they can’t find the keys to the car.
15 minutes later, they bring the keys. They ask me if I want to pay right there and then, but again I tel them that I’ll pay for the car once I’m sure I’m going to take it.
Everything seems fine but I notice that the two rear tyres are very different. So when I return I tell them I’m not happy about that.
“See, a car can’t drive with two different tread patterns like that. It’s ilegal and dangerous!”
“Oh I’m sure they can. They can’t be different when they’re on the same axle!”
“Well, they ARE on the same axle!”
“No, I meant, they CAN be different when they are on the same axle!”
“I work for a tyre company.”
Long silence.
“I’ll see what I can do”
After a further 20 minutes, Daniel now on full yelling mode, he comes back.
“Right, we’ll replace one of the tyres to make them the same.”
“Good!”
“But I’m not sure when this will be done by and unless you pay right now, you might not be able to take the car today...”
Long silence.
“I’ll have a full refund of my deposit not, please.”
And so here I am, 2 weeks later, still car-less. But my life is still exactly the way I’ve grown used to.
P.S. - I’m still waiting for the radiator to be replaced.
Did you ever think of blowing up the building?
I've been following this and hope that, once the radiators are replaced, you all can enjoy trouble-free living. Well, on the inside anyway. Wishing you a cosy Autumn/Winter.
After 2 weeks of ignoring my mentions of compensation, the agent has finally responded saying that I need to be patient.
I’m looking for a new flat.
Oh TJ...
So apparently it wasn’t that radiator because not 8 hours have passed since the plumbers have left and the boiler has lost all its pressure again. it stopped working just as I (on myself because my wife is working late) was drawing a bath for my son.
In a completely unrelated matter, does anyone know how one would go about making a bomb?
Talk about a comedy of errors...
https://youtu.be/1SK3y1a8TYs
You see, it was a broken radiator that was causing the problem. The guy went to buy a new one and has just come back with a brand new one. Unfortunately it’s the wrong size.
Good morning, all! Just woke
up to a freezing flat as the new boiler simply stopped working through the night! :)
Not sure what to say to that except hope you get dried out soon.
I'd like to take this opportunity to quote Honoré de Balzac: OMFG.
Hello, good people!
You’ll be happy to know that the guys came today to install the new boiler! They even made an extra effort so I would already have hot water and heating tonight.
There was just this tiny bit of slightly bad news, though... I left the flat at lunch time to go to my classes and came back at at 5pm. They’d left at around 4pm. When I walked in, I heard this strange sound I couldn’t quite identify. I walked down the hall opening every door. It wasn’t coming from the little one’s bedroom... Not from the kitchen, the main bathroom or the living room... However, when I opened my bedroom door, I was hit in the face by this suffocating wave of vapour.
I could barely see anything. I took off my glasses and made my way through the room to the en-suite to find the shower on, full blast, water as hot as it gets. But was it pointing at the actual tub? No! Well, half of it was, to be fair. The other half was pointing at the floor, which was completely flooded. Luckily, the laundry basket soaked some of it and it only soaked some of the bedroom’s carpet. Windows, walls, closet, ceiling, all dripping with water.
I called the agency and I guess everyone was better off that no one was there anymore. I think I’ve been pretty patient, but this conversation wouldn’t have been pretty.
This is a MAJOR problem since the early 80s when rented housing was, pretty much, left to the private sector. Especially in places like the Nation's Capital where the property market is inflated which pushes more and more people into the hands of shyster landlords.
Not saying that's the case in your situation TJ, but the power seems to be with the landlords.
Oh no! When I saw you had posted an update I hoped it was to say it had all been sorted. I hope it's Tuesday not Thursday and that it isn't too cold, although it is Scotland...
When I was a much, much younger man, I was a fairly c'est la vie kind of guy. Now, after more years working in public service than I care to remember, and having dealt with the general public (many of whom are in my line, by definition, criminals) while trying to meet various targets and act in terms of various PR based practices and behaviours, I lose my shit very easily with stuff like this.
In your shoes TJ, by now I'd have made Michael Douglas in "Falling Down" look like Thora Hird.
So... It turns out the new part that is needed is obsolete and no longer available on the market. A new boiler has to be installed now... On Tuesday... And Wednesday... And maybe Thursday...
I can see this being turned into a film with Will Ferrell playing the lead.
I feel weird "liking" this post because I nearly lost my mind simply reading it, so I can't even imagine how angry you must be.