Funny, I was walking on the train platform to come home when this woman started talking to me and I realized I saw her when I was looking at an apartment recently (as chronicled in this recent post). She asked if I'd decided to take the apartment and I said no, it was too small. She mentioned that she heard what I'd said about my current place being noisy and she said hers was too. She actually owns her place but was thinking about moving back to her home state. She didn't want to say anything bad about the place in front of the realtor. It's a shame though, 'cause she seemed like she'd be a nice neighbor. I should have asked how big her place was.
I'm still undecided about what to do or where to look. I keep hearing good things about East Boston. There are a couple of places there that interest me, but I wish they were all a couple of hundred dollars less expensive. Lowell would be perfect if it weren't so far away...
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
changing seasons
Every day that I take the train to work I take a photo from the platform with my mobile phone. I always wonder if the people who see me do this wonder what the heck I'm doing.
Monday, February 21, 2011
customer service
I was going to write a customer service post mostly about the art of effective cashiering on my other blog, but I have a more pressing situation on a related topic here. When I moved into this apartment 2 and a half years ago I took a glance at the lights dangling from the 12 foot ceilings and asked how to I get my lightbulbs changed? Thinking am I going to have to buy a ladder? Fortunately, I was told that the building management would take care of it and the couple of times that I needed bulbs changed, they took care of it. Flashforward to today and 5 or six bulbs are out in the kitchen plus a couple of others. So I called the office and asked to get the bulbs changed. "Okay," the girl answered and started to hang up. "Wait," I stopped her. "Don't you want to know which ones need to be changed?" She giggled nervously and supposedly wrote down the information. She said she'd put in a work order. 2 days later, I come home from work and find this hanging from my doorknob:
I am immediately livid. If I indeed needed to provide my own bulbs, why didn't the girl on the phone say anything? I can't reach the lights, so I had no way of finding out on my own what kind of bulbs they are. So I called the next day and when I explained the situation (she seemed to not recall me calling 2 days before) and she says "Okay, hold on" and suddenly I'm taking to someone's voice mail and I haven't been called back. I called later in the day but I guess the office was closed. They aren't open on Saturdays. I guess that would be too convenient.
It's just so damn impressive how every single simple thing I ever ask for from these people is a total ordeal. Getting the screeching smoke detector battery changed took 4 phone calls, one of which she claimed that they didn't have permission to enter the apartment. Hint: permission is written into the lease.
So here's the thing: if you're going to be in a customer service position, then you have to proactively provide customer service. If you can not do that, you are just causing more problems and pain for people. Here is how this could have been executed properly: If residents are now required to provide their own light bulbs, how about issuing a notice that says residents are required to provide their own light bulbs and here is the kind you should get and here is where you can find them. I don't think it takes very much critical thinking skill to do this, but maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I just need to get a ladder.
Is there a "how many mayo group employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb" joke in this?
I am immediately livid. If I indeed needed to provide my own bulbs, why didn't the girl on the phone say anything? I can't reach the lights, so I had no way of finding out on my own what kind of bulbs they are. So I called the next day and when I explained the situation (she seemed to not recall me calling 2 days before) and she says "Okay, hold on" and suddenly I'm taking to someone's voice mail and I haven't been called back. I called later in the day but I guess the office was closed. They aren't open on Saturdays. I guess that would be too convenient.
It's just so damn impressive how every single simple thing I ever ask for from these people is a total ordeal. Getting the screeching smoke detector battery changed took 4 phone calls, one of which she claimed that they didn't have permission to enter the apartment. Hint: permission is written into the lease.
So here's the thing: if you're going to be in a customer service position, then you have to proactively provide customer service. If you can not do that, you are just causing more problems and pain for people. Here is how this could have been executed properly: If residents are now required to provide their own light bulbs, how about issuing a notice that says residents are required to provide their own light bulbs and here is the kind you should get and here is where you can find them. I don't think it takes very much critical thinking skill to do this, but maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I just need to get a ladder.
Is there a "how many mayo group employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb" joke in this?
Why I don't Drive
Since I was a little kid, I've rebelled against any situation where I've been told "You have to..." Instead of learning to drive in high school, I learned to sew. I took art history and art classes. Every day after school I walked 3 miles to the place where I worked and took dance classes. And it was fine. I figured cars were really expensive and I was moving to nyc anyway, so why bother?
In nyc, a car would have been a burden, something that needed to be moved for alternate side of the street parking or stored for a not-small fortune at a garage. I would be stuck in traffic, broken into or worse, hurt in an accident.
Then, 15 years later, I moved to Texas. After a while when I'd finally gotten my career back on track, I started thinking seriously about getting a car. I had this sort of itinerant freelancer thing going on and it seemed like the only way to make it really work is if I had a car to commute between Austin and Dallas. While the bus system in Austin was fine (and so, so cheap!), I wasn't sure about that in Dallas. So I actually started taking driving lessons. I was a nervous wreck the entire time and completely amazed that I passed the test and got my license. I began looking at possible finding a car. Still very expensive compared to my $10 monthly bus pass. Used cars scared the hell out of me. Gas prices scared the hell out of me. I continued to take the bus and put aside cash while I imagined the routes I could take that would keep me off of MoPac. Then my company (I was full time at that point) moved downtown. My 2 hour commute turned into 15 minutes on the express bus. Parking in the building was something like $150 per month. I decided I'd rather pay off my credit cards and other debts. I could just keep taking the bus.
And now here I am back on the east coast, still carless and happily so. Sure a car can get you from one place to another, but in the face of alternatives, this is a better solution for me. And I understand that some people need a car to get to places that aren't served by public transportation or whatever, but I think most people have fallen for the dream where you just *have* to have a car. They don't even try to not have one. But I figure if you have to have one, then you have to accept the burdens as well. You have to pay the variable price of gas, pay outrageous prices to store it, move it when it snows, be stuck in traffic here in cities that were never designed for or adapted for car traffic.
Sure I can't just randomly head out to Ikea and it takes forever to get to the mall and the MBTA is pretty much the worst transportation system I've ever had to deal with, but I get to where I need to go (eventually) and I'm happy with my choice.
So I ask people why they drive and get varying answers, but I wonder how many of them have considered just not doing it? I'm going to be carless for as long as I can be. We'll see what happens the next time I move to another part of the country.
In nyc, a car would have been a burden, something that needed to be moved for alternate side of the street parking or stored for a not-small fortune at a garage. I would be stuck in traffic, broken into or worse, hurt in an accident.
Then, 15 years later, I moved to Texas. After a while when I'd finally gotten my career back on track, I started thinking seriously about getting a car. I had this sort of itinerant freelancer thing going on and it seemed like the only way to make it really work is if I had a car to commute between Austin and Dallas. While the bus system in Austin was fine (and so, so cheap!), I wasn't sure about that in Dallas. So I actually started taking driving lessons. I was a nervous wreck the entire time and completely amazed that I passed the test and got my license. I began looking at possible finding a car. Still very expensive compared to my $10 monthly bus pass. Used cars scared the hell out of me. Gas prices scared the hell out of me. I continued to take the bus and put aside cash while I imagined the routes I could take that would keep me off of MoPac. Then my company (I was full time at that point) moved downtown. My 2 hour commute turned into 15 minutes on the express bus. Parking in the building was something like $150 per month. I decided I'd rather pay off my credit cards and other debts. I could just keep taking the bus.
And now here I am back on the east coast, still carless and happily so. Sure a car can get you from one place to another, but in the face of alternatives, this is a better solution for me. And I understand that some people need a car to get to places that aren't served by public transportation or whatever, but I think most people have fallen for the dream where you just *have* to have a car. They don't even try to not have one. But I figure if you have to have one, then you have to accept the burdens as well. You have to pay the variable price of gas, pay outrageous prices to store it, move it when it snows, be stuck in traffic here in cities that were never designed for or adapted for car traffic.
Sure I can't just randomly head out to Ikea and it takes forever to get to the mall and the MBTA is pretty much the worst transportation system I've ever had to deal with, but I get to where I need to go (eventually) and I'm happy with my choice.
So I ask people why they drive and get varying answers, but I wonder how many of them have considered just not doing it? I'm going to be carless for as long as I can be. We'll see what happens the next time I move to another part of the country.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
error
I received a scary, threatening note from my landlord the other day saying that my rent was late that that I had 14 days to "vacate" or something. I knew immediately that it was a mistake as the check had already cleared, but for a second it gave me a flashback to times when bills didn't get paid quite so promptly. But even then, I'd never received a letter like this. I mean, who even "proposes" eviction if the rent is only a week late? How about I propose evicting them the next time they ignore one of my noise complaints? I sent them a letter with a copy of the canceled check. Then I followed up with a phone call.
