The Hot Water Rant

I am officially sick of living in my place. I have not had any hot water since September started.

Warning: Depressing post ahead! Skip and wait for the next post for something cheerier.

There was a gas outage in my area during Labor Day weekend, while I was gone. (This was not the landlord's fault . . . yet).

I realized on Tuesday the 2nd that I had no hot water. I found out that the Gas Company was in the process of restoring services to everyone.

I waited for them to get to my neighborhood. By Thursday I realized something was wrong and I called the GC saying they skipped me. Because I was just a tenant, and not an account holder, they said I could not request service, and my flaky landlord had to make the call. (I can understand this policy any other time, but this is just stupid when the GC knows for sure there is a problem in the neighborhood).

I called the landlord's daughter on Thursday since she was in charge of the GC bill, and left a message. She emailed me Friday saying she was going to contact the GC to send service people.

Then silence.

On Sunday I called Mrs. Landlord. She insisted her daughter didn't tell her there was a problem, but said she will call the GC on Monday morning to make an appointment and call me.

I ended up calling her Monday night, and she said the GC is coming Tuesday afternoon.

I realized she lied about calling when her husband showed up instead. He couldn't figure out the problem, and asked me for the GC account number so that he could call.

Um, no. I don't have it. That's why you're here.

He called his wife and daughter and they ignored his calls. (Gee, now you know how that feels Landlord). He hung around for a bit, desperately making more last-minute, half-assed repairs before some homebuyers showed up that evening.

His wife eventually called, then talked to me, saying that it was not a gas problem, but a problem with the water company. I thought this was ridiculous. She insisted she called some "association" that collected "hot water fees" for the area, and they promised I would have hot water that afternoon.

That evening, I was still taking cold showers. I called Mrs. Landlord, who did not pick up the phone.

Today, Wednesday, I called Mrs. Landlord again, and was told the number was disconnected.

WTF!?

I got ahold of her at a different number. She said she would call the "association" again.

She called back later and said, "I think it is a Gas Company problem. Can you call them?"

1. I told you that a week ago.
2. I tried. I'm not an account holder, remember?

She whined about "having to make all these calls" for me, but did call the GC.

She then informed me that they are coming tomorrow (Thursday the 11th), but did not know what time.

Excuse me? You don't have an appointment? I took Tuesday afternoon off at work to wait for the imaginary GC repairman you lied about, and now you want me to take Thursday off too, and wait at home all day for someone you might be lying about again?

I told her I am going to work and she is taking the day off tomorrow to come wait all day at my house.

If I don't have hot water when I come home tomorrow, things are getting very ugly.