A few minutes ago, somebody rang my doorbell. I found a man I’d never seen before who claimed he was from maintenance and here to replace the washing machine.
At first, I said okay and was about to go back in to my apartment. Then, I had a thought. If he was from maintenance, why didn’t he have a hallway key? If he was here to replace the washing machine, why hadn’t we received any notice from management?
I was worried I would have to confront him and call the police.
Then, I saw him walk over to a pick up truck with a bed full of washing machines. He and a partner picked up a washing machine and carried it up the steps. There are now loud toolish/work noises coming from the laundry room.
My wife and I believe incompetence has become the norm, rather than the exception for most interactions (in the US).
When moving my daughter to her college apartment, we found the following:
Despite promises to the contrary, painters were working inside and out on the day we arrived. We had to delay moving in and stay in her new city an extra day.
Management was no-show the next day, and couldn’t get the key until afternoon.
The door lock didn’t work, and I had to disassemble and reinstall it correctly.
The washing machine hose wasn’t tight, and spewed water on the floor when turned on. I had to get my tools and correct this too.
The dishwasher return line wasn’t tightened on the disposal neck, and also dumped water everywhere when it finished its first cycle. The original installer was too lazy or incompetent to use a clamp, so as usual, I had one in my truck and fixed it.
The toilet valve was stuck open, and running when we arrived. I would have run consistently, had I not installed a new one that… yes, I had brought with me.
The U-Haul truck we rented had a leaky valve stem on an internal tire (duals). I pointed it out to the workers at the rental place who, didn’t have a way of connecting it, tried to use the wrong attachment to air it up, and eventually told me it would “be OK, don’t worry about it” – for a 250 mile trip. I handled this myself with frequent inflation from my portable compressor during the trip.
In other words, exactly as I expect in today’s America. Everyone involved was incompetent at even the most basic tasks – and I had to fill in for them to accomplish what I needed.
This is what we get when companies demand that the people they are hiring either know how to do everything, or decide that knowing these small, rare things isn’t necessary to the job so they can pay a lower wage. In the first instance, you get people who will fake it till they make it (or get fired) and in the second, they get what they pay for and they certainly aren’t willing to pay.