Calling this office is always a crap shoot. It rarely results in action. Last year, it took 4 phone calls to get the battery in my smoke detector changed. In the meantime I had to endure its extremely loud random screeching (no one has come up with a better way of telling you to change the battery yet???). So I called the office and asked for the person who wrote the letter. Immediately I could hear a bit of nervousness in the receptionist's voice: "What company are you calling from?" "I'm a resident of MV24, " I replied. "I'm following up on the letter he slid under my door yesterday." Then she asked me which apartment and something else that I don't remember than then suddenly put me on hold mid-sentence.
Another voice popped on the line, "Hello?" "Uh, I was talking to someone and she just put me on hold all of the sudden." I later learned I was speaking to the assistant property manager. Or maybe she was the assistant *to* the property manager? I told her what was up with the rent and then she seemed to be doing her best to not acknowledge that she had received the letter (note to self: send it certified next time).
As she spoke I was hearing music so I said something about it since it was hard to hear her over it. "Oh, that's just the computer," she answered and continued talking with the music. Dude! I'm just thinking back to a time where I would have been really embarrassed and turned the music down never to have it on again while talking on the phone, but that's just me. Maybe the next conference call I have I'll crank up some tunes to entertain my clients. Finally she acknowledged the mistake and I requested written confirmation that I did not owe for the month and she offered to email it which basically was proof that she did indeed have the letter. Dude! Why play dumb? If she'd actually been smart and proactive, she would have called me the moment she received the letter and verified that an error had been made.
I actually did look at another apartment last weekend. It was too small and the timing was a bit too early, but it was very tempting. Though I do have to question the meaning of the phrase "top of the line". This wasn't quite what I would call top of the line. The first thing that kind of bugged me before I even saw the apartment was the size of the gap between the bottom of the doors and the floor as we walked down the hallway. Details people! There are probably lots of reasons that the gaps were there, but there are no excuses to leave it that way.
I feel like there's a tremendous amount of laziness in the Boston real estate market. I'm always astounded, when I look through Craigslist, by photographs of rental apartments that are a mess. I guess no one could be bothered to clean the place before taking photos. It makes me wonder if they are really joke postings. If the landlord is at all have trouble renting out the place, that may be a good reason why.
Calling this office is always a crap shoot. It rarely results in action. Last year, it took 4 phone calls to get the battery in my smoke detector changed. In the meantime I had to endure its extremely loud random screeching (no one has come up with a better way of telling you to change the battery yet???). So I called the office and asked for the person who wrote the letter. Immediately I could hear a bit of nervousness in the receptionist's voice: "What company are you calling from?" "I'm a resident of MV24, " I replied. "I'm following up on the letter he slid under my door yesterday." Then she asked me which apartment and something else that I don't remember than then suddenly put me on hold mid-sentence.
Another voice popped on the line, "Hello?" "Uh, I was talking to someone and she just put me on hold all of the sudden." I later learned I was speaking to the assistant property manager. Or maybe she was the assistant *to* the property manager? I told her what was up with the rent and then she seemed to be doing her best to not acknowledge that she had received the letter (note to self: send it certified next time).
As she spoke I was hearing music so I said something about it since it was hard to hear her over it. "Oh, that's just the computer," she answered and continued talking with the music. Dude! I'm just thinking back to a time where I would have been really embarrassed and turned the music down never to have it on again while talking on the phone, but that's just me. Maybe the next conference call I have I'll crank up some tunes to entertain my clients. Finally she acknowledged the mistake and I requested written confirmation that I did not owe for the month and she offered to email it which basically was proof that she did indeed have the letter. Dude! Why play dumb? If she'd actually been smart and proactive, she would have called me the moment she received the letter and verified that an error had been made.
I actually did look at another apartment last weekend. It was too small and the timing was a bit too early, but it was very tempting. Though I do have to question the meaning of the phrase "top of the line". This wasn't quite what I would call top of the line. The first thing that kind of bugged me before I even saw the apartment was the size of the gap between the bottom of the doors and the floor as we walked down the hallway. Details people! There are probably lots of reasons that the gaps were there, but there are no excuses to leave it that way.
I feel like there's a tremendous amount of laziness in the Boston real estate market. I'm always astounded, when I look through Craigslist, by photographs of rental apartments that are a mess. I guess no one could be bothered to clean the place before taking photos. It makes me wonder if they are really joke postings. If the landlord is at all have trouble renting out the place, that may be a good reason why.
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