The maintenance men in my apartment complex are idiots (short and lame)

The BBQ Pit
1

As I was leaving for work this morning, I had this odd thought. “That’s strange. There’s water shooting out of that manhole cover.” Yup. In the middle of the street, on the property, there was an impromptu bubbler.

I keep driving, and get close to the end of the drive to turn. Another manhole, with more water squirting out.

I get to work about 15 minutes later, and decide to call the answering service to report what I believe to be a broken water main. They say thank you, I hang up, and head to the ralphateria for my morning Cholesterol Special. When I get back, I decide to call VunderWife to let her know that she should do anything that involves water early, because it was bound to be off for a while.

“Is that why the maintenance guy was here? He said he wanted to see the leak.”

“What?”

“He wanted to search the apartment for the leak.”

The fucking* moron had to walk past at least one of the squirting manholes that I called in, to search for a non-existent leak in my apartment that I didn’t report. They’re nice guys, but IQ is not a job requirement.

Gratuitous cuss word because, after all, this is The Pit

2

And you know the water you saw bubbling was from a main, as opposed to a storm drain or a sanitary sewer because … ? And you made it clear to the maintenance people that you were reporting a leak on the outside facilities, as opposed to inside your house, because it’s possible that completely different people would deal with the two systems, right?

There are a lot of possibilities here that don’t involve the maintenance man being a knuckle dragger.

3

In my last appartment, the maintenance men were just… guys off the street, I guess. I doubt that they had any experience at all, and they had less than the requisite brains-in-the-bucket, if you know what I mean.

They were re-wiring the hall light, because after 3 months of politely complaining to the resident slumlord that it was on my power bill I got really pissed about it.

So, I can hear these two out in the hall, while I’m on the computer.
note: I am using the computer. My power is, therefore, on
Guy 1: “Did you turn off the breaker?”
Guy 2: “Sure.”
I tell the computer to shut down, and I head to the door to tell them not to do what I think the’re going to.
G-SNAP!
G1: “SHIT!!”
G2: “huh. I guess I musta got the wrong one.”
G1: “well, don’t worry about that now. Hold this wire so that I can cut this other one.”

4

Well, with two engineering degrees already, and a 3rd getting started, I think I’d know the difference between a manway and a sewer. Most engineering freshmen know that a sewer grate isn’t placed on the high point of the roadway. :rolleyes: It also helps that we haven’t had significant rain for about 10 days now.

And despite the brevity for levity in the OP, I was specific enough with the answering service to state that I was reporting something outside, not in my apartment.

5

It’s nice to know that it’s not a local problem. I, too, am plagued by less then stellar maintenance workers. The incompetance of some people just astounds me. How do they keep their jobs/get hired?

Latest example for me:

I called because my garbage disposal would spew water whenever I used it. I called, explained the problem to the manager and she said someone would be sent over. I waited a couple days then attempted to use the disposal - still spewed. Went back to the office and said it wasn’t fixed. She looked it up and said they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. I made her come with me (and bring the maintenance guy) and showed her exactly what was wrong with it.

It was about a week later that the new (?!) maintenance guy came by and “fixed” it. I put that in quotes because instead of spewing water out, it just dripped from the bottom. However, it now would drip even if I wasn’t using the disposal, but merely running water in the sink. What’s more, the guy left a work slip stating the problem was fixed, but he had to know it wasn’t because he, ever so thoughtfully, put down a couple of (my!) paper towels under the disposal to mop up the drips.

I called the office and a few choice words about that, let me tell you. I proceeded to check under my sink every day and a few days after that, he must have “fixed” it again because the paper towel underneath was new. Is it fixed? Well, mostly. It will still drip, but not as much and not enough for me to care since I’m moving in June.

Oh! And as long as you were kind enough to start this OP, I’ll throw in one more example:

I have a mold problem under my bathroom sink. I wanted the cabinet replaced, but they didn’t see the need. Their initial solution was to bleach the back wall in the cabinet (where the mold is), then paint it over. Oh, but the best part? They were going to CUT PAINT WITH BLEACH! Yes, she actually said they planned on mixing paint and bleach together in a small, windowless room. I asked them, most emphatically, to not do a damn thing.

6

I too, have an engineering degree, but did not know that about sewer grates.

It sounds like your indignation regarding the ineptness of your maintenance people is justified then: rage on. :wink:

7

I believe I ranted a while ago about my condo association-
I had a large stain on my living room ceiling. The maintenance guy decided that I must have spilled soda in my bedroom (directly above) and that caused the stain.

My nephew bought my condo this past September. Last month the bedroom ceiling fell in. Luckily, no one was home. A hunk 4’ x 8’ dropped. Water poured in. Bed ruined, carpet ruined, electronics ruined.

Turned out, when they redid the roof last year, they didn’t seal behind the down spouts. They had to remove two walls in the bedroom, along with fixing the ceiling, and the had to remove/replace the ceiling directly underneath…

Where the 1’ x 6’ “Soda” caused stain was.

My dad told the maintenance guy “That musta been one HELL of a soda!”. The maintenance guy hummed and hawed, finally stating he “guessed” he was wrong.

Asshat.

8

Take that back!!!

Not all idiots are short and lame. :wink:

9

Ah yes… maintenence…

I have a couple of stories but to highlight the dangerous aspect of my maintenence guy from my former residence this one fits the bill…

It was one evening I got a craving for munchies (hey I was 6 months pregnant) so I left the apartment and headed downstairs. We lived on the fourth floor, going down the stairs at the third floor landing… I smell gas.

All the way down until I go outside I smell it. The handyman is holding the door for an elderly gent and mentions yeah we have a gasleak, we’re working on it.

That is the only thing I heard about it. In this building it’s non-smoking but LOTS of people would walk out with a lit cigarette and go downstairs. No one was informed that there was a gas leak, at any time that night or the next day.

This is also the same people who it took them almost 24 hours to tell people their water may be out for up to 5 days. I woke up in the middle of the night and found the water off… we didn’t find out until the next night why, or how long it would take to fix.

10

The maintenance guy at my first apartment stole my pot.

Bastard.

11

Guess I should warn my daughter what to expect - she’s moving into her first apartment in a couple of months.

Poor thing…

12

About a year ago, I got a water bill that was over 2x what it usually is, so I called the customer service line to ask if there was possibly an error in the meter reading. Keep in mind here that my water bill was 10 thousand gallons higher than normal.

The customer service lady asked me if it was possible that I had a leak under my kitchen or bathroom sink that maybe I hadn’t noticed.

I laughed. I couldn’t think what else to do.

Sure, lady. Over the last 2 month billing cycle, I utterly failed to notice 10 THOUSAND GALLONS OF WATER pouring out from under my kitchen sink.

For those of you who need a frame of reference, your average backyard inground pool holds about 14 thousand gallons.

I’m ashamed to say that I gave up and paid it…it was easier than arguing and they said the only thing they could do was come and re-read the meter, and they insisted that I be there even though the meter is outdoors. Feh.

13

Not building maintenance exactly…

I was having sink problems, so my landlord called a plumber for me. I arranged to work from home so I could be there when he showed up, so when he arrived I was sitting at the table working on my computer. I showed him the sink, explained the problem, and went back to my computer. A few minutes later - Zap! - my computer is dead. I turn around to see that he has pulled the plug for my surge protector right out of the wall. The plug that was approximately 12 inches behind my head. The plug that you couldn’t possibly pull without noticing that I was sitting there, inches from your face, working on my computer. I asked him why he did that, and he said that he needed to plug in his equipment. I started to explain that pulling the plug when someone is on the computer is not a good idea, but I realized that I just wasn’t getting through, so I gave up.

Before this guy left, he also managed to leave a very long scratch in my hardwood floor – his equipment again.

14

I call our maintenance guys the Keystone Karpetlayers after this experience:

First off, they blissfully ignored the fact that my carpet needed to be cleaned of dog pee left by the previous tenant’s pet. She had trained her dog to do her business indoors on Wee Wee pads. Only the dog often missed. :whatever: There were also other stains and cigarette burns and I’ve seen them replace carpets here in better shape than that.

So I set up my computer in the area where the Wee Wee pads were, only to find I couldn’t use it because the smell of urine was too strong. I told the manager, who gave me some urine remover stuff to put on it. I agreed to try it, though skeptical. Well, that was no-go. The manager insisted she knew the Keystone Karpetlayers had shampooed the carpet before I moved in and the smell couldn’t possibly be that bad. I finally got her in there and made her smell it. I wanted only a 10’x6’ piece replaced, not the whole carpet. It kind of forms an arm off the rest of the carpet so the main part wouldn’t be torn up. Reluctantly, she agreed to get the guys out here.

Now how hard could it be to get that little bit replaced? This hard…

The next day one of the guys happened to be there doing other work. He comes in, eyeballs the area and a few days later he and his accomplice show up at around 5 PM with two scraps of carpet, which together turn out not to be big enough for what I need. They tear out the old carpet, do this and that, and then go off to get more carpet. They had to go to Renton, a whopping 8 or so miles away. Over an hour later (about 9 PM,) they’re back and commence to install it, banging and pounding on the floor, much to the joy of my neighbors, I’m sure. By 10, they’re finally gone and now I can breathe when on the computer.

It’s not unusual to see them at our building that late either. Weekends are no exception.

Not surprisingly, when my circuit breakers went wonky, and the inital fix by one of the guys failed almost immediately, I put my foot down and demanded a professional. With that shower of sparks from the back of the box, well, let me say I saw the light.

15

That :whatever: shoud be :rolleyes